LRC article on "Dennis Mitchell again …"

Maybe you'd like to replace him with, oh, Jon Drummond (grab him quick, before USADA bans him for life?) or Lance Brauman? I'm quite sure John Smith and Bob Kersee don't want it, and any good NCAA coaches are involved with NCAAs right now.

The appointment of Mitchell to the coaching position is not because of a lack of qualified interested candidates.

coach d wrote:

Maybe you'd like to replace him with, oh, Jon Drummond (grab him quick, before USADA bans him for life?) or Lance Brauman? I'm quite sure John Smith and Bob Kersee don't want it, and any good NCAA coaches are involved with NCAAs right now.

I'm not sure what your point is. Do you think having a convicted doper as head coach is a (pardon the pun) positive for the sport? How does that look for the US in T&F?

Are you saying there's simply nobody else available and/or qualified? How much benefit do you think the fastest sprinters in the country will gain from a brief spell with Dennis Mitchell? Enough to counter the justification of suspicion now lying over the head of all of US T&F?

I agree with the sentiment of the spokesperson in the article, that an athlete convicted of PED use does their time, and we move on. Fine. But I'd be VERY hesitant to then allow that athlete in to ANY head coaching position, particularly at the national level. To do so is a horrible slap in the face of every clean athlete/coach in the sport. To do so, there should be some very real and very publicly declared justification. IMO, of course.

I'm glad this thread got started. I was just thinking "what steps should people do about this"

Reporting on something does not change anything.

Of course I'd like the word to get out, but just tweeting at USATF won't change anything. If we just tweet and facebook about it we feel good about ourselves but that's about it. I've seen a few people who have CCd me on emails.

Changing the environment at USATF isn't going to be easy.

there is a facebook group of anti-USATF insurgents - anyone concerned should join that. it's called something like 'usatf is destroying the sport' - some people you've heard of are there.

I would love to see some kind of protest at Pre or at USAs - someone suggested that as they are introducing the 100 meter field...people in the stands turn around en masse or something like that. or put newspapers in front of their faces.

That kind of fan protest is unheard of - it could make the newspapers - that would put pressure on USATF to stop the tolerance of druggies.

The point is that this is very inconvenient timing and most of the coaching personnel are committed, either to the DL (for people like Smith and Kersee) or to the NCAAs. In a Oly/WC in August, you can have people like Mike Holloway at Florida or Cheryl Smith-Gilbert at USC now bewcause the NCAA competition season is long since over. But right now, the only people you might want are committed. Yeah, Bev Kearney and Brooks Johnson you could probably get, but do you want them? I'd certainly be interested in whomever at OSU is working with John Teeter, but they are getting ready for regionals just like we are.

So, if you blackball Mitchell, maybe you end up with an ex-con (Brauman). The Jamaicans have also commented about the schedule system, and they are not happy either.

Why the hell do people care?

Making crap like this an issue is exactly why nobody cares about the sport anymore. Notice that the sport was most popular when it took a laissez-faire approach to doping?

Track and field national coaches are basically figureheads/paper pushers. Even if you had Drummond in there, everybody knows he's been "fingered" by multiple people and there WILL by drug testing at World Relays, so nothing is going to happen on the doping aspect.

Somebody like Allyson Felix will care about the staffs handling supplies. My understanding is that it was hot at the Moscow WC and multiple US athletes complained about not enough hydration, and I think this is what led to Allyson's hamstring injury. I thinkit's more the staff that the named coach brings in that matters rather than the specific person named as coach that reallly doesn't do much except sit there and watch.

the facebook group is called 'Im tired of USATF and IAAF crippling our sport'

I am not big fan of the Johnson brothers (elite athlete wanabes) and LRC's questionable editorial policies. Justin Gatlin used to be referred to by LRC as "drug cheat" Justin Gatlin until he publicly declared his support for gay marriage. Now he is simply Justin Gatlin and is covered favorably by LRC. The Johnson's anti-PED crusade seems to be very self-serving and hypocritical to me. Nothing new for the Johnsons.

wejo wrote:

I'm glad this thread got started. I was just thinking "what steps should people do about this"

Reporting on something does not change anything.

Of course I'd like the word to get out, but just tweeting at USATF won't change anything. If we just tweet and facebook about it we feel good about ourselves but that's about it. I've seen a few people who have CCd me on emails.

Changing the environment at USATF isn't going to be easy.

If you are serious about cleaning up the sport than no one who either competed or coached from the mid-1980's until the mid-2000's should be involved as we known that nearly every elite athlete was doping during this time. It also means that you should not accept any submissions or glorify Renato "EPO doesn't work on East Africans" Canova. Until you sanction every doper (not just the ones you don't like) than what's the point?

burbling going on -

Lauren Fleshman checks in with a pretty good essay:

http://asklaurenfleshman.com/2014/05/why-a-convicted-doper-as-the-usa-team-coach-is-a-bad-idea/

incl: So here is what honoring coach Mitchell as head coach does to Team USA. It sends a global message that USATF is willing to overlook a cheaters past and give them the highest honor in our sport. It shows that they are no longer following their Zero Tolerance policy. It shows that Team USA is soft on drugs. That we don’t take doping seriously. Frankly it’s something I’d expect from Turkey or Russia or the USA of the 80′s, but not the USATF of the past 8 years. It’s like putting someone who has formerly served time for fraud in charge of your bank. Or a convicted child abuser in charge of your day care. Even if Dennis Mitchell has paid the price for his actions in the past, there is simply no place for him as a national team coach. He effects the reputation of every single clean athlete he is associated with. He casts a shadow on USATF as a whole. I wish him a fantastic life, but I don’t want him or his wife involved in my sport in any position of influence or leadership.

Max, since you seem to have executive power on most everything, please draw the line. You need to be the strictest of all when it comes to zero tolerance of doping, or you screw us all.

and none other than Johnny Gray:

What does it prosper a man of the track & field world that does better because he knows better but when it comes to reaping the benefits of this sport track & field someone who cheated prevails? Well I went through it as an athlete and thought all I've accomplished was for not! The cheats took money off my table but at the end I still accomplished what I wanted and was inducted into USA 2008 Hall Of Fame. I say that to say this, I did it with Faith! Faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see! If those of us can use our platform to let our voice be heard and speak out against this wrong in our sport then I have the faith it will get better because right always prevails!

If you are serious about cleaning up the sport than no one who either competed or coached from the mid-1980's until the mid-2000's should be involved as we known that nearly every elite athlete was doping during this time.

___

actually we don't know this.

Simple: an athlete boycott of the Bahama Relays.

looks like someone has been bugging dennis on twitter:

@grnmachine please consider resigning from the USATF staff for World Relays - as a convicted doper you do not deserve the honor.

Grnmachine

‏@grnmachine

@damagrnyc negative get a life and leave mine alone! I'm out enjoy my shine!

Canada is sending Desai Williams (one of Charlie Francis' athletes, admitted steroid user) as a team coach to the very same meet. Maybe they can hang out together!

At the very least, we should try to find out when and how USATF changed policy. As late as 2012, coaches could be rejected from the registry for involvement in doping (including when they themselves were athletes, as in this case). I cannot find any reference to that policy after 2012. When was it eliminated? Or was it?

Then there's the other question: how asinine do you have to be to reward the coach of the best US sprinter NOT competing on the US team?

jsquire wrote:

At the very least, we should try to find out when and how USATF changed policy. As late as 2012, coaches could be rejected from the registry for involvement in doping (including when they themselves were athletes, as in this case). I cannot find any reference to that policy after 2012. When was it eliminated? Or was it?

Then there's the other question: how asinine do you have to be to reward the coach of the best US sprinter NOT competing on the US team?

I only briefly in passing linked to the coaches registry:

Pages 19 and 27 both say USATF may exclude from being coaches people with doping pasts. It says, USATF "reserves the right to deny entry into the program to any coach who USATF has reason to believe (a) has committed an anti-doping rule violation or materially contributed to the commission of an anti-doping rule violation;"

USATF via it's statements tried to give the impression that they were just following USADA guidelines. There is a big difference between being able to be a coach and being selected as a national team coach.

Even more interesting is USATF outright bans agents from being authorized agents for 10 years if they've had a doping conviction. That is well beyond USADA. See page 45: "Any individual that is currently not in good standing (sanctioned) with the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) or who has received a sanction by USADA within the

last ten (10) years." can't be an authorized agent.

And you have a good point. If the point is to send our best team, why reward the coach of America's fastest 100m man who is skipping world relays. Bizarre.

wtfunny wrote:

Kudos, Weldon, for the article on Dennis Mitchell's selection as USATF's men's sprint head coach.

p

This. I thought the piece was well written and don't expect to be a popular article among the main stream. However, it's good for all of us who view this site to see this, whether we're a fanatic or casual fan of the sport. It certainly gives us something to think about it.