From Fred Baer, PAUSATF Media Committee Chair
USATF meeting update with Project 30 Task Force final recommendations finally in:
USATF’ s Project 30 Task Force on Monday (February 9, 2009) issued its final report, analyzing the Team USA Performance in Beijing and charting a future course for USATF. The task force had been formed in October of 2008 and solicited input at the annual meeting, especially from athletes.
Link to USATF summary.
Key findings of the Task Force include:
* Overall, there is a lack of accountability, professionalism and cohesion in the areas the Task Force studied.
* The International Team Staff selection system lacks transparency and accountability, creating a culture of mistrust for coaches and athletes alike.
* International staffs need more managers and fewer coaches.
* The criteria for selecting track and field's U.S. Olympic Team should not change, but the Olympic Trials themselves should.
* Excessive travel and poor long-term planning on the part of athletes, their coaches and agents appear to be the greatest controllable factors negatively affecting Team USA performance in Beijing.
* Spending more than $1 million in the last six years, and with as many as 173 athletes taking part in it each year, the National Relay Program has failed to produce results that justify the costs of the program.
* Lack of communication between coaches and athletes, poor management of the relay pools and questions over which coaches were responsible for relays resulted in the 4x100m relay failures in Beijing.
* American coaches and athletes under-utilize the facilities and USATF sport science available to them.
* Inroads have been made into catching and punishing doping cheats, but more must be done to strengthen the anti-doping culture.
* American athletes as a group do not conduct themselves as true professionals, and USATF does not hold them to professional standards.
Based on its findings, the Task Force makes the following 10 Recommendations:
* Hire a professional General Manager of High Performance.
* Create a transparent, criteria-based Team Staff selection system.
* Restructure the composition of Team USA staffs.
* Shorten the20U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Track & Field to five days.
* Terminate the National Relay Program.
* Establish a comprehensive 2012 team preparation program.
* Target technical events for medal growth and develop those events.
* Create a well-defined Professional Athlete designation.
* Establish a more stringent anti-doping reinstatement system.
* Promote and foster a self-sustaining professional athletes' union.
Notes:
The full text of the Project 30 Task Force report is available online. (pdf)
The task force conducted a press teleconference on Monday, which I participated in while at the Running USA Convention in La Jolla, which Doug Logan was also attending.
He said that the report was exactly what he was looking for.
I also had an opportunity for a follow-up meeting with Doug Logan.
He is now “soliciting input from the extended family that is USATF.”
Comments can also be added to his blog on the subject on the web site.
A digital audio replay of the one hour teleconference is available.
(I also have several pages of notes from the teleconference available.)
Regarding the 2012 Olympic Trials:
Since the 2012 Trials were “bid” as a 10-day event, USATF is not sure they can change the format to five days for 2012.
Also, a key to the 2012 team preparation program is the establishment of high performance training centers around the country. Aretha Hill Thurmond noted the demise of Tiger Bar Sports in Stockton, of which she was a member.
