USATF Permanently Bans Saratoga Springs Coached Art & Lina Kranick (and Art died a month ago)

This is so nuts and shows how much of safe sport is performative .

The guy is dead and gets banned?

I'm curious what would have happened if he hadn't died because the school hired a law firm that did an investigation and continued to hire him.

To be honest, I don't have a problem if some guy tied a rope around someone's waist 40 years ago and was thinking pulling her in the car would help her run faster. From what I could tell, it didn't sound like she got injured. Correct me if I'm wrong.

And just stating that I know nothing more than you and what I read in this article.

https://www.timesunion.com/hssports/article/art-kranick-long-time-saratoga-track-cross-21148659.php

Ok. What about this?

https://www.timesunion.com/hssports/article/art-kranick-long-time-saratoga-track-cross-21148659.php

Read about the people who RAVE about them when Art died.

The reality is the Kranicks were extremely successful. Some of the girls LOVED them and swear about them to this day. Others feel like it was abusive.

I open to hearing from both sides. When Art died, I remember doing the homepage that night and not knowing what to write. It’s rare where there are two such contrasting views of someone.

One thing is clear to me, however. SafeSport is a joke.

Under no reasonable system of justice would someone like them get a lifetime ban. We don’t even lock killers up in jail very often for life. How about we try counseling, suspension, etc. before we go straight to the lifetime ban of two of the most successful coaches in our sports history?

PS. Here is the homepage when Art died: https://www.letsrun.com/homepa...

Since I’m sure there are lot of NY state HS Xc fans on here, what happened to the FM girls and Bill Aris? I mean they won 11 of 12 national titles. That’s amazing.

Is Bill Aris still coaching? Why aren’t they dominant like they once were?

Is the super intense culture of “We are one of the best in the country or bust” motto no longer a thing that works or is allowed?

Whatever, if they indeed abused their athletes, then his legacy should be tarnished.

This is such an unacceptable thing to think and you should be embarrassed for having uttered it. An incredibly risky action is okay because sheer dumb luck prevailed and no one was injured? Maybe apply that line of thought into some other life situations and see if it still makes sense to you. Try “drunk driving”, for instance.

Aris is still coaching, but the issue is, after COVID, the FM XC roster sizes have become smaller than before. In fact, in 2023, there were only 9 people on the team per gender, which can make things tricky.

Now the FM boys and girls teams haven’t been able to qualify for their own state meet for the last 2 years.

USATF beats down a dead horse

USATF banned the Kranicks, not SafeSport. SafeSport changed the SafeSport Code in 2024 to say that they would issue an "administrative closure" if the accused was deceased. This came after a situation where a woman accused a legendary rowing coach, Ted Nash, of sexually assaulting her in 1973.

The accusations came out a year after Nash died. SafeSport administratively closed the case, but then SafeSport told the accuser that US Rowing could maybe help her out. That, in itself, is a violation of the SafeSport Code. The USOPC recommended a law firm, US Rowing oversaw the investigation, and Nash's legacy never had a chance.

abuseofprocess.xyz

USRowing threw a dead man overboard

George MJ Perry

The US Center for SafeSport did the right thing with the posthumous, 50-year old allegations against Ted Nash... until they didn't.

Open link

a) Why are wejo and you scolding Safesport for USATF's ban?

b) A lifetime ban from coaching shouldn't be compared to jail, but to a ban from your job. Think of e.g. a physician who abused his patients in his practice. He could never practice again either. (He could also (unless dead) work in many other jobs despite his "ban").

I'm not familiar with FM at all, so can you elaborate on this? When you say "have become smaller", is that something to do with COVID? School limited roster sizes? Not as much interest in XC by high schoolers?

Rojo, What do you recommend someone do if they are being sexually molested by a grown man who is purporting to coach them? Who does the athlete go to in order to stop the coach from sexual molesting or raping them and then many others? SafeSport is not about criminal justice.

Why do you persist in painting with such a broad brush? SafeSport is not a joke. Ask any woman who has been able to report sexual molestation and worse to SafeSport. It's a relief to have someone to go to to say, "He did this, here's my evidence. Please investigate. Please help me."

Would you still be okay with that if it was your child tied to the truck? I bet the answer is no! If it’s yes . . . . you’re probably a really bad father.

Guys if old as f Brojos didn’t know any better then no coach back then would either. All jokes aside sounds like they should have been banned a long time ago. Brojos glad you have little to no say in this sport.

From what I hear, the training at FM is so intense that not many people want to do it. Some of them join freshman year and then quit. With the small teams, not many more people will join because not many people at the school have friends or family members on the team. It’s a vicious cycle

the rope tow thing is just one example of decades of mistreatment of countless young people.

honestly I wouldn't think safesport should be needed to adjudicate something like this, but nice to have an organization like them to keep a national database of such people, who should surely be severely punished in our legal system

Dan Levy of Channel 13 is a well known hatchet reporter. “Police continue to investigate.” like something is about to happen- not.