loves competition wrote:
polevaultpower,
side with the athletes, not the bureaucrats. if im not mistaken, team indiana has a number of brooks athletes, along with derek scott who runs for puma and stephen haas who runs for new balance. there is pressure from the shoe companies to wear their race kits, and at the very least, wear their equipment, especially at usatf competitions. the guys travelled there, raced their hearts out, and now come up 4th instead of what should have been around 75 points and a close 3rd. this is absurd. reward the athletes for what they've done. they entered together and have a clear roster with their affiliation. this governing body does too much to try to hold back its' athletes. im embarrassed by usatf more and more as time goes by. side with the athletes, not the bureaucrats.
I deal with the same issues with my team. Some of our athletes are sponsored by Brooks (who also sponsors our team) and sometimes we have other athletes with other sponsors.
The difference is, I pay attention to the rules... I work with people throughout the year to make sure we find a way for them to match for the relays in Track and for Club Nationals in cross country. And our team color is orange, so a lot of manufacturers don't even make anything in that color...
Anyway, if an athlete was in a situation with a sponsor where they could not match their teammates under any circumstances for one race in the year, then they wouldn't get to go on the trip to Club Nationals, because we know the rules and know they wouldn't be eligible.
It's a team championships. Look like a team one race out of the whole year...
Believe me, I am on the side of the athletes. But these are ADULT athletes who are perfectly capable of reading the rules. It's not a ridiculous rule that a team's jerseys need to match. I know the games committee is not _super_ picky about how closely they have to match, they just need to all be about the same color and about the same design.