USATF takes Alana Hadley out of US Olympic Marathon Trials

A twelve year old can make shoes twelve hours a day for Nike, but she couldn't represent Thailand in gymnastics in the Olympics. Rules always get in the way.

Gymnasts have a different age requirement as there have been 14 year olds in the Olympics. The age requirement must be sport specific.

The real story is that people think Alana has a chance to someday make an Olympic team. She is running incredible times for her age. She is also the only girl her age running the marathon. The potential Olympic Marathon runners who will represent the United States are either a lot older and have gotten fast at the shorter distance. The others are runners working right now at the shorter distance to become fast. Alana will probably make a lot of money being a sponsored elite marathon runner. She won't ever be fast enough to make the team though. She is "growing up fast" now. She learned she should learn the rules first. [quote][

Looks like she will be allowed to run in the Trials race but only count in the national championship and not the Olympic team selection.

http://www.runnersworld.com/elite-runners/teen-alana-hadley-probably-wont-be-eligible-to-compete-in-2016-olympic-marathon

My whole issue with this is incompetence and inability to communicate by USATF.

She was on their list to compete, apparently they removed her from the list and didn't bother telling her.

Same issues with Emma Coburn finding out her AR was not recognized by their organization by reading these boards.

It's not that they are enforcing rules that bothers me, it's that they see no need to communicate with athletes on these matters.

USATF is simply incompetent.

I totally disagree with the rule and not allowing her to be on list and complete. My only question is that is this rule in writing somewhere that all can see? It's the same thing as one being young enough to compete in the USA Junior Championships and being 18 or not. If this rule is real and it is in writing somewhere, then her and her parents have nothing to argue or be in shock about.

MD Phan wrote:

My whole issue with this is incompetence and inability to communicate by USATF.

She was on their list to compete, apparently they removed her from the list and didn't bother telling her.

Same issues with Emma Coburn finding out her AR was not recognized by their organization by reading these boards.

It's not that they are enforcing rules that bothers me, it's that they see no need to communicate with athletes on these matters.

USATF is simply incompetent.

Someone pointed out a long time ago on LRC that she would not be eligible to compete in the Rio Olympics because of her age. If someone on Letsrun with no vested interest at all realized that, then surely Alana or her support would have done enough research to realize this.

Sincerely,

Not a USATF fan but come on

Yeah it's not as if the rule is a new one. And she will get to toe the line with the Olympic hopefuls next February if she chooses.

There was no chance of her making the 2016 team anyway, so it doesn't change anything except her name is not listed on a website...

It's an IAAF rule for the 2016 Olympics. Hadley was born in 1997.

http://comiteolimpicoportugal.pt/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Atletismo.pdf

Age Requirements

Junior Athletes: Any athlete aged 18 or 19 years on 31 December in the year of the competition (born in 1997 or 1998) may compete in any event except the

Marathon and 50km Race Walk.

MD Phan wrote:

USATF is simply incompetent.

Read the rules and then tell me exactly what the USATF did wrong in the Hadley or Coburn case.

sojourner wrote:

Someone pointed out a long time ago on LRC that she would not be eligible to compete in the Rio Olympics because of her age. If someone on Letsrun with no vested interest at all realized that, then surely Alana or her support would have done enough research to realize this.

Sincerely,

Not a USATF fan but come on

I remember that thread. I actually weighed in, as did quite a few others that the IOC's rule is 14yo. I believe that is as of the opening ceremonies date although it may be first of the year. USOC doesn't have a contradictory rule, as suggested by posters who mention gymnastics, figure skating, etc. However, USOC allows individual fedrations USA Cycling, USA Gymnastics, Basketball, etc and this includes USATF, to organize and govern their respective sports.

The point is that if a rule exists (this seems to be a big IF, as even on that old thread no one cited an actual clause) preventing her from competing in the actual Games, it is USATF's rule and they have the authority to make such a rule or change it. It is up to the federation to let her in if anyone is going to. The IOC cannot, as it is not banning her now.

All the anti federation sentiment on the boards is certainly justified. Anyone who has access to USATF: how do we petition for a rule change?

Why did she even try to enter an event that she did not qualify for?

Reading comprehension an issue with you? This is an IAAF rule not USATF rule. There is a link above to the actual rule. It exists.

For your viewing pleasure- no, you obviously didn't see the thread which also included a link to the rule (IOCs rule) taken from the USATF 2012 Trials page. How the Hadley's didn't know all of this is really their fault and no one elses. USATF is just doing their job.

Should the USATF be more proactive in informing individual athletes of circumstances and rulings that impact that athlete is a far question.

My thoughts: At minimum USATF should communicate with the local USATF office if a specific athlete is impacted by a finding or ruling about that specific athlete. The local office would be tasked to locate and inform that specific athlete and assist them in an appeal(if it is an option) or to educate that athlete on the specifics of the finding.

But it's current policy applies to all athletes: we publish the outcome of our findings/rulings on our site. Athletes and members have access to those findings and rulings-in the case of record applications- in the minutes of the Record Ratification Committee Meeting after the Nation Convention.

In the case of entry applications- in the Status of Entries section covering the event in question.

TrackCoach wrote:

MD Phan wrote:

USATF is simply incompetent.

Read the rules and then tell me exactly what the USATF did wrong in the Hadley or Coburn case.

It's very simple, USATF does not know how to communicate with athletes. If you read the entire post, I'm not complaining about them enforcing the rules, they just have NO, AS IN ZERO, communication skills.

Do they not have a phone or e-mail at USATF headquarters? Then why the fuuk can't they pick up the phone or email athletes when they have made a ruling or changed a status pertaining to that athlete? It's simply complete incompetence.

For a USATF athlete to be informed of a USATF decision regarding them through a LR chat board (Emma), or noticing their name was removed from a website (Alana), is not acceptable. But then again, it just shows how little USATF cares about the athletes they are supposed to be supporting.

USATF should petition the IAAF to lower the age limitation.

If they were doing their job wrote:

USATF should petition the IAAF to lower the age limitation.

Why? Because the US has one woman who can (so far) run 2:38?

Even if she could run 2:28 and make the team, she would not be winning a medal.

If she was capable of 2:28, she would likely place 25th to 40th.

As is is at 2:38, she would place 50th to 70th, but she would not make the team anyway.

On the plus-side, this rule will be tough on all these 2:04-2:06 18 year old Africans that will now not be able to run the marathon. Although, this would only be 6 Kenyans and Ethiopians anyway.

When reading the rule it states that she can't compete in the marathon AND 50 km walk, but she should be able to compete in one or the other. No??

That being said, she'll run in the trials, if she has a career day and does place top 3, the heat will get turned up. The odds of that happening? 1:100?