Mark Wieczorek: “Either USATF indeed does have conclusive video evidence or they, in collusion with Alberto and Nike, lied and cheated to manipulate the system”
1. If there was conclusive video evidence, I am not content with Hasay withdrawing the protest.
2. If there was no new evidence, that would mean that USATF very directly and intentionally lied to manipulate the race results and cheat the deserving winner out of her spot and financial earnings.
by Mark Wieczorek
February 25, 2014
Editor’s Note: We received the following email from men’s 800 runner (Olympic Trials finalist) Mark Wieczorek on Monday night. To see a young athlete full of such passion inspired us to make sure we wrote our own editorial and devoted a ‘black page’ to continuing the investigation into the Gabriele Grunewald DQ/no DQ. We present his email to you in full (The title was added by us and the bold was added by us as well as we wanted to make it clear he’s not alleging anything and to emphasize a few key points):
Just wanted to throw out my opinion here and I think the position you have taken and the platform letsrun has is the best place to do it. You guys have done well with your coverage of the whole situation.
Based on what was reported by you guys, Hasay (if it was her decision or not) withdrawing the protest has nothing to do with the issue here. Either USATF indeed does have conclusive video evidence or they, in collusion with Alberto and Nike, lied and cheated to manipulate the system. Obviously I have no idea what really happened and I am making no judgements or insertions of my opinions as to what happened or attempting to state any wrong doing on anyones part. I am simply stating my interpretations of the possibilities as I see them.
1. IF there was conclusive video evidence, I am not content with Hasay withdrawing the protest. If there was, then Hasay indeed deserves to be going to worlds and just as everyone supported Gabe deserving to go, I would support Jordan going if she should be. If there was, why would the appeal have been dropped? I will again say that I have no knowledge of what happened, but to me logic would dictate that if there was this new video evidence based on how hard Alberto and Nike fought on her behalf then there would be no need for the appeal to be dropped. The way things went down makes it seem as if there was nothing to support the process and decisions they made. If there was conclusive evidence and Hasay still felt she did not deserve the spot so she made the decision to give it up to Gabe then I commend her for making a difficult choice to do what she felt was right.
2. IF there was no new evidence, that would mean that USATF very directly and intentionally lied to manipulate the race results and cheat the deserving winner out of her spot and financial earnings. If this is the case then that would indicate that the decision for Hasay to give up her spot likely had nothing to do with Hasay and was likely Alberto and USATF making decisions that were the best for them on her behalf. If that is true then that would mean that today’s press release was nothing more than collaboration on their parts to cover their own butts and avoid being confronted on the fact that they lied, cheated and presented the illusion of false evidence to support their desired outcome and this move to avoid getting caught is almost worse than what they did in the first place. They shouldn’t have to be confronted and pinned down or backed into a corner to do the right thing. They should be held accountable for their actions and not allowed to use this supposed withdrawal by Hasay as a means for scapegoating the confrontation or necessity to show the supposed “conclusive video evidence” which shows the initial decision was erroneous. It would mean that they broke their own rules of how things will be done and that they were scheming with Nike and/ or Alberto and then proceeding to sweep their actions under the rug would be just another thing they are doing wrong.
Mark Wieczorek at 2014 USA Indoors. *2014 USA Indoor Photos.
Once again, everything in that second option I laid out as an interpretation of mine is in no way a statement of fact and I am in no way saying that any of that happened. I, along with everyone else on the outside of this have no idea what happened. I would simply like to know so that we can either have a regained confidence based on a positive revelation of facts by USATF or so we can understand what is really happening and take the necessary measures to do what will make a positive change. I do not want this to be simply forgotten by everyone because there was a positive outcome for Gabe. USATF still needs to be pinned down and confronted to let everyone know exactly what happened and we need to do whatever we have to for this to happen. All of this can lead to so much good for change in our sport and opportunities like this don’t come around every day. The lack of transparency and inability for USATF to run championship meets in an organized and informative way is inexcusable. It would be so easy to outline a simple and straightforward way of doing things and they don’t need to be leaving themselves the lack of clarity to allow their own changes and interpretations to manipulate entries, meet schedule or competition results at theirs or their sponsors convenience.
Thanks for taking the time to read, hopefully athletes and those involved in and care about our sport will not just say ‘classy move Jordan’ and move on.
By tweeting or perpetuating that Jordan did a good thing is just deflecting away from the whole situation and would be what they want. This can’t be remembered as a happy, good feeling memory where an athlete did a good thing. There is so much to be answered for. I have said it several times and I do want to emphasize that I really am not placing blame or saying that any of this is fact, simply that we have no way of accurately interpreting the situation and a call to action needs to be made so we have clarity.
Mark Wieczorek
More: *LRC Editorial: Far from resolved, all of the questions leading to the uproar about USATF’s initial DQ of Gabriele Grunewald remain
*LRC The Inside Story Of Gabriele Grunewald’s DQ – Insider Access, False Promises And A Violation Of USATF’s Own Rules?