Quigley officially scratched - Alternate Marisa Howard will NOT be competing, never even heard from USATF

walter j wrote:

Integrity and fairness wrote:

Drew Hunter did the honorable thing. Which resulted in Ben True’s first WC!

Hunter > Wiggly

Not Ben True’s first WC, dumb dumb.

Quigley’s livelihood is based on making and running at these meets too. She did what she should have done and those blasting her are ignorant.

Exactly, this is her job. The point is to make money, not to help other people feel good about themselves.

It's funny how Marisa is "B list" but Drew is called the GOAT by many here, but both finished 5th at USAs.

Anyway, Squigs can do what she wants with her entry, but she always acts like she's about the sport, sportsmanship, etc. This action doesn't really jive with that but ... I guess time will tell if she ever reaches the pinnacle of the sport.

Quigley is just doing USATF a solid here... the World Championships is not a participation event and USATF is not in the business of having amateurs hit some bucket list item.

There's a reason Howard is not a professional, she's just not world-class. Why would anyone want someone like her represent the USA? Have some standards, folks.

There's no need to be rude toward Marisa. The spot was Colleen's. It was clear through the injury that she was optimistic up until the last minute that she would get in, and she isn't at fault here. But you can see things from Marisa's perspective, too, and hurt with her. It's a tough situation for both of them to swallow. But rudeness toward Marisa is not warranted. She's a great athlete and earned the alternate spot.

warren_thompson_uk wrote:

It's funny how Marisa is "B list" but Drew is called the GOAT by many here, but both finished 5th at USAs.

Anyway, Squigs can do what she wants with her entry, but she always acts like she's about the sport, sportsmanship, etc. This action doesn't really jive with that but ... I guess time will tell if she ever reaches the pinnacle of the sport.

No one calls Hunter the GOAT unless it is tongue-in-cheek, don't be daft. Besides, even Rupp gets called "B list" on here.

I think most of these reactions are overblown on both ends just due to the situation - granted its something the USATF could have mitigated - or Howard could have advocated more strongly. It's Quigley's job, the travel is a perk of the job - probably some other financial benefits for making a show of "best effort" to get to the starting line. It would have been a nice gesture to essentially give away her spot to Howard, but everybody's got to pay bills.

I'm sure the disappointment for Howard is palpable - would have been nice for the USATF to be up on things and more prepared in anticipation to send her last minute or something. Maybe she could have annoyed the USATF into repsonding, but who would want to reasonably do that when your season has essentially ended and you're not confident about Racing, Hope to see Howard get/take/earn some shots in the future!

Respect to you guys for trying.

__

The Bowerman Bois had a lot of really cool ideas for making track more marketable to fans. Things like alcohol and gambling, or starting social media beefs with actual international medalists. Cool stuff. Really ups the engagement.

I wonder whether the Bowerman Track (Workout & Time Trial) Club consider having the most amount of Americans possible lining up for races as a way to build the sport’s popularity?

make the top 3 at usa's. don't complain because you didn't get to capitalize on someone else's misfortune.

wishing colleen a speedy recovery and a successful olympic campaign!

USATF admin has got to be populated/staffed by idiots....and likely many over paid idiots at that....

stop wrote:

There's no need to be rude toward Marisa. The spot was Colleen's. It was clear through the injury that she was optimistic up until the last minute that she would get in, and she isn't at fault here. But you can see things from Marisa's perspective, too, and hurt with her. It's a tough situation for both of them to swallow. But rudeness toward Marisa is not warranted. She's a great athlete and earned the alternate spot.

Not being rude, I'm sure she's a wonderful person, but I'd reiterate that the World Championships are not a participation event and all arguments made are towards Howard's right to participate.

As much as USATF screws up, I think the issue here is that Quigley didn't scratch until the last minute. I doubt USATF could reach out to Howard until Quigley pulled out. And while she mentioned her injury on Instagram weeks ago, that's not a formal notification to USATF that she wasn't running. I think USATF had no options here but to wait for word from Quigley. And I don't blame Quigley for waiting until the last minute. Sure, she was losing fitness, but she still could have healed in time and gotten to the start line.

Confuzzled wrote:

rojo wrote:

Thank God our appeal worked and we got her into Pan Ams where she won a medal otherwise she would have never gotten to wear the Team USA jersey this year.

Just stop patting yourself on the back for getting a B list athlete into a B list event.

Quigley earned the spot in Doha and tried her best to get to the start line. If she would have dropped earlier, the board trolls would be all over her for being soft.

She does so much for the sport and is a great ambassador.

Ambassador of selfishness.

Gault and wejo need to track Quigley down and ask the hard questions. Her defenders are saying it’s part of being a pro. So are answering hard media questions.

usatfmaitna wrote:

usatf so anti-american

And REALLY unintelligent. My 8th graders could manage a more functional governing body.

For the amount letsrunners complain about millennials being soft, I'm pretty surprised to read some of this thread.

Any serious athlete has been in Colleen's situation- you're banged up, but you have a big race coming up, and you try to gut it out in hopes that adrenaline and competitive instincts can get you through. I've warmed up for races with a broken foot only to be pulled out by my coach, dropped out of races because I started with a strained hamstring - hell, even blacked out in a race and found out later I had mono. Your job as a pro is to get to the starting line even if the circumstances aren't ideal, and also to have the maturity and judgment to call it when circumstances don't make it possible.

My question is what, if any, policy does USATF have for alternates generally? Do they get an email saying "congrats, you're an alternate, here's the policy and here's what happens if we need you?" And if they don't, why not? @rojo @Jonathan would love to get some comment from USATF on what their general procedure is regarding alternates for global championships - especially since the Pan-Am debacle made it clear that sometimes there is no clear policy and particularly important with an Olympic year coming up.

?????????????????!! wrote:

Gault and wejo need to track Quigley down and ask the hard questions. Her defenders are saying it’s part of being a pro. So are answering hard media questions.

Lol okay. Hard questions like what? Why did you try to run? Yeah, a real hard-hitter.

This isn’t some all comer meet where your decision to race has no collateral consequences for you, other athletes, your country, or the sport. And she hadn’t worked out in a month. The writing was on the wall.

Honestly, if she weren’t white and hot I doubt the incel proud boys of the letsrun boards would be defending her so vigorously.

OMG. The boards are going to explode. They just said that they are going to have Quigley on as a commentator during the women's steeple. So she pulls out too late to let Howard run and gets to be on tv as well.

USATF can't force someone to withdraw, so they can't pull up an alternate until and unless someone withdraws. Quigley did so too late to even think about trying to get another athlete to Doha (Visa applications, travel, etc etc etc). I doubt it would have been an option, logistically but I don't know enough about the exact timing.

A more delicate to put the "participatory event" perspective is looking at it from ROI for everybody involved. Even if there was enough time to get Marissa there (and I don't think there was), you have to look at what is the upside of traveling a 5th place finisher to get to Doha about 5 minutes before a race when she hasn't been training and then she has a horrible first experience on the world stage.

Re: Quigley commentating - look at it from NBC's perspective. They need more women in the booth ... Quigley is there in Doha. People know her. She is camera-ready and knows what she is talking about in the event. She's not training or otherwise occupied in Doha. What do they lose by having her in the booth? They are doing something that will help their broadcast and make it more interesting. NBC pulled Sanya Richards-Ross into the booth when she wasn't competing. It's a great opportunity to try something out. This one is about NBC and their choice, not about alternates or any politics related to it.