USATF News

• Rundown Of How The Voting Went At The USATF Annual Meeting For better or worse, it looks like the USATF voting members have called USOPC’s bluff as the more controversial amendments USOPC was trying to force on USATF by threatening decertification, did not pass.
  *MB Archive: Becca Peter is here to answer your questions on USATF Annual Meeting and why you should vote no on giving the Board more power
• RRW:World Athletics Gave Member Federations Flexibility On New Shoe Rules Which Created Some Confusion For USATF Athletes Just another example how the new shoes and the illogical rules surrounding them are a disaster. By applying rules inconsistently (allowing shoes on the road, but not the track) and allowing federations to apply the rules at their own discretion, World Athletics has created a situation where a track mark could count as a national record, but not count be legal as an Olympic qualifying mark.

COVID Stuff

• New York Cancels High School Indoor Champs Due To Coronavirus
• Reuters:COVID-10 Leaves Sporting Holes That Will Never Be Filled There will forever remain some blank spaces on the wall for 2020.
• NY Times Writer Argues That College Athletes Getting COVID “Proves That They Are Workers” The debate over paying college athletes is one thing, but this writer gets a little dramatic when he says, “Collegiate athletes are now pawns in a high-stakes game with life and death consequences.”
• NY Times: “College Sports Has Reported at Least 6,629 Virus Cases. There Are Many More.” The NY Times says many universities have kept their case counts from the public.

Vaccine / Tokyo News

• Seb Coe Says Athletes Shouldn’t Get Priority For COVID Vaccine And Need To Take Their Place In Line Coe was also very complimentary of Japan’s response to Olympic postponement, saying he “wakes up grateful that it’s the Japanese who are dealing with this.”
• WADA Tries To Calm Concerns From Athletes Over Coronavirus Vaccine WADA has insisted that “there is no reason to believe” the vaccine would cause drug test failures.
• Seb Coe Says He’s Confident The Tokyo Olympics Will Happen “The games will go ahead. Under different circumstances, under stressful conditions, but the games, I think, will go ahead.”

Seb Coe Shares His Vision

LRC “In A Way, The Horse Bolted The Stable Many, Many Years Ago”: Seb Coe Speaks To LetsRun.com About Shoes, World Records, & 2021 Diamond League Changes Coe acknowledges technology is having an effect on the sport, but believes world records still mean something in 2020: “It is important that when a world record gets broken, that it is broken as a result of outstanding jaw-dropping athletic talents. And I’m still of the belief that in large part that is why we’re seeing those records.”
*MB: Seb Coe talks to LetsRun about the super shoes: “In a way, the horse bolted the stable many, many years ago.”

Seb Coe Is Impressed By The Current Training Of The Current Crop Of British 800m Men “This is the first generation where I can really put my hand on my heart and say that they really are doing the right things.”

US Distance News

• Keira D’Amato Was A DNS In 10,000 Last Weekend Due To Food Poisoning But She’s Running The Marathon Project
• Jared Ward added to Marathon Project men’s race
• Reid Buchanan Will Have The Fastest Half Marathon PR Of All The Debut Marathoners At Next Weekend’s Marathon Project The 27:58 10,000 man who ran 28:07 last week has a 61:45 half PR.
• The Marathon Project Will Be Broadcast Live On USATF.TV On December 20 It will also be on NBCSN on tape delay.
• Long-Time Colorado 1,600 State Record Holder In The Mile, Rich Martinez (4:10.98), Has Died At 57 Martinez was also 5th at the 1988 Olympic Trials. Cole Sprout finally beat his mark unofficially in a time trial in April. *Share Your Condolences
• 14:48 Woman Vanessa Fraser Chats After Running 32:09 Normally that would be a disappointment but she had surgery in May to remove damaged tissue in both of her Achilles.
• A Look At The Latest Transfers Changes For NCAAs For Next Year

Sports Science

Why WA Reversed Course On Some DL Changes

• Wanda Diamond League Releases Which Meets Will Have Which Events For 2021 Distance-wise, Eugene officially gets men’s and women’s 1,500s, a women’s steeple, and men’s 800 and 3k/5k.
• World Athletics Chief Executive Jon Ridgeon Admits They Made “Too Many Changes” At Once To The Diamond League Program “It was important what the athletes had to say, but it was equally important what the broadcasters had to say, because they pay most of the bills. … Some of our key DL broadcasters said to us that actually, do you know, we quite like the two-hour window.”
• The Athletes Association Welcomes World Athletics U-Turn On Diamond League Cuts Cutting these events from the DL was the initial catalyst that led Christian Taylor  to form the Athletes Association.