This is really quite simple and has a simple solution. Officials, follow the rules!!!!

1. If you're an official and you see contact (or any other "possible infraction") raise your flag. Flags don't mean a DQ, they just mean officials need to discuss the incident.
2. If a DQ is handed out, a protest may be made.
3. If the protest isn't reversed you may protest to the Jury of appeals (ONLY if you have NEW evidence and if using video it is OFFICIAL video, and this is the last option, you can't protest the Jury of Appeals decision).

The rules work (nearly always) when followed.

Everything else can be debated: who's the nicest coach and who isn't, who's the nicrst athlete off the track, who's nice athletes off the track (ie don't use elbows, run up on others, push, etc), which shoe companies are global and socially responsible, etc.

watchout, on , said:

I see your concern, but upholding the DQ wouldn't really be a clear cut precedent for DQ'ing others. All it would do is set a precedent for how they're going to handle protests and appeals, which of course, is the major sticking point in all this drama.

Grunewald wasn't DQ'd by the race officials, so no precedent is set there.

Dan

The track and field world was thrown into major upheaval this weekend when Gabriele (Gabe) Grunewald was disqualified after winning the women's 3,000 meters at the U.S Indoor Track and Field Championships after making contact with both Jordan Hasay and Shannon Rowbury.
A protest was filed by Hasay's coach, Alberto Salazar, after the race and although initially rejected the protest resulted in a disqualification. Today the protest was withdrawn and Grunewald was reinstated.

Here are some other pieces of information that one might find relevant when looking at this situation from a larger perspective:

Grunewald has a history of very aggressive racing tactics. Here is some video footage of her in the 1500 at the 2011 Oxy High Performance meet. Watch between 2:20 and 2:35 in the video. Pay attention to the commentator's thoughts as well.

http://www.flotrack....11#.UwwOhM6tb3t

Please note that she was also disqualified (and again reinstated) during the 2012 Olympic Trials for similar reasons. In this weekend's race she appeared to be out of control in a couple of spots and ran up the back of other runners when she should have swung wide. As I said in my earlier post regarding this that we can all expect some bumping in track and field,especially indoors. Her competitors may want to take note in the future and her coaches may want to have a chat with her about how to handle herself better in races where there are large fields. I'd hate to see her get disqualified again in a major meet.

What separates the champions from the also rans is how one reacts. Billy Mills was bumped in the last lap of the 1964 Olympic 10,000 meter race,but that didn't stop him from unleashing a devastating kick to win the gold medal.
Lasse Viren tumbled to the track near the halfway point of the 10,000 meter race at the 1972 Munich Olympics yet got back up and went on to win the race and run a new world record.

In all of my experiences with Jordan Hasay she has shown that she is an athlete and person of the highest caliber. I have interviewed her for numerous media outlets and she is eloquent and a great ambassador for our sport and for Nike.
I will assure you (as I learned from a very reliable source) that filing the protest was NOT Jordan's idea. Her statement from her website speaks volumes about Jordan as a person:

“As with all of the competitors who lined up on Saturday, I desperately wanted to make the team to represent the United States at the upcoming World Indoor Track and Field Championships. Since Saturday evening my emotions have ranged from despair to determination to go to Poland and represent my country as best I can. After much thought and consideration, however, I have decided to withdraw my protest as I do not want to make a national team under these circumstances. I wish all members of the USA team going to Poland my best and look forward to continuing to train hard and competing to represent the USA in future World Championship and Olympic Games.”

As for Alberto Salazar, his behavior was questionable at best. As coaches we are passionate individuals and we will go to the ends of the Earth to fight for the rights of our athletes.There are two sides to every story here, but some of the conspiracy theories that I've heard are ridiculous. Folks are making it sound like Alberto went into a room where the judging committee was with a briefcase full of money and got the decision overturned. That's simply not what happened. Maybe he watched the video with them again and pointed out something that made them change their mind. Maybe he brought up the wording out of the rule book and pointed out a valid point. The fact is that I wasn't there, and neither were you. 3 adults at USATF made a decision and if you want to be mad about that decision they're probably the people to ask about it.

It would be my guess that Alberto strongly regrets some things that he may have said this weekend. He has people to answer to. Guys like Mark Parker and John Capriotti at Nike. Guys like Phil Knight. Although he may be 76 years old today,I can assure you that Phil Knight is VERY aware of what took place this weekend. It reflects poorly upon the company that he founded. No one wants to see that. Salazar will have to answer to his boss,just like the rest of us.

Next, the finger points at USA Track and Field, the governing body of our sport. There are rumors of coercion and bullying by Nike to change the rules in their favor. In this case it should also be pointed out that Andrew Bumbalough, another Nike athlete, was disqualified in the men's 3,000 meter race in the same meet as Grunewald, also for supposedly impeding other runners.
What we need to see are clarity, consistency, fairness and transparency in the rules. They need to apply to everyone equally. There needs to be a standard and clearly defined appeals process and once a decision is made it should be final. We can only hope that the decision is made correctly the first time.

There are committees in our sport that are working hard and taking action to fight for changes in our sport. The Track and Field Athletes Association is one of those groups. You can read their take on the situation here:
http://trackandfield...iele-grunewald/

Finally, one looks at Nike. A lot of people have made disparaging remarks about the footwear giant and their part in this. I've even seen shop owners comment that they are going to quit ordering Nike merchandise and that some folks have said that they will boycott Nike products based on this weekend's events.
When will these people consider what Nike does and has done for our sport? I look at all of the Nike sponsored training groups that started with Athletics West in the '80s to OTC Elite, The Oregon Project and the Schumacher group. I look around and notice the free jackets and footwear that Nike gave to the volunteers and officials at the 2012 Olympic Track and Field Trials. I look at meets and races that they put money in to across the USA and around the world to promote our sport.

There are those who have their heads in the sand who still believe that Nike shoes are made in Asian sweatshops. At one time that may have well been the case. Just about every shoe company out there was doing it but of course Nike got singled out because they were the biggest. They've made drastic changes and invested a lot of time and money to correct those things and you can read about that here:

http://nikeinc.com/p.../responsibility

What it boils down to is that they're guys who make shoes and want to see people run faster and jump higher. They want to see that next world record or that 360 dunk in the next NBA game just like we do. They put more money in to our sport than anyone else by a long way and I don't think that they should be made to be the villains here. One of their employees made some poor decisions this weekend, but that shouldn't affect where you're going to buy your next pair of running shoes.

The events of this weekend left a bad taste in my mouth. It affected the purity of my sport and that pisses me off. After all, what's more pure than when we were kids running barefoot across the grass with the wind rushing across our face? Pure unbridled joy. That's where it started and that's where it should still be today.

dkap, on , said:

She runs for Brooks/Team USA MN

I'm not going to touch the Nike influence bit, but I will say this:

There was contact (twice). So if you go by very strict interpretation of the rules, I can certainly understand how she would be DQ'd. However, the contact wasn't too significant (yes, it altered Hasay's stride slightly, but she was already out of it and it could certainly be argued the contact was IN PART due to her as well). What I saw was a runner staying on the inside going into a turn, and the athlete ahead of her unexpectedly slowing down (no malice intended, she just hit the wall) and the following athlete not realizing in time to move to the outside or slow down in response. That's not a big issue IMO, it happens in races all the time, and the contact didn't effect in any way the finish. Both athletes shared in causing the incident, and nothing was changed due to the incident, so it's not a DQ I would make - though it is understandable, but unfortunate IMO, that the DQ was the eventual result. However, I do think that IF the USATF is going to DQ Grunewald for contact like that, they should be issuing a LOT more DQ's in the rest of their races, just to stay consistent with the precedence they just set. I wouldn't be surprised if that ended up in a quarter of the field being DQ'd in many races. - but if you're going to establish a precedence, you had better stick by it, as unfortunate as it may be for US Track (since these DQ's would never happen in Europe, where the bulk of the premier races are held).



All that said... since Hasay withdrew her protest, Gabe was reinstated as the champion. Classy move on her part, kudos to Miss Hasay. USATF's decision and handling of the situation is still questionable, but at least the end result is a good one.

dkap, on , said:

Sure some people are viewing this as NOP vs. The other programs (be it Brooks or Schumacher or anyone else) but I'm more interested in how the USATF screwed up.

I agree with the USATF needing to clean up the process. This whole thing is a smudge on their reputation IMO. I won't get into Salazar because we don't know what really went down. But we do know USATF didn't follow it's own rules.

On a side note IDK you could drop a protest after it's already been ruled upon. You learn something new everyday.

Jordan Hasay has withdrawn her protest: http://jordanhasay.c...-championships/

I'm thankful for Jordan's classy response to a difficult situtation. The process still needs to be corrected by USATF.

From today's more detailed accounts, it looks like I read it wrong about their being only one denied appeal. There was an officials meeting, then an appeal denial and Jury of Appeals separately. Not terribly significant in the grand scheme of things, either way, though.

To those vilifying Nike's role (whatever it may have been) in the matter, consider the uproar if the situation were reversed. Namely, a Nike athlete recklessly running into two non-Nike athletes and USATF denying the fairly obviously justified protest against a Nike athlete.

To be honest, I'm not even sure who Grunewald's sponsor is. To me, that has absolutely nothing to do with the rules issue. Obviously, many people feel differently and are bringing a lot of prejudices to the table. Some of the journalistic coverage is truly shameful.

Dan

I've watched the video over and over, and I agree with the official's judgement. She came up behind Hasay, no one else in the vicinity, and she got a step inside her and tried to force he way on the inside. She tripped up Hasay. OK. Some will call that incidental contact. BUT, as she went by Hasay on the outside, ran the corner, caught the leader, she did it again. No contact with the leader, maybe she learned something 50 meters back. But she almost collided with the leader, also expecting her to move over and let her by. She actually jumped across her back to avoid hitting her, and went on to win the race. Now wouldn't it have been so much easier to just blow by them on the outside and accomplish the same end? That behavior comes from someone who is pushy, and maybe a bit of a "bully" on the track. And she has spouted off at the mouth about both IAAF and USATF. Really kind of expects to get her way all the time. This was just a lesson in manners!

I think the decision was wrong. Yes there was contact, but it was incidental and unintentional, and I don't think it's clear who was at fault. But I can see where reasonable people would disagree on that.

But the process and communication, or lack thereof, is shameful for a national governing body. Did Nike and Salazar's camp unfairly influence the outcome? Maybe, (I think probably so), but the officials and the governing body have the responsibility to make sure things are fair and procedures are followed.

To me, the final decision was the correct one. You can't run right up someone's back and try to pass on the inside on the curve and not expect to be DQ'd. That might as well be intentional contact.

My reading of the various accounts makes me think only one actual protest was denied, not two. The first one was supposedly by the official on the track who did not make the call originally. That person wouldn't actually field a formal protest, would they? The more interesting question is why the official protest was then denied by the Jury of Appeals. What did they not see that looked pretty clear [to me] in the video? A lot of people are crying foul about Nike's influence on USATF, but whatever led to the reversal was a matter of "the ends justify the means."

Dan

All I can say is as an athlete and coach (and also a fan) I have been part of protests both go for and against me, it's part of track (and life). I just don't understand the 2nd protest and the reversal of the decision. Also lack of communication is terrible. If something like this happened in a "major" sport the officials would explain it publicly. It sure looks like Nike flexing it's muscle to me. Regarding the contact: there was contact. I haven't gone back to watch it again. But it's INDOOR track, so more contact than even oitdoor. There was contact in other races too (didn't a Schumacher Nike runner cut off Rupp if I'm not mistaken?).