Track star and discrimination

I thought about it wrote:

Canuckster wrote:

Just think about it.

And I still think you're an idiot.

I am glad to inspire contemplation on these matters.

Care to elaborate your position?

official wrote:

Isn't it interesting that this or any of the other stories can't be about following the rules....but MUST be about RACE? I don't think so. Follow the rules and there won't be any problems. And it is so unprofessional of a newspaper to not print both sides of the story. Oh...that's right, if you do that, then there IS NO STORY other than another athlete screwing up by not following the rules.

It was a TV station, dumbass, not a newspaper. Everyone knows TV is not a legit news outlet.

Thank you.

You got it right. J Kelly, the young lady in question, has not thrust her religion in others' faces. She ran a race our org produced and is a model for great sportsmanship. Ironically, she is the lone Muslim in her immediate family.

I spoke with a certified lead USATF official who resides in the DC METRO Region who would have done exactly what you suggested: council her on the rule and how interpretation of said "undergarment" rule will get her DQ'd the next go-round.

Her coach's actions by punching the lead referee should result in a hearing for accountability. Unfortunately, it has lead to unsympathy and empathy to the actions taken just prior to the fast heat of the girls 800m event.

A rule is a rule. Isn't it the same in college? Who's she going to gripe to then, if she does go on to run? Stop whining, follow the rules, or move to a different country.

It's up to the USATF Marshalls, lawyers, and civilian police to resolve this matter. Uncovering the motive for the official discriminating and choosing to selectively enforce certain rules is up to investigators on the scene. This should not be a skin-color, religious, or sexual orientation for the USATF Marshalls, lawyers, and authorities. The law is clear and must be enforced. Also remember that Uncle Tom's were used to meet out executions and punishments during slavery. U.S. police departments use officers with the same characteristics to carry out summary executions, vigilanteism/roadside justice, beatings/torture, and evidence planting. Plus it was Africans who made up the majority of soldiers and police during the apartheid era in South Africa.

I agree with take the blindfold off.

The Washington Post and ABC news missed the bigger story of the incident: Official punched in face by coach!

The Theodore Roosevelt coach should be fired.

It does not matter if the official does not want to press charges. The state can press charges. I would not want to be at a meet as an official, coach, athlete or spectator with this coach present.

Amen to that....if a coach indeed did assault the official then throw the book at him! One thing, this is not a USATF meet, the meet is a high school meet and governed by the national high school athletic association. So USATF cannot get involved in this.

Many of you miss the point here, in that rules need to be followed regardless of who you are and what happened in the past. I feel bad for the athlete, she is getting some very unwelcome attention in a situation where the adults, mainly her mother and coach, did not behave appropriately.

She ran yesterday in the DC Schools meet at the same facility. No DQ; different interpretation of the "undergarment rule"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/16/AR2008011603574.html

This Chin guy, HS Czar or whatever is, has just opened it up for any kid or coach who does not like to abide by the rules to do so. What a dumb ass!!!!!! What is he thinking when he tells athletes and parents to ignore the rules if they don't like them???

Also, the girl just shit in her mess kit by wearing that illegal uniform again, after all the publicity she generated. If I were a collegiate coach, I would not touch her, nor anybody with that defiant attitide.

What is notable in that WaPo article is that other coaches felt that the official should not have decided as he did. She was allowed to run here because they interpreted the rule different than the official did at the original meet. And also notable is that a running company has offered to make her a single-colored unitard.

We need to be sure to not conflate what her coach did with what either she or the official did; they are different matters. If the coach assaulted the official, I have no sympathy for him, and I think the athletic assocation ought to take what measures its policies dictate. Hitting someone is a rule violation much different than wearning a two-color unitard.

I am just surprised that so little common sense was shown. And here, on this board, not that we should be surprised by the level of discourse we see, I am surprised that we have such little consideration of what might have been done. We have one poster saying, hey, if you don't like the rules, leave the country. Yeah, that makes sense and what an informed and mature comment that is. I'll be shocked if that poster has hit 20 yet. And I'll bet if we look, he's probably got at least one illegal download on his computer- but, you know, we gotta follow those rules!

My guess still remains that these comments are coming from the fact that it is a Muslim runner. Were this an attractive young blond female, people would be saying, hey, it's a silly rule, lighten up.

USofA wrote:

P.S. 12 flat is terrible. come to the midwest, and we'll show you whats up

Some people should realize that this girl is a "track star" in Washington D.C. only. She's really the only decent runner in D.C. If she moved a few miles away to Fairfax County Virginia, Montgomery County Maryland, or Hell if she transferred to Eleanor Roosevelt like every other decent black girl in the area, she'd be just some girl in the pack with an obnoxious uniform. The unitard doesn't give her an advantage, but it is damn ugly and annoying. The most recent article says that she won the 300, 500, and placed 2nd in the 3200. No she's not that good. The competition is just that bad. By the way, she has said she was trying to run fast enough to get into the New Balance Games 800. Does anyone know that qualifying standard?

Her ability level has nothing to do with this conversation, except a few people were bad mouthing my region and just wanted to stick up for it. DC Public Schools don't represent this whole region.

DC sucks at distance for a number of reasons, but primarily because they don't have the HS population that Fairfax County or Montgomery County have. DC is no worse than some lightly populated districts in other Virginia counties.

J. Kelly is a good runner, but she is definitely a big fish in a small pond (which is not her fault). She gets a ton of pub in the Washington Post because the Post loves hyping District athletes that are any good at all. Plus, no offense to the Sports section, but the Post seems to balance the All Met selections by region or area instead of taking a completely objective "who's the best damn runner" approach, no matter if 80% of them would come from one county in a given season.

f**k her its just another case of this $hit....

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/09/08/court_upholds_ban_on_veil_in_license_photo/

Here's exactly what happened:

http://md.milesplit.us/articles/16460

The DC meet was not sanctioned by NFHS, therefore they are not governed by the same rules. Here is a press statement released by the NFHS which sanctioned the Montgomery Invitational.

NFHS Responds to Maryland Track Situation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Becky Oakes

INDIANAPOLIS, IN (January 17, 2008) - Last Saturday, Juashuanna Kelly, a runner on the girls track team at Theodore Roosevelt High School in Washington, D.C., elected not to compete in the Montgomery Invitational indoor track and field meet in Maryland after meet officials advised her that she would need to replace her undergarment because it violated track and field playing rules published by the National Federation of State High School Association (NFHS).

The NFHS issues the following statement regarding this incident:

"The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), the national leadership organization for high school sports and fine arts activities, writes playing rules in 17 sports for boys and girls competition at the high school level, including track and field.

"Rule 4-3-1-d of the NFHS Track and Field and Cross Country Rules Book states that 'Any visible garment(s) worn underneath the uniform top or bottom shall be a single, solid color and unadorned except for 1) a single school name or insignia no more than 2¼ square inches with no dimension more than 2¼ inches and 2) a single, visible manufacturer's logo as per NFHS rules.'

"Using preventive officiating, meet officials at the Montgomery Invitational checked uniforms prior to the events to make sure they complied with NFHS uniform rules. Since Kelly's one-piece undergarment was multi-colored (blue, orange, white), it was in violation of the uniform rules. The meet officials did not disqualify Kelly; they informed her she would have to replace the multi-colored undergarment with a single-colored undergarment, an option which she declined and, thus, did not compete.

"The head covering, which was a part of Kelly's one-piece undergarment, nor the length of the undergarment were in violation of NFHS rules. She could have worn the same style of undergarment, with a head covering, as long as the undergarment was one color throughout the entire piece of clothing. The NFHS track uniform rule was put in place for consistency across the board and for ease in identifying runners at the finish line. Multi-colored undergarments cause greater identification problems for track officials.

"The track uniform is a point of emphasis by the NFHS this year in an effort to have more consistent and widespread enforcement of the rule. Because of her Muslim faith, there were reports that her uniform undergarment was ruled unacceptable on religious grounds. While Kelly's faith requires her to cover all parts of the body except her hands and face, a single-colored undergarment with a hood would have been acceptable both from an NFHS rules standpoint as well as meeting the requirements of her Muslim faith.

http://www.nfhs.org/web/2008/01/nfhs_responds_to_maryland_track.aspx

It was a TV station AND a newspaper (the Washington Post).

a journalist wrote:

official wrote:

Isn't it interesting that this or any of the other stories can't be about following the rules....but MUST be about RACE? I don't think so. Follow the rules and there won't be any problems. And it is so unprofessional of a newspaper to not print both sides of the story. Oh...that's right, if you do that, then there IS NO STORY other than another athlete screwing up by not following the rules.

It was a TV station, dumbass, not a newspaper. Everyone knows TV is not a legit news outlet.

Thank you.

Running czar wrote:

You got it right. J Kelly, the young lady in question, has not thrust her religion in others' faces. She ran a race our org produced and is a model for great sportsmanship. Ironically, she is the lone Muslim in her immediate family.

I spoke with a certified lead USATF official who resides in the DC METRO Region who would have done exactly what you suggested: council her on the rule and how interpretation of said "undergarment" rule will get her DQ'd the next go-round.

Her coach's actions by punching the lead referee should result in a hearing for accountability. Unfortunately, it has lead to unsympathy and empathy to the actions taken just prior to the fast heat of the girls 800m event.

Her mother wears muslim clothing, so I'm assuming she is not the "lone Muslim in her immediate family."

It was a TV station, dumbass, not a newspaper. Everyone knows TV is not a legit news outlet.

Thank you.

fran122 wrote:

It was a TV station AND a newspaper (the Washington Post).

I APOLOGIZE FOR THE WAY THIS LOOKED ON THE PREVIOUS POST ... I WAS NOT RESPONDING TO JOURNALIST BUT TO THE POSTER WHO LEFT THE ABOVE QUOTED MESSAGE.