I've been whining and nagging a lot on Facebook this last week about athlete exploitation by USATF. Specifically I'm referring to the costs incurred by athletes, “A” and “B” athletes alike, to participate in the Olympic Marathon Trials. I have never seen so many GoFundMe pages to get men and women over the barriers of toeing the line at a championship event in my career. Those GoFundMes ignore the problem and put a band-aid on the cancerous problem that is IAAF and USATF rules prohibiting or stifling athletes' ability to make a living within the confines our our sport's rules.
Just to rewind and refresh the audience, remember that the LDR panel unanimously (in a 5-0 vote) recommended Houston, not LA to host the trials. The panel looked at the bids, the historical support, the infrastructure, the ease of travel for participants, the prize money structure, and the costs to participate when making their decision. They ALL thought Houston was better suited to host. Max Siegel thought otherwise and unilaterally awarded the bid to LA.
LA didn't offer (until backlash FORCED them to up their ante) equal prize money to Houston. There is no media benefit to LA hosting over Houston. LA didn't even have a course until just a couple weeks ago. LA has spent the last 21 years not giving a damn about American development within distance running, that is until suddenly they got a burning desire to host the US Marathon Championship this year. LA also has a restrictive “jock tax” for those of us who earn our income on 1099s, though we're already paying almost 50% of our (very limited anyway) income to state and federal income taxes before tacking on LA's “special” tax for those of us in a sport that earns, on average, under poverty level. Thanks for the slap in the face, LA! Thanks for those considerations, USATF!
There are often unforeseen consequences to decisions made by leaders of organizations. The major one here is the cost presenting a hardship to the very athletes working to be the bedrock of our suffering sport. “B” athletes get no help from USATF to compete and are forced to abide by restrictions (including but not limited to uniform regulations) that often hinder their ability to earn a living and pay their bills. USATF has consistently passed the buck on certain rules by saying that the Olympic Trials are a USOC event while USOC has consistently said that USATF is the one deciding what rules to adopt. The two speak in circles and pass the buck so many times that it's nearly impossible to follow the charade that somehow governs our sport. You'll either throw up or give up trying to follow who pins blame on whom. That lack of responsibility has been a plague of our sport from the top-down. I'll get into that later though.
Let me go one point at a time. I have had offers to help me from businesses ranging from firearms companies looking for exposure to running stores that employ me to restaurants I frequent. All want SOME exposure on my jersey and I understand why. This is our biggest stage for many of us to be on every four years. This is this kind of stage that pits Colorado Springs against Boulder against Flagstaff against Mammoth and many others. It's a sports marketing dream, if you think about it creatively! This should be where Max Siegel's experience with NASCAR really helps USATF up its game, its value, and its spectrum of appeal.
On our uniform rules, we are now allowed one club logo (keep it under 20 square cm though!) and one manufacturer logo (also under 20 square cm). We could benefit from opening up the space that I own, USATF feels it to be its right to control, and USOC couldn't possibly care any less about the use thereof. We've been fighting this rule pretty actively since Nick Symmonds brought it to light a few years ago, but the bottom line is that IAAF loves nothing more than to crap on the starving athlete and control them by keeping their sights only on the next meal, not the next year or even career cycle. It's sadly working.
Next gripe comes from the cost of LA hosting to the athletes. Some people have complained that if I don't like the costs, I should have just run an “A” standard. That tells 10% of the story at most. Even with an “A” standard, athletes are giving up appearance money at other races in order to have a shot to compete in the trials race, where only 15 men and 15 women will make a dime! Meanwhile, the costs don't make any sense to me. USATF accepts money for a bid from each bidding city who vies to host the sacred Trials. That money goes toward…? Well, it generally goes toward hosting a bunch of USATF execs in the host hotel (which, by the way costs $300/night with a 3 night minimum. Trust me, I called and tried to stay there). Those execs get their own room while athletes share rooms. We don't MIND sharing rooms, but let's not act like this event is to help the athletes put their best foot forward.
Also on the topic of the hotel, no athlete I ever talked to would mind staying at a Super8 the night before the race. Many of us do exactly that when we are paying our own way to races. We aren't eating steak on a ramen noodle budget. We're trying to live within our impoverished means while working full-time jobs and training our butts off. If we just hosted races at reasonably priced venues, we could stretch our already limited budgets to cover 3-4 times as many athletes stay and travel accommodations. THAT'S how you grow the sport. Support it!
Moving to our next topic, the lack of responsibility from the top. Will Max Siegel be paying for his trip to the Trials? Will the LDR chairs or liaisons pay their own way? Will anyone from USOC even show up? Will it hurt any of those people to pay their own way if they HAD to? All those questions should lead you to the conclusion that “NO, the athletes aren't the main focus of the Trials.” We're the pawns, in the eyes of our administrators. That starts at the top and works to every position too. Nobody wants to give up his perks for the athletes to have a chance at success.
I think most athletes are very much like me. We work; we train; we somehow exist from one day to the next without really chalking up much to show for it; we have college degrees; we're well educated and intelligent people; we love to compete; we love our sport; we're (generally) good people.
It's time we step up and take control. We're the show! We had tee shirts that athletes advisory got made a few years ago for the USATF annual meeting that said, “WE ARE USATF!” on the back. It's both true and incredibly distant from reality. That shirt would be more accurate if it read, “WE SHOULD BE USATF!” Reality is that we aren't. We control very little. Our former chair of AAC is banned for doping. How does HE represent ME? I couldn't have less in common with him. Those are our voices though. Stephanie Hightower can have a book written on her corruption. She's our IAAF representative. SHE doesn't represent ME. Our IAAF chairs are all under international investigations for corruption and bribery relating to doping payoffs. THEY don't represent ME.
I call on my fellow athletes to start discussions about how WE can change the business structure of our sport. We need to use our creativity, class, and business acumen to form a better business model for our sport. It's sick and needs a medication we have yet to completely formulate (though we've put pieces out there without much taking). I hate to say that band-aids don't work anymore for the problems our sport is facing. We just may need a complete restart, like in TAC's days ruling the sport. We have a decent template to start from coming from USATF and IAAF, but I have trouble feeling confident in their leadership or feeling that “this last fix” is going to ever be the one that “finally fixes the problem.”
Good luck to all of us trying to come up with the $2,000 (plus the $30 insult-to-injury "registration fee" to enter the trials race!) we need to to have that privilege of competing for a chance to represent America at the next Olympic. Train hard, promote your sponsors, and you too will retire on the brink of bankruptcy under the current structure if we do nothing.
