HUGE INJUSTICE at USA's

CaliGuy - why you make sense, rationale, straightforward, honest and predictable in terms of planning and setting goals. Also doesn't seem like rocket science but a thoughtful analysis that I would think that anyone that knows a little about track and cares about the sport and the athletes that work their butts off each year would come to. So why is this so hard?

If there were anyone in the higher echelon of USATF who had any courage and a sense of fair play he/she would investigate what happened in the 800 and then either publish an explanation, if there is one, or an apology and a promise to rectify and do better next year!

the men's five k was also screwed up majorly. they only had 13 runners in the final. 16 were originally enterred. this is the smallest 5k final at USA's since 1981. I overheard chaplin at the meet say "i wouldnt mind if there were only 8 in the final!". chaplin refused to add people on the bubble into the meet to fill the 5k up to its original size of 16(which is a ridiculously small number in the first place).

they are just trying to save the big nike guns from facing any competition at all.

chaplin should just decides who goes to worlds and we shouldnt even have a national meet because thats basically whats going on. such favoritism

This Chaplin guy should think long and hard about if he wants to continue screwing people over when it comes to their life's work.

One of these days a bubble athlete is going to lose it and Chaplin is going to find himself getting beaten down in the middle of the night by a guy with a mask while he is walking to his car. I'm not saying this to be threatening, I'm saying this is what I think could happen. You mess with people's livelihoods enough and one of them is going to snap eventually.

And it's not even about being shut out of the meet, it's about the unfairness of it all. Run everything with transparency and there is no bitterness. The 33rd guy on the list just wasn't fast enough - fair enough. But if you run things in a way where it feels like people are being screwed for no reason - just on one person's whim - watch out. People will fight back, whether it is through legal appropriate means, or something much worse.

Jesse Parker wrote:

The same thing happened with our graduate assistant throws coach. He (Jon Tipton) was ranked 18th on the list. He paid his membership, entry and paid his own way to Eugene (he's only a grad assistant and we all know that grad assistants barely get paid enough to be kept alive). He didn't find out until he went to get his credentials that only 17th athletes had been accepted in the discus. At the 2009 Championships he finished 9th in the event and has thrown further this year than he did in 2009. Needless to say he feels very upset with USATF and this process. He feels cheated out of a chance to compete at the level he has earned and an opportunity to represent his country. The only explanation he was given was that USATF limited the number of athletes to a "competitive field."

Wait, seriously? That's such bullshit. In the men's pole vault, they had 17 athletes with the USATF A or B standard, and they accepted an 18th athlete who was well below the USATF B standard.

Can WE start a recall petition to remove this Chaplin guy from his position? This sport is way too great to have this type of person in a position of power. Our sport and athletes deserve better!

was said athlete a "swoosh" athlete? makes one wonder. yes, chaplin must go, but htere must be some process with which WE can all help enact this change (directly, not through all this 5-8 step process')

polevaultpower wrote:......they had 17 athletes with the USATF A or B standard, and they accepted an 18th athlete who was well below the USATF B standard.

mexican mafia wrote:

was said athlete a "swoosh" athlete? makes one wonder. yes, chaplin must go, but htere must be some process with which WE can all help enact this change (directly, not through all this 5-8 step process')

Umm we're talking about the pole vault here... no, the #18 US pole vaulter does not have a Nike sponsorship. He is a BYU athlete, maybe there's a connection there *shrug*

The USATF B standard is 5.50m. The 18th athlete accepted had a mark of 5.42m. Looking at the USATF Top Marks list, there was an athlete with 5.45 and an additional athlete with 5.42 who did not bother to enter the meet since they didn't have the B standard...

USATF rules allow them to add additional athletes if there are not enough qualified athletes. There's nothing _wrong_ per se with adding the 18th pole vaulter, other than it is wildly inconsistent with what happened in other events!

Disappointed wrote:

Can WE start a recall petition to remove this Chaplin guy from his position? This sport is way too great to have this type of person in a position of power. Our sport and athletes deserve better!

Not a bad idea. I'm a USATF member.

bump. this should remain at the top of the message board

Attend the Annual Meeting and vote.

Think you have it bad with USATF ? Try and train in Gaza or West Bank where Israeli snipers murder runners in the back at track meets and marathons. Runners have to have impromptu/unscheduled/unannounced competitions to avoid Nazified Jewish settler attacks.

Ron Burgundee wrote:

Attend the Annual Meeting and vote.

First, why would I want to join such a waste of an organization?

Secondly, if such an organization pulled the crap that they have in setting up the qualifiers for the USATF Meet, why would I believe that my vote will matter and that they won't cheat and screw over potential canidates in that area as well?

My $$ will go direcly to local middle school and high school Track and CC programs, not anything associated with Chaplin!

Ron Burgundee wrote:

Attend the Annual Meeting and vote.

You have to be a delegate from your association to vote.

I'm a member and would like to vote via the internet. Please provide the link to the USATF internet voting page. Thanks.

Here is a link to info about changes to competition rules:

http://www.usatf.org/events/2010/AnnualMeeting/competition_rules.asp

Looks like the president of any association may propose an amendment. We may not have access to Chaplain and Hightower, but I'm pretty sure most of us have access to our local association president.

A good place to start would be for someone to compile a full list of Chaplain's misdeeds over the years and every athlete he has screwed. Post it here on letsrun.com. Then we need to take this information to the association presidents, especially the ones whose own athletes have been affected, and say "look what is happening to our own association's athletes". Looks like we have until the end of August to submit amendments in advance of the annual end of the year meeting.

Actually I misread that. I think any USATF member can submit an amendment change, it just has to be supported by certain people, one of whom is any association president.

Then once it's in the Rules Committee, apparently here are the folks would be voting on it?

http://www.usatf.org/about/directory/info.asp?parent=Administrative+Division&group=Rules+Committee

If this message board produced the amount of stuff we saw on the Kip Litton thread, we ought to be able to get some good stuff generated for this Hemorrhoidal tissue.

How about this?

Vote with your feet.

I have not, and now will not, purchase a USATF membership this year, and probably not next year, either.

Big deal--the good meets here are all at the universities anyway, and are open meets with an entry fee all their own.

I know it's only $35 or something like that, but let's face it--money talks, b.s. walks.

And, although I watched a bit of nationals this year, I haven't watched any other track TV broadcasts for over a year. I don't even have a TV anymore.

Ask yourself: do you really need USATF?