Dear Mom of Kate's friend,
re: "I hope she does not see the negativity on this page and goes and has the race of her life in Eugene." - I agree with that.
People should not be talking about Kate and most people are not. The majority of the post are about the money and her entourage Please note the following:
- I followed my kids all over the place to competitions in multiple sports. Between my son's 2 sports, he traveled more than Kate. 90% of the time, it was just me; my wife came along a couple of times. I never received a dime in support and never asked for any. In fact, on more than one occasion, I helped pay for his coach. Btw, one of those trips was the USATF National Championship, which is basically the same as the Olympic Trials.
- Although I never needed any funding myself, I was blessed to be an above average wage earner. However, in many cases my athlete's situation was different. I've coached athletes who's family was on welfare and by every means necessary made it to the competitions. I've participated in numerous fund raisers for other athletes who in some cases attended competitions without their parent or a coach. I was by default their chaperone.
- Quite often we drove to competitions, brought some of our own food, shared a 2 room hotel suite with another family, etc. We have even stayed in college dormitories when schools made them available. Most of the kids I coached are now adults, when I run into them, they have fond memories of those times.
- Roughing it is not optimal and is not what I recommend, but you do what you have to do. Most people consider it an honor to have an athlete compete in the USOT and don't mind spending their own money if they have it. I would bet half of the un sponsored athletes don't have their coach with them and only athletes like Allyson Felix and Galen Rupp for example are traveling with their personal massage therapist.
None of this should have anything to do with Kate, it's unfortunate her name is attached and I'm sure she is as sweet a kid as you say she is. However, it does strike people as unfair when people from one of the most affluent areas in America is asking people to pay for a first class experience. Perhaps no questions would have been asked if you excluded the entourage and asked for about half the amount of money. - Hopefully this adds some perspective and welcome to the Letsrun Community, which tends to get up in arms about a lot of things, so don't take any negative post about Kate to serious.