USATF accidentally gives Craig Leons Pan Am spot to Tyler McCandless. Should TrackTy give up slot?

awkward runners wrote:

Is this a shot at Tyler McCandless from Craig Leon for not giving up his Pan Am spot when USATF asked him to?

https://twitter.com/cleonrun/status/619715170873413632

This isn't a matter of "Will Tyler give up his spot". He will have to because the selection procedures and the USOC being involved. This isn't something swept under the rug by USATF. There's lawyers involved.

Look, everyone knows the people at USATF are a bunch of clowns. They had the phantom Bumby DQ, the whole Gabby 3k drama, the half-marathon team screw up, the marathon team screw up and now the Pan-Am team screw-up. And that's just the mostly recent stuff.

If the team would have been announced when the window closed or if they weren't too busy appointing drug cheats coaching spots, this never would have happened.

So I'm going to be nice and fix this situation for them and save them another headache.

1. Give Craig Leon the spot. He earned it and he met the criteria. As many people have posted, it's the dream of a lot of runners to wear the National singlet. Craig Leon never has before, it could be his last shot and gosh darnit, he earned it. Yes, you gave Tyler the call and he was probably pumped at the time. But he now knows he didn't really earn it. It's like a charity runner proudly wearing the Boston Marathon jacket. Yeah, technically you ran Boston but you really didn't deserve to be there, so keep that jacket in the closet.

2. Now, what do do with Tyler? Let him still go as an athlete representative and fly his butt first class and treat him like a king. If you let drug cheats become coaches, this kid deserves a spot. And do the same thing for the World Championships. He can also save his legs for a fall marathon and try and get the "A" standard out of the way since it probably won't happen in July.

3. And give both of the guys some hush money. If NIke can give you 50 bazillion dollars to be a bunch of morons, you can throw some bones their way for their troubles.

Messy situation. Both should get some money from USATF for this.

Has anything happened on this?

As for complaining on Twitter, I'm a little older and the idea of venting on Twitter like Leon seems to have done is beyond me. Still, things change, and I'm not going to judge the guy for this. Different generations have different rules. Leon doesn't seem to have said anything wrong or spiteful on Twitter. McCandless himself clearly feels social media is a valid form of everyday communication.

So I say lay off condemning Leon for his tweets unless he says something on Twitter that one couldn't imagine him actually saying publicly or to the other guy's face. (For what it's worth, I agree with him--actions speak louder than words. Doing the right thing involves action.)

It seems cut and dry that Leon has the faster time, has either the USATF or Track Ty acknowledged this?

Agreed. I'd like to hear McCandless's reasoning as to why he should get the spot instead of turning it down asking for the faster guy to take his place. People seem to be making this a more complex matter than it is. How is it even open for discussion what should happen here?

agreed, cut and dry wrote:

Agreed. I'd like to hear McCandless's reasoning as to why he should get the spot instead of turning it down asking for the faster guy to take his place. People seem to be making this a more complex matter than it is. How is it even open for discussion what should happen here?

I have no dog in this fight, but has USATF acknowledged that they forgot to call Mr. Leon? Maybe this Tyler guy thinks that Craig had turned down the spot then changed his mind when it was too late.

Our usual insider/usatf critics? PVP in particular? Figured she would have something to say here.

Someone mentioned this further up the thread, but does this provision mean that entries were closed on June 29th? In other words if the USATF screwed up was it too late to fix it after June 29th?

8. DATE OF NOMINATION

The Nomination of Athletes form, including replacements, will be announced to all athletes and submitted to the USOC on or before:

June 29, 2015

What was the final resolution (or non-resolution)?

agreed, cut and dry wrote:

Agreed. I'd like to hear McCandless's reasoning as to why he should get the spot instead of turning it down asking for the faster guy to take his place. People seem to be making this a more complex matter than it is. How is it even open for discussion what should happen here?

I'm just playing devil's advocate here but maybe he believes that he ran his time on a more challenging course and he could beat Leon on the same course? I have no idea what courses they ran or how much difference there is in their times, but I think after putting all that work into training and racing, being told you were on the team, instagraming kit pics, etc it is easy to try and rationalize why you should really be on the team. Even if that rationalization is really just a lie to yourself.

Even if that rationalization is really just a lie to yourself, yeah, that makes sense. Obviously the other side of the argument is that other factors like weather and presence of other runners with whom you can run (pacers, basically) matter a lot, too, in addition to the course. But that's why they just do time. You have a bunch of months to run the fastest time you can--USATF didn't hold a one-race trials. So you find the best combination you can of course, weather, etc. I see your point, though, especially after posting multiple pictures of the jersey before you've even worn it in a race.

Agree with the one or two people who have mentioned that there is a surprising amount of silence on this issue. Leon and McCandless (who of course didn't necessarily do anything wrong--maybe he is simply not allowed to give his spot to Leon at this point) are both great runners but still outside that super-elite fraternity of the big-name athletes, so this gets no coverage.

Imagine what the outcry for this would have been like if McCandless was sponsored by Nike or something.

I'm not sure it is Tyler's move to make. USATF offered him the spot and he took it. Not sure when they told him, but he probably has geared his training for this race and might have given up some money-making road races along the way. It is USATF's responsibility to fix the situation. Can they say to Tyler; "hey we eff'ed up and we need to give your spot to Craig. Here is $X for lost racing opportunities and keep the kit. Sorry about the confusion" ?

Can they say to Craig we gave Tyler the spot, sorry for the mix-up, here is some cash and a kit, you can be an official member of the team, but not run? (Not that is really solves the problem). They certainly don't have to give them both money.

More importantly, how is this fixed going forward? 1/2 marathons, marathons and road races are harder to keep track of. If a race is USATF certified, who's responsibility is it to ensure the results are in the proper database? athlete/agent, USATF or race director?

My gut tells me that if you are in consideration for a team spot (elite, sub-elite), I would want to make sure my best race is properly recorded.

The USATF's motto should be "If it isn't one thing, it's another".

What if Rossi mistimed it and did 2:11 instead of 3:11?

road rashed wrote:

Definitely. Zero chance McCandless gives up the spot though. Too many Instagram opportunities with pics of him in USA kit.

Anything for a like right. Any chance he'll work in helping some under privaleged kids to pimp out for likes in the gram?

McCandless just ran the Boilermaker 15k. Also they say for every obnoxious instagram or tweet he post he loses one hair follicle.

i only see Leon v. McCandless head to head at Houston half M USA champs 2014: McCandless had the better day finishing 17th and in 1:03:25 vs. 1:04:34 and 27th for Leon.

Did they race head to head any other time?

I hadn't hear of McCandless. Why does he have so many followers? This is an honest question.

I get why Dean Karnz howeveryouspellhisname is popular even though he's not an Olympian or anything since he has a column in a magazine and has written books, but why is McCandless known by anyone?

Looks like according to Leons twitter. He is in.

@cleonrun: What a week. Happy to share that I have been named to the US team for the 2015 Pan Am Games. @chansen_RG story here:

http://bit.ly/1V458Q8