May 2020

Track and Field Contents Writers of P. 1 President’s Message America P. 3 TAFWA Website Update P. 3 Five FBS Conferences, Including AAC and C-USA. Ask NCAA to Relax Division I Requirements (Founded June 7, 1973) P. 4 Hilmer Lodge Stadium at Mt. San Antonio College | Washington & Washington State Dual PRESIDENT P. 5 News Links Jack Pfeifer P. 6 Suspension of Olympic Qualification Gets Cool Reception 2199 NW Everett St. #601 P. 7 Like a ‘70s Disco Classic, and (and others) Appear to Just Keep on Dopin’ Portland, Oregon 97210 Office/home: 917-579- P. 9 America’s Best Runners’ Bar is Closing 5392. Email: P. 10 For New Jersey Track & Field Godfather, a 74-year Penn Relays Streak Gets Placed on Hold [email protected] P. 11 Coogan’s Letter P. 12 An Elegy for an Old Friend: Coogan’s SECRETARY- TREASURER P. 16 Mary Cain and Nick Willis Join Tracksmith Tom Casacky P. 17 Catching Up With ... P.O. Box 4288 P. 17 Revised Wanda Schedule Announced for 2020 Napa, CA 94558 P. 18 NCAA Stonewalls Calls for Universities to Sponsor Less (Olympic) Phone: 818-321-3234 Email: [email protected] P. 20 Olympic Qualification Period Suspended Until 1 December 2020 P. 21 Catching Up With ... | News Link FAST P. 22 News Links Dave Johnson P. 23 When You Disassemble Max Siegel’s $4.2 Million Comp Reported for 2018, It All Comes Back to Nike & USATF Email: [email protected] P. 24 News Link Phone: 215-898-6145 P. 25 Voice of New England P. 27 Lawsuit Claims Former USOPC Chief Executive Misled Donor Over Funding for US Center for SafeSport WEBMASTER P. 28 News Links Michael McLaughlin Email: P. 29 Back In the Day: Penn Relays Streak Holds Fond Memories [email protected] P. 30 ’s Says the Games “Must Reinvent Themselves” Phone: 815-529-8454 P. 32 You Relays (Really) Got a Hold On Me P. 36 2020 Fixtures List NEWSLETTER EDITOR Shawn Price Email: [email protected] President’s Message Phone: 979-661-0731 For a year with no track meets, there’s been a lot of activity. By our reckoning, it’s the first spring with- out track meets in the States for at least 150 years. That’s saying something. There were of course cancellations for both world wars, but the Penn Relays, which began 125 years ago, had never been forced to cancel before this. That said, both Penn and Drake are still holding out hope for a possible event later this year, possibly in the Fall. The same is true for the US Nationals and the Prefontaine Classic, which reportedly are looking at possible dates in late September or early October, if conditions brought about by the coronavirus permit it. Other Diamond League events, in Europe and Asia, are scrambling to reschedule, still hoping to stage meets later in the summer. For the USATF meet, Mt. SAC in LA has been mentioned as a possible site. Their new Hilmer Lodge Stadium is finished and ready to host a meet for the first time in years. In Eugene, where Prefontaine would be held, is getting closer to completion. A dry run was held last week on both the sound and lighting systems. For the Prefontaine meet to be held, the campus would have to open to the student body. It is not known yet when that might take place, though the State of Oregon has begun a step-by-step reopening. Virtual events “Virtual” road has begun as hundreds of such actual races – from 5k’s to marathons to ultras – have had to shut down. These are business ventures, so the event owners are in jeopardy without substitute activities. In New England, the meet promoter John Mor- timer has set up a “virtual” 5K on a private course where runners can pick up a chip for $10, then run and submit their time. Hundreds have signed up. Even the venerable Dipsea, which began in Marin County in 1905, has cancelled this year’s race, for the first time since the end of World War II 75 years ago. Some of the world’s leading pole vaulters found a way to have a Vaulting Challenge in their backyards, first the men, then the women. Thousands watched online, counting the clearances. There was a tie in the men’s division – what happened to the Countback Rule?? Olympic Games As everyone knows, the Summer Olympics have been put off a year. The IOC hopes to hold the Games in Tokyo in the summer of 2021. It would be the first time there has been a 5-year gap between Games, testimony to the extreme measures organizers are willing to take to keep from canceling this Olympiad. In line with that, there was a big ripple effect in Eugene. The Olympic Trials were pushed back a year, to June 2021, and the World Championships a year, to July 2022. If the Games still cannot be held in 2021, the Tokyo Games will be lost. Meantime, there are rumblings in Paris, the scheduled host in 2024. As for 2021, it is our understanding that the NCAA Championships are likely to be held in Eugene. This would mean that Texas/Aus- tin, which was in line to host again this spring, will not host a second year after all. Because of financial pressure, proposals are on the table to tighten the 2020-21 season, in all sports. It is not clear, for example, if the lucrative football season will be played at all, or begin on time, or have fans in the stands. Schools are expected to severely limit the use of air travel for travel to sports events in the coming school year. This could cause the cancellation or shrinking or some events, and make some events more local or regional than they have been. As for the spring championship season, discussions are under way to eliminate the 2021 Outdoor Regional meets, on a one-year trial basis, and as a result move the NCAA Championships earlier on the calendar. In Eugene, this would have a substantial ripple effect, as the current May 2021 schedule at Hayward Field tentatively includes the Pac-12 meet, the Oregon state high school championships, and Prefontaine. Where would the NCAA meet fit? One possibility would be to swap weekends with the Pre meet. Either way, there is not much time between the conclusion of next year’s NCAA meet and the scheduled beginning of the Olympic Trials Friday June 18. TAFWA That’s a good segue. TAFWA’s next event, postponed from this year, will be the 2021 Awards Breakfast. It will be Friday morning, June 25, at Gerlinger Hall, on the Oregon campus, on the final weekend of the Trials. Please mark this on your calendar. If you have not paid your $30 dues for this year, please do so by Paypal or check to Treasurer Tom Casacky. Preps All levels of the have of course been hammered – Open, college, high school, masters. Half a dozen top high school milers found an answer over the weekend, however, by running a race head-to-head on a high school track near Sacramento. It was broadcast live on the web, and sure enough, one young man broke 4:00, a remarkable accomplishment given the severe lack of training and competitive opportunities. (Yes, the race was autotimed.) In a business development, New Balance announced that it had ended its sponsorship of the national high school indoor and outdoor championship meets put on by the National Scholastic Athletics Foundation. The NSAF is attempting to have an alternative “virtual” championships online this summer. Next winter, New Balance has announced that it will stage its own version of the Indoor Nationals; that meet is expected to move to the company’s new indoor facility when its opens in Boston in 2022. Departures It’s happened so fast, it’s hard to keep up, but we would be remiss in not mentioning the retirement of one of TAFWA’s best friends and allies in the coaching ranks, Norm Ogilvie – a former TV guy as well – after 30 years at Duke University, and the reluctant closure of the best track bar in the world, Coogan’s, around the corner from The Armory in Washington Heights in New York. One of that restau- rant’s owners and founders, Peter Walsh, thankfully continues as TAFWA’s book guru. HIGH SCHOOL TRACK 1940 Jack Shepard, boys HS editor for Track & Field News and editor/publisher of the High School Track series (since 1980), along with Bob Jarvis, FAST Award winning statistician, have spent decades gathering data to continue High School Track back into the pre-1950s. The first of this historic series covers the year 1940. The booklet contains 30-deep yearly lists, with meet/site/date, along with the then HS records and 10-deep all- time lists. [26 8½” x 11” pages]

Send a check or money order for $20, made payable to Jack Shepard, 14551 Southfield Dr., Westminster, CA 92683. Postage is included in the price for North America. Add $2 for foreign TAFWA Membership Dues for 2020 TAFWA dues for 2020 will remain at $30, and will buy you a series of excellent newsletters, the 2020 FAST Annual, and privileged entry to special TAFWA social events at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene (our yearly breakfast with athletes and coaches). Don’t miss out! You can send a check, payable to TAFWA, to PO Box 4288, Napa, CA 94558, or use PayPal, to the ad- dress [email protected]. TAFWA Newsletter - Page 2 - May 2020 TAFWA Website Update Have you checked out the T.A.F.W.A. website recently ? The website has recently been relaunched with a more streamlined design, using the latest website applica- tions, which includes a more simplified security arrangement for members to access the protected content.

With this relaunch, new content has been added, and some more is on its way !

As with all websites, it is always a work in progress.

We would also like to publicize any member publications that they might have for sale. So, if you have pro- duced or co-produced, a book on track and field, please send the details, along with an image of the cover to our Web-Master for inclusion on the website.

Note: If you try to logon to the website and your Password (or Email) isn’t accepted, you can request that it be reset. But! The link to change your Password will be sent to the email address that is associated with your account within the website. So, if you have changed email accounts since you last accessed the website then you won’t get that link. In this case please shoot our Web-Master Michael an email with your current email address and that will be changed, and you will then be able to access the website.

Comments on and suggestions for the website are always welcome. Five FBS conferences, including AAC and C-USA, ask NCAA to relax Division I requirements https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/29037022/five-fbs-conferences-including-aac-c-usa-ask-ncaa-relax- division-requirements Five major football conference commissioners have asked football over a rolling two-year period. the NCAA to relax requirements to compete in Division I Once every two years on a rolling basis, average at least for four years, including the minimum number of sports a 15,000 in actual or paid attendance for all home football school must sponsor. games. This requirement applies only to FBS schools. A letter from the commissioners of the American Athletic Play minimum numbers of total games and home games Conference, Mountain West Conference, Mid-American in sports such as baseball, football and basketball and mini- Conference, Sun Belt Conference and Conference USA to mum percentage of games against Division I or FBS compe- NCAA president Mark Emmert asked for temporary relief tition in various sports. from financial aid requirements, along with average football The NCAA and its schools have taken a huge financial hit attendance. The request was made on behalf of all 350 Divi- with the cancellation of the men’s basketball tournament sion I schools. The commissioners also asked that a mora- in March. That cost schools a total of $375 million in NCAA torium be placed on schools moving into Division I for the distributions. More hard times appear to be on the hori- length of the waiver. zon, especially for schools outside the Power 5 conferences The email, dated April 10, was first reported by Yahoo that can’t fall back on billion-dollar, television-rights deals Sports and obtained Tuesday by ESPN. focused on football. “As you are aware, the COVID-19 pandemic and resultant “Among the financial challenges being faced include sig- economic turmoil has resulted in the direst financial crisis nificant decreases in state appropriations, substantial losses for higher education since at least the Great Depression,” in endowment value, and a downturn in philanthropic activ- the commissioners wrote. ity,’’ the commissioners wrote. “An already trying environ- MAC commissioner Jon Steinbrecher said the request ment for enrollment is expected to see even more sizeable was to “build flexibility into the decision-making process’’ reductions, not to mention the continuing trend in deep schools will be facing. reductions in the enrollment of international students. The letter came to light the same day as the University of Finally, all of this is playing out with no ability to predict Cincinnati of the AAC announced it was dropping its men’s when normal operations might resume.’’ soccer program to cut costs. Earlier this month, Old Domin- Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson said this ion, of C-USA, cut its wrestling program. is not being done with the intention of eliminating sports NCAA rules require Division I schools to sponsor at least programs. He said the request is about providing schools 16 varsity sports. The commissioners also requested lifting with the ability to find flexible and creative solutions. rules that required schools: “How can we maintain the sports that we have but not Offer a minimum of 200 athletic grants-in-aid per year or fund or spend what we have spent in the past?’’ Thompson spend at least $4 million in grants-in-aid on athletes, and said. provide 90% of the permissible maximum grants-in-aid in TAFWA Newsletter - Page 3 - May 2020 The rebuilt Hilmer Lodge Stadium at Mt. San Antonio College in suburban Los Angeles has been completed and is ready for use. The home for many years of the famous Mt. SAC Invitational, the stadium had originally been selected to be the site for the 2020 Olympic Trials, but construction delays pushed the governing body to rescind that decision and move the Trials to Eugene, Ore. Now those Trials have been delayed a year, and Oregon’s own rebuilt Hayward Field remains still under construction.

The Athletes From Washington And Washington State Talk About The Dual https://paulmerca.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-conversation-with-athletes-from.html TAFWA Newsletter - Page 4 - May 2020 Tokyo 2020 President claims Games would be “scrapped” if not held in 2021 https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1093670/mori-claims-games-will-be-scrapped

Paris 2024 Olympics plans ‘obsolete’ - IOC member Drut https://www.france24.com/en/20200426-paris-2024-olympics-plans-obsolete-ioc-member-drut

NCAA Bans Virtual Workouts Moving Forward https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/sports/2020/04/14/ncaa-bans-virtual-workouts-moving-forward

Wichita State seeking to tear down Cessna Stadium https://www.hdnews.net/sports/20200415/wichita-state-seeking-to-tear-down-cessna-stadium

A longtime TAFWA member, Don Steffens, has been Voice of the Kansas state meet at Wichita State for many years.

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 5 - May 2020 Endorsement Contracts Provide Critical Athlete Support During COVID-19 Crisis https://www.runnerspace.com/eprofile.php?event_id=6718&do=news&news_id=602177

Suspension of Olympic qualification gets cool reception (Reuters) - The decision by the governing body of athletics to suspend Olympic qualification until December due to the coronavirus outbreak has received a cool reception from some Tokyo hopefuls. announced on Tuesday that qualification for the Tokyo Olympics, which will now take place in July and August next year, would restart on Dec. 1, subject to the global situation returning to normal. [nL8N2BV6S6] “Pretty disappointed about this decision,” former Olympic silver medallist posted on Twitter. “Even if COVID-19 clears up in some countries and it’s safe to compete, (it) takes away a major motivation to run fast this year. “I understand freezing the world rankings but I feel achieving the Olympic Standard should still be on the table.” Measures to control the coronavirus have forced many athletes into self-isolation, while most major meets and mara- thons in the first half of the year have been postponed. [nL5N2BW10W] Athletes need to reach certain qualifying marks to be available for selection for the Olympics by their national federa- tions. The qualifying period started in 2019 and, after the suspension, will continue until the end of May for the marathon and 50 kilometre race walk, and June next year for all other events. Jamaican middle-distance runner Aisha Praught-Leer thought the decision was premature and would affect the ability of athletes to earn sponsorship by achieving Olympic qualifying times (QT’s). “Running for QT’s was the last modicum of hope many could cling to in 2020,” she posted on Twitter. “Most don’t make money. Most are doing everything they can to have a shot. Why make a blanket statement when we don’t know what the future holds and remove the only lasting power an athlete has in 2020?” Christian Taylor, twice Olympic champion, welcomed the fact that the Athletes Commission of World Athlet- ics had been consulted over the decision but thought wider opinion should have been solicited. “I am very disappointed that the larger athletics body was not spoken to when making this decision,” the American posted on Twitter. “We need greater dialogue. We need transparency. We need follow through.”

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 6 - May 2020 Like a ‘70s disco classic, Kenya and Russia (and others) appear to just keep on dopin’ By Rich Perelman | http://www.thesportsexaminer.com/ lane-one-like-a-70s-disco-classic-kenya-and-russia-and-others- appear-to-just-keep-on-dopin/? With the coronavirus keeping everyone apart these days, it seems impossible that – at one time – the most popular dance in America was The Bump, extolled by groups such as The Kay-Gees with their 1974 smash, Keep on Bumpin’.

The dance, the style, the bell bottoms are all long gone, but the tune could be re-recorded for track & field meets in Kenya and elsewhere under a new title, Keep on Dopin’. from participating in the 2020 Tokyo Games:

While the postponement of the Tokyo Olympic Games “A correct and fair sanction handed to Thailand and Ma- to 2021 and the resulting fallout has been all the news for laysia, the @iwfnet policy of national sanctions for multiple the past month, the parade of doping penalties for Kenyan offences is tough but fair and reasonable especially with athletes announced by the Athletics Integrity Unit has con- independent panel. I point out in our sport, Kenya’s long tinued without end. So far this year alone: issues in Athletics would have been sanctioned.”

Jan 10: Wilson Kipsang: whereabouts failure Further, TheGuardian.com (GBR) reported on a Leeds Jan 14: Alfred Kipketer: whereabouts failure Beckett study of 301 athletes and 154 coaches, in Great Feb 14: Peter Kwemoi: doping Britain and the U.S., that found potential whistleblowers Feb 25: Kenneth Kipkemoi: doping not sure of where to turn to report possible infractions. Mar 18: Mercy Jerotich Kibarus: doping Mar 27: Vincent Yator: doping Said lead researcher Dr. Kelsey Erickson (GBR): “In recent Apr 10: Daniel Wanjiru: doping years we have seen a huge increase in the number of report- ing mechanisms available for athletes and coaches to blow That’s seven cases in 3 1/2 months – all distance runners the whistle,. Yet while we found they often want to come – not to mention two provisional suspensions and 14 deci- forward, they often don’t know who to voice their concerns sions – 16 total – against Kenyan distance athletes in 2019. to, and they don’t necessarily trust action will be taken.” And these are not minor players. The weightlifting policy against doping (2019 edition) Already suspended are Asbel Kiprop, the 2008 Olym- includes penalties against those committing doping viola- pic 1,500 m champ; Sarah Chepchirchir, the 2017 Tokyo tions, but also against member federations. Three or more Marathon winner and Jemima Sumgong, the 2016 Olym- violations of the anti-doping policy “by Athletes or other pic marathon gold medalist. In this year’s class are former Persons affiliated to the Member Federations” within a world marathon record holder Kipsang, 2018 Rotterdam calendar year requires payment of a fine and the IWF’s In- Marathon winner Kipkemoi and Wanjiru, the 2017 dependent Disciplinary Panel may “impose a Suspension on Marathon winner. the Member Federation of a period of up to (4) years.”

In all, there are 57 Kenyans listed on the AIU’s “Global Further: List of Ineligible Persons” as of 30 March 2020 – you can add Wanjiru to bring the total to 58 – but they are hardly “If any Member Federation or its affiliated Athletes, other the worst offender. Russia leads the pack with 91, of course: Persons or officials, by reason of conduct connected or asso- ciated with doping or anti-doping rule violations, brings the (1) 91, Russia sport of weightlifting into disrepute, the Independent Panel (2) 57, Kenya shall impose any penalty upon the Member Federation that (3) 48, India it considers just and proper in all the circumstances.” (4) 34, (5) 33, This includes bans of up to four years as well, plus fines. (6) 32, China (7) 29, Isn’t it time that more federations start looking at these (8) 26, kinds of tiered sanctions programs for anti-doping viola- tions? This puts pressure not just on the individual athlete The U.S. has 17 persons listed, including two coaches. to comply with the anti-doping regulations, but holds every athlete – and coach, agent, trainer and physician – respon- USA Weightlifting chief executive Phil Andrews (GBR) sible to all other athletes in their country not to be part of a contrasted the sanctions protocol for weightlifting and track doping regime that could get the federation banned. & field on Twitter back on 4 April after the International Weightlifting Federation banned Malaysia and Thailand Weightlifting’s situation is extreme and the sport was TAFWA Newsletter - Page 7 - May 2020 very nearly eliminated from the Paris 2024 Games because qualified for violating the anti-doping rules after November of its ridiculous doping history. But should individual sports 19, 2015.” like track and swimming be looking to reduce the number of qualifiers for Olympic or World Championships events if But last Thursday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport “up- the number of sanctions is above a certain level, either in a held an appeal from the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RU- specific year, or on a rolling average of, say, the three prior SADA) and issued a four-year suspension against Russian years? track and field coach Andrei Yeremenko for his attempt to bribe a doping-control officer in 2017.” Yeremenko tried to Yes. get officials at the Russian national championships to allow 100 m hurdler Yulia Maluyeva to skip her post-event doping World Athletics (formerly the IAAF) has already taken test because “she was ill” and apparently offered a bribe. a tough stance against Russia, essentially eliminating the country from competing in the 2016 Rio Games and then And Russia is still squirming to get out from under harsh allowing only a carefully-vetted group of athletes to com- penalties – four years of sanctions – handed out by the pete in its World Championships since then – 19 in 2017 World Anti-Doping Agency, at the Court of Arbitration for and 29 in 2019 – owing to its egregious doping program Sport, with hearings possibly to be held in July. But on 10 from 2011-15 that is still yielding sanctions today. April, new Russian sports minister Oleg Matytsin asked “we’re living in completely different conditions and this cri- But then the Russian federation tried to cover up a sis which has been created, including the crisis in relation- whereabouts violation for 2018 World Indoor Champion ships, should probably come to an end, turn a new page and Danil Lysenko and the reinstatement process came to an understand that the main thing right now is to be together.” abrupt end. In fact, the World Athletics Council issued a report in March noting that even these suspensions “have He offered to host events in Russia that have had to be apparently been insufficient to prompt the required change abandoned elsewhere, and asked for “respect for the rights in culture and behaviour in Russian athletics.” of the countries which are among the main actors on the international arena. Russia has always been, is and will So now the number of Russian athletes who can be remain that sort of partner.” entered in the Tokyo Games is limited to 10, assuming they pass whatever new criteria the World Athletics Doping The answer to this has to be no, and WADA’s authority Review Board comes up with. to hand out such sanctions must be confirmed in order for its credibility as a deterrent force to be maintained. In this For Russia’s part, a new set of senior officials at the light, WADA asked for the hearings on the Russian sanc- federation has apologized for past transgressions – a first tions to be public, but it was the Russians who said no. for RusAF – and promises to do better in the future. An important part of that is a national educational program In track & field at least, the Athletics Integrity Unit has against doping and a strict separation from those with past been pushing hard and the list of those on suspension is violations. On 5 April, a TASS story explained: publicly available, in detail. It’s now time to put every na- tional federation – in every sport – on the scoreboard to see “Under the criteria, candidates to Russian track and field if they can continue competing, or if their participation has teams cannot be athletes who have violated anti-doping to be reduced due to doping. rules after November 18, 2015, with the exception of those [already] suspended for life. A team cannot admit an athlete Otherwise, it’s time for find Ronald Bell from The Kay- suspected of anti-doping violations or under investigation. Gees, author of “Keep on Bumpin’” and commission a revi- A candidate cannot work with a coach who has been dis- sion for a new decade of doping.

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 8 - May 2020 America’s Best Runners’ Bar Is Closing Coogan’s was in business for 35 years but fell victim to the coronavirus pandemic By Martin Fritz Huber | Outside | https://www.outsideonline.com/2412134/coogans-runners-bar-closing-coronavirus On Tuesday morning, Coogan’s, an Irish pub in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City that has long touted itself as “America’s #1 Runners Restaurant,” announced that it would be closing. Even in a city where, in the best of times, every other week seems to bring news of somebody’s favorite haunt shutting down, this one hurts. “We were a place to leave behind the burdens of everyday life and, more often than not, inherit new ones when we volun- teered to help a neighbor in need, a kid in search of himself, or a stranger down on his luck,” the owners wrote in a goodbye letter. “We were a place to find out you weren’t alone, but if you wanted to be, your space was sacred.” The writing was already on the wall in mid-March, when the bar was forced to lay off its entire staff and close down indefinitely as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Unlike other establishments that are now attempting to survive by going all-in on delivery, Coogan’s whole business model was predicated on selling booze. The bar opened in 1985, and is very much a product of the pre-UberEats economy. As co-owner Peter Walsh put it to me, “We were never set for take-out. In the ol’ days delivery, people would be robbed.” Nonetheless, at first there was reason to be cautiously optimistic that Coogan’s might be able to weather the storm. New York-Presbyterian Hospital, which owns the building, had agreed to a temporary rent freeze. What’s more, over the last three decades, Coogan’s had acquired a ferociously loyal clientele. This was a public house in the truest sense—the kind of establishment that is increasingly rare in American life. The restaurant hosted children’s parties. The bar was open until 4 A.M. every night of the week. In the end, however, the cost of multiple insurance policies and a hundred other smaller bills proved too much for a busi- ness that was already operating on razor-thin margins. “Our accountant looked at the numbers and said: ‘Guys, you’re bleeding and you have no more blood,’” Walsh told me. The bar had very nearly closed in 2018, when New York-Presbyterian wanted to raise the monthly rent by $40,000. Back then, the neighborhood rallied and the hospital caved. But a pandemic can’t be swayed by public opinion. Thanks in part to sharing a city block with the Armory—the country’s premier venue for indoor track, and the home of the National Track and Field Hall of Fame—Coogan’s had long been a cherished post-race destination for runners at every level. The bar would host an annual after-party for the Millrose Games, the Armory’s flagship meet, providing an opportu- nity for some of the world’s finest middle distance runners to drink too much beer and sing karaoke. A number of former Millrose champs like Ajee Wilson and were immortalized on the dessert menu. The walls were adorned with track and field paraphernalia; in one room, there was a framed copy of every single issue of Sports Illustrated with a track athlete on its cover. Coogan’s contribution to the sport extended out into the streets of Washington Heights. In 1998, the bar started a local 5K race as an act of community outreach in what was then one of New York’s more violent neighborhoods. TAFWA Newsletter - Page 9 - May 2020 “At the beginning, what we were trying to do was create a bond and get people to trust each other,” Walsh says. “We wanted the police to understand our neighborhood—and it worked. Cops on their day off would volunteer to come in to put medals on kids. There was an incredible beauty in watching that race grow. You don’t need 50 million dollars to start a social pro- gram.” I lived in Inwood, the neighborhood that borders Washington Heights to the north, for two years when I was a graduate student, from 2008 to 2010. It was around that time that I started getting back into running, after a near decade-long hiatus. Coogan’s “Salsa, Blues & Shamrocks 5K” was the first race I ran to mark my glorious comeback. I figured I was in shape to run around 17 minutes—which was good enough to get on the podium in some of the rinky-dink races that I’d run in my hometown of Vienna, . I ended up running 17:44—which was good enough for 131st place at Coogan’s. That was my introduction to the New York City running scene. I’ve since moved to a Brooklyn neighborhood that’s about an hour from Coogan’s by subway. But I’d still occasionally stop by; in winter, my running club does Tuesday night interval workouts at the Armory, and I made a point of getting dinner and a beer at Coogan’s afterwards. The food was unpretentious, and substantially better than your typical pub fare. Most of the time, I went alone, motivated by a somewhat romanticized idea of checking in on my favorite uptown spot, even though this was mildly preposterous. I lived far away and was only there a couple times a year. But Coogan’s was that kind of place—one that inspired devotion from strangers. Its closing signifies a sad loss for the city of New York and for the greater running community. Needless to say, it is only one of thousands of businesses that will likely succumb to the coronavirus tidal wave. In a way, the timing was fortuitous. Walsh is in his 70s, and ready to call it a career. And yet, it’s hard not to mourn the decline of an establishment that stood as a local bulwark against the forces of social atomization. No, they didn’t really do delivery. Of course they didn’t. It was a damn bar. “I’m going to miss the heck out of Washington Heights,” Walsh told me. “And I’m going to miss the heck out of being the best track bar in the country. I mean, we had the Olympians, but we also had the high school kids. We had ‘em all.”

For New Jersey track & field godfather, a 74-year Penn Relays streak gets placed on hold https://www.app.com/story/sports/high-school/track/2020/04/23/penn-relays-coronavirus/5143367002/

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 10 - May 2020 TAFWA Newsletter - Page 11 - May 2020 An Elegy for an Old Friend: Coogan’s By Arlene Schulman | https://medium.com/@arleneschulman_915/an-elegy-for-an- old-friend-coogans-f4ec2da115ae “There are no strangers here. Only friends you haven’t met yet.” William Butler Yeats When Coogan’s opened its doors in 1985, its first customer, or maybe its second, wandered in, took a look around, and never left. Its unpretentious wooden tables and wallpaper of photo- graphs of politicians, police officers, actors, and neighborhood locals; a stalwart menu of Irish fare including French crepes, matzoh ball soup, and the world’s smallest sundae named after Olympic champion runner Eamonn Coughlin who was tall and fast; and three genial owners who, in the grand Irish tradition of never having met a stranger, welcomed him into their household, and he was home. Whether Steve Simon was the first or second customer has been debated for 35 years and will be debated for many more to come. But one thing is certain: he was their final customer, arriving on March 16, 2020 in time to beat the 8 pm citywide man- dated restaurant closing, and ate the last supper before the coronavirus ended Coogan’s’ illustrious run. Steve, who knows his way around punctuation and often proofread the menus, dined at Coogan’s as often as five times a week, hanging his coat and hat like a familiar uncle arriving regularly for dinner and sat down, his portfolio of papers and news clippings placed on a nearby chair, and for his last meal, ordered the chicken piccata with penne and vegetables chased by a Corona Light. He excused himself to wash his hands, looked around the dining room, and wandered to the bar as was his ritual, to greet a friend or acquaintance or stranger who was having a beer or dining with friends. He almost always knew someone. Steve would be summoned back to his entrée and always jokes that he put the owner’s kids through college. After some 3,000 meals, he estimates, there may be some truth to this. Coogan’s story begins in 1985 in Washington Heights in a New York City community overwhelmed by gunfire, drugs, riots, and homicides, and ended with a city overcome by the coronavirus. The owners — the straightforward and approach- able Dave Hunt who kept bartenders and servers on point, twiddled his thumbs when he sat across from you at the table, and hadn’t had a drink in 35 years; Peter Walsh, a poet at heart with a soulful singing voice who collected Irish literature; and the more reserved Tess McDade, who handled catering orders, managed the business, and ceded the front of the house to her two garrulous partners — prove how much a business flourishes based on the personality of its owners. This trio loved Coogan’s and its custom- ers from one eccentricity to another. We all knew that. It’s impossible to say who mourns the other more. “Are we perfect?” Dave asked me during one of our many practical conversations about running a restaurant. “Of course not. We strive for that but that isn’t always pos- sible. But we do a damn good job trying.” Although I have no plans to open my own eatery or even to learn how to cook, I will miss these conversa- tions because they provided perspective on how unpredict- able the restaurant business is and how the profit margin is that much slimmer than most people know. Dave and Peter often pulled up a chair at our table or joined me when I was dining alone. You were never alone at Coogan’s. In the grand tradition of Irish pubs which serve as a center of the community, you might find a job, close TAFWA Newsletter - Page 12 - May 2020 out political deals, write campaign speeches, gather with colleagues, relatives, and friends. Doctors and patients (but not together), generations of police officers and firefighters, politicians and public school teach- ers, judges and attorneys, poets and writers, actors and actresses, runners and baseball players, all were fed at Coogan’s, which broke down the wall between generations, colors, and backgrounds who dined or drank there together, side by side. The photographs of Mayor Ed Koch, Councilman Stanley Michels, Assembly- man Denny Farrell, of neigh- borhood people, and photos of Dave and Peter and Tess over the years, reflected the styles and weight of decades, the cast of Law & Order, posters marketing the elections of Robert and John Kennedy, and my two favorites, a street sign from Academy Street not far from where Dave grew up in Inwood and a vintage subway sign from Washington Heights. So many meetings took place there. So many birthday parties, karaoke nights, play readings, baby showers, weddings, celebrations of life and of death, book signings,, costume contests, post-meeting debriefs, and weary end-of-day drinks. Coogan’s employed men and women from the neighborhood, from servers like Quincy who was hired and rehired too many times to count, to chef Jose who put up with our special requests, and some who went on to open their own restaurants. You could write a book. I don’t know how I found my way to Coogan’s but Steve Simon may have had something to do with it. After contentious community board meetings ended, the call would go out, “So who’s going to Coogan’s?’ I wasn’t even a member of the Com- munity Board at that time but a regular attendee and once we sat down, we were soothed by the fish and chips or maybe a burger and sometimes, we were the last ones to leave the dining room. When it was just a few us and not too late, Dave or Peter would come and sit with us and catch up on the news , gossips, and goings-on and our stories. And if you ate there often enough, you learned the names of the waiters, like Maggie the playwright who led readings with Steve and Peter handling different roles, and we felt confident to order off the menu. Every so often, huge portions of chicken parmigiana were ordered around the table and a few times, a chocolate ice cream soda, not exactly a bar item. Giovanni the server placed a glass of Diet Coke, a large cup of ice cream, and an empty glass and spoon for me to combine the two. While I found it humor- TAFWA Newsletter - Page 13 - May 2020 Dave Hunt, Steve Simon, and Peter Walsh. ous, Dave was aghast, if people still use this word. Giovanni, alas, never learned how to make an ice cream soda because it was served the same way each time I ordered it. Coogan’s served as a de facto studio for the New York Public Library’s Oral History project, Bridging Our Stories, where many conversations took place in the Back Room, including one with Dave, who grew up in Inwood and played basketball against a very young Lew Alcindor who later changed his name to Kareem Abdul Jabbar; Judge and later New York County Clerk Milton Tingling who once drove a cab and worked as a token booth clerk; Frank Hess, who spent his entire life in Washington Heights, wore a cowboy hat, and played a pivotal role in New York State politics; and Johnny Moynihan, the head of the Police Officer Michael J. Buczek Little League, named after a police officer killed in the line of duty in Wash- ington Heights three years after Coogan’s opened. Along the way, Coogan’s hosted my portraits of boxers for the Uptown Arts Stroll and a screening of Rocky. The 25th anniversary celebration of my book, The Prizefighters, drew old and new friends, including a police inspector who once trained at a boxing gym a few blocks away and came dressed in a suit and tie as if he were attending a wedding. Coogan’s was the most enthusiastic supporter of my tie project which collected new and gently used ties for the Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation’s job training programs. A box set up by the front door overflowed with colorful donations, Dave drove miles to pick up ties from Coogan’s customers around the city and upstate, and Tess and the staff smiled proudly with new ad- ditions arriving daily. Almost 1,000 ties were collected. Sadly, I wish I had visited Coogan’s more often but work kept me to late hours and by the time I returned uptown, the kitchen was closed, the dining room quiet, and Dave, Peter, Tess, and even Steve were tucked into bed. The news of Coogan’s closing hit us hard. Thirty five years went by so quickly. Thirty five years is longer than Tess has been married. Her three daughters, two now enrolled in college thanks to Dave Hunt, Mayor Ed Koch, and Peter Walsh. TAFWA Newsletter - Page 14 - May 2020 Frank Hess’ matzoh ball soup was served at Coogan’s. Steve, were born during her time there. Dave became a grandfather of two redheads twice over, and Peter is about to be- come one. Two years ago, we thought we were going to lose Coogan’s. But the community, Broadway star and Inwood native Lin-Manuel Miranda, elected officials, and friends from around the world rallied and it received a reprieve, with a three year lease offered by its landlord across the street, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. Coogan’s began 2020 with one year to go on that lease and if that was the signal when it would close up shop, a year would have given time to for all of us to ease into goodbyes, salutes, hugs, tributes of gratitude, and celebrations. As might be expected in the restaurant business, Coogan’s prepared for many contingencies and weathered any number of challenges, from staff calling out to delayed food deliveries to utility disruptions, but its obituary was written by a global pandemic. We never had a chance for one last round, one last matzoh ball soup or chicken quesadilla, one last toast of gratitude for all Dave, Peter, and Tess have given us. Coogan’s ending mirrors the physical contact New Yorkers are unable to have during this time, making it a lonesome goodbye. Fitting for this time, tributes and tears flowed on Coogan’s Facebook page, some- thing that wasn’t around when the restaurant first opened. And then, Coogan’s slowly started to disappear. The wallpaper of memorabilia and photographs were distributed, re- turned to its owners or gifted to friends. The Back Room dedicated to Peter’s passion, the running community, was emp- tied. Frank Hess’ cowboy hat was driven home to his family by Dave. Dave, Peter, and Tess held back tears or sometimes didn’t as they sorted through papers in filing cabinets, rediscovered old photographs and memories, and said goodbye to former employees who stopped in. Chairs and tables and restaurant equipment were piled up for auction, linens returned to the rental company. Steve wandered around in disbelief.

Some of us will meet again for a reunion of sorts. Coogan’s will be res- urrected when filmmaker Osten Glen Anderson completes his last edit on a long awaited documentary expected this summer, and when writer Jon Michaud debuts his book about Coogan’s, which now has an ending. But it won’t be the same. Hat belonging to the late Frank Hess TAFWA Newsletter - Page 15 - May 2020 Mary Cain and Nick Willis Join Tracksmith In New Partnership Model, Elite Middle-Distance Runners Will Work for Brand While Training for Tokyo 2021 https://www.snewsnet.com/press-release/tracksmith-adds-elite-distance-athletes BOSTON (May 12, 2020) – Track- smith, the independent Boston-based running brand, today announced that elite athletes Mary Cain and Nick Willis have joined the company as full-time employees––a move which will spearhead a broad-based effort from Tracksmith to support amateur runners. In a new model for athlete partnership, Cain and Willis will con- tinue to train towards the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, while working for Track- smith as members of the marketing team––driving new efforts around community building and athlete experience. They will also represent Tracksmith in competition. The move reflects both Cain and Willis’ desire to establish a more sustainable lifestyle as elite athletes and Tracksmith’s commitment to upending the running industry status quo. This partnership model is designed to remove the anxiety of performance incentives and free the athletes to focus on competition as one aspect of long-term career growth. To date, pro- fessional contracts have featured incentives that demand a single-minded focus on results, leaving axthletes with limited opportunities to find balance and fulfillment outside of their own performance. This hurts running at all levels: constrain- ing athlete development, limiting the sport’s growth and incentivizing a win-at-all-costs lifestyle. The decision to hire Cain and Willis as employees reflects Tracksmith’s desire to support the whole athlete, as competitors and change-makers. They will work within the Tracksmith marketing team on new initiatives aimed at growing the brand’s community and athlete experience, and will receive full-time salaries and benefits. Mary Cain is among the most decorated American middle-distance runners of her generation. After taking time away from the sport to finish her college education at Fordham University, Cain returns to running with a renewed sense of pur- pose: to not only perform at the highest levels of the sport, but to be an advocate for athlete mental health and womxn’s equality. Cain is currently training with the goal of competing at the U.S. Olympic Trials in 2021 in the 1500 meters. She will be the New York Community Manager for the brand. “As I contemplated my next step as a runner, I knew I wanted to partner with a brand that aligned with my priorities as an athlete and an individual,” said Cain. “Tracksmith came to the table with an outside-the-box opportunity to join their team as both an athlete and employee, to pursue my dreams, contribute to a team and build a career. My goal is to demon- strate that you can have a happy, full life and run at your highest level.” Four-time Olympian and New Zealander Nick Willis joins Tracksmith as the next phase in his outstanding athletic career. The miler, who won silver in the 1500 meters at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and bronze in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, is training for his final games and establishing his post-professional path. Based out of Ann Arbor, Mich., he will be the Ath- lete Experience Manager for the brand, helping build programming for runners of all levels. “Over the last Olympic cycle I’ve done a lot of thinking about how I want to continue with the sport,” said Willis. “I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have a long, healthy career as an elite runner, but I’m excited to add a new challenge within running to my life. It’s long been an ambition of mine to help enhance and grow our great sport, and I’m excited to join the Tracksmith team full-time to work on projects and platforms that will reach more amateur athletes.” “There’s no doubt that Mary and Nick are tremendous athletes,” said Tracksmith founder and CEO, Matt Taylor. “But more than that, they’re well-rounded humans and advocates for change within our sport. They share our vision that run- ning should be a cherished part of a full life. With this new model for partnership, we hope to provide Mary and Nick with the freedom and stability needed to succeed both as athletes and employees. Win or lose, professional or amateur, that’s something we can all learn from.” TAFWA Newsletter - Page 16 - May 2020 Catching Up With ... Gebrselassie tells why jail can be the best sanction for dope cheats http://keirradnedge.com/2020/05/06/gebrselassie-speaks-out/

Revised Wanda Diamond League Schedule Announced For 2020 By David Monti (12-May) -- As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to keep the sports world mostly in lockdown, World Athletics an- nounced today their plans to reopen the Wanda Diamond League for 2020 with a shortened, late summer/early fall sched- ule. The world’s top tier of professional athletics meetings will kick off in on August 14 and conclude at a yet-to-be- determined venue in China on October 17. The series was originally planned to run from April 16 to September 11 with a pause for the now-postponed Tokyo Olympic Games from July 24 through August 9. Officials were quick to point out that the schedule was provisional given that national, regional and local regulations regarding the staging of sporting events varied widely and were in constant flux. Officials also said that some meetings had to be cancelled (the Meeting International Mohammed VI D’Athletisme in Rabat, May 31; the Müller Anniversary Games in London, July 4 - 5; and the Weltklasse in Zürich, September 9 - 11), and that there would be no aggregate scoring system leading up to a final. “The 2020 Wanda Diamond League will not be a structured series of events leading to a final as is usually the case,” World Athletics said through a statement. “Given the current discrepancies in training and travel opportunities, it would be im- possible to ensure a level playing field and a fair qualification system during 2020. Athletes will therefore not earn Diamond League points this season, and there will not be a single, 24-discipline final in Zürich as originally planned.” Moreover, the selection disciplines for each meeting organizer to stage will not be centrally governed. In a back to the future moment, individual meeting organizers can set their own programs and will need to do so at least two months in ad- vance of their meetings. Some of the meetings many have very short programs with just a handful of athletes. Some may allow live spectators, while others will be done in a made-for-television format. All of the key details remain to be worked out. For some organizers, the weather may well be a factor in deciding what disciplines to hold. For instance, the average temperature in Eugene, Oregon, for October 4, is a high of 70F/21C and a low of 43F/6C. Those would be very good condi- tions for middle and long distance running, but not for sprints. As previously announced by World Athletics, no marks achieved during the 2020 season will count for Olympic Games qualifying. The Olympic Games qualifying window re-opens in December. TAFWA Newsletter - Page 17 - May 2020 NCAA stonewalls calls for universities to sponsor less (Olympic) sports … for now; but what happens if there’s no football? By Rich Perelman | http://www.thesportsexaminer.com/lane-one-ncaa-stonewalls-calls-for-universities-to- sponsor-less-olympic-sports-for-now-but-what-happens-if-theres-no-football

While the coronavirus has brought colle- giate sports to a standstill, the off-the-field activity has hardly slowed, with the NCAA Division I Council Coordinating Commit- tee making a critical announcement last Wednesday.

In the face of direct requests from five conferences for relief from, among other things, Division I scholarship requirements, football attendance minimums and the number of sports participated in to be in Division I, the Division I CCC voted only to allow waivers for one year of:

• “Schools to provide less than the currently legislated minimum financial aid requirements to maintain membership in Division I. • “Reclassifying schools to count as Division I opponents in the first year of the reclassification process, whether or not the school meets Division I scheduling requirements. • “Basketball and football student-athletes to participate in currently defined summer athletic activities without being enrolled in summer school.”

There were some other technical adjustments to recruiting rules, but no reply to the request from the Group-of-5 confer- ences and 22 small leagues to allow schools to drop below the requirements to field teams in 16 sports for a period of up to four years (asked by the Group-of-5 conferences) or two years (the other 22 conferences). (The Group-of-5 conferences include the American Athletic Conference, Mountain West Conference, Mid-American Con- ference, Sun Belt Conference and Conference USA. The other 22 conferences include all other Division I conferences outside of the big five: Atlantic Coast, Big 10, Big XII, Pac-12 and Southeastern.)

This is crucial to maintaining participation in the many other NCAA sports – almost all of which are part of the Olympic sports program – and which especially includes every women’s sports except perhaps basketball, which does generate some revenue (more on this below).

There was considerable pushback to the request of the conferences, including a passionate letter from 17 coaches associa- tions, representing baseball, equestrian, field hockey, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, rifle, soccer, softball, swimming & diving, tennis, volleyball, water polo and wrestling, that included:

“Reducing the minimum sports sponsorship requirement that would open the door to eliminating sports should not be an option.”

(The U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association was not a signatory to this letter.)

So as of now, the requirement to field 16 sports to be part of Division I still stands.

The caveat in all of this, of course, is whether there will be a college football season. Way back in 1929, the Carnegie Foundation reported that “Football carries the bulk of the monetary burden” and later the same year, Big 10 commissioner John L. Griffith noted:

“Those who charge college athletics are commercialized think only in terms of football. Football is the only one of 14 intercollegiate sports that has any considerable earning power, and actually supports the remaining 13.”

In 2017, BusinessInsider.com reviewed the finances of the 127 Division I schools that play football and found that:

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 18 - May 2020 “While the average school generates $31.9 million in football revenue each year, the next 35 sports on average generate $31.7 million combined each year.”

Compared to the football average of $31.9 million in revenue per year, men’s basketball was second with an annual average of $8.2 million, with men’s ice hockey third ($2.9 million) and women’s basketball fourth ($1.8 million). No other women’s sport generated an annual average total of even $1 million in revenue, although women’s ice hockey was close at $960,466.

If there is no college football, or the season is severely truncated, the NCAA Division I Council will have no choice but to reduce the number of sports required … and that’s bad news for many smaller programs on a lot of campuses. (More on this from last month here.)

At the same time, the NCAA is working through new rules for athlete payments for “name, image and likeness,” with changes slated to be adopted by 31 January 2021. Even with the COVID-19 pandemic, this is continuing, with the NCAA Board of Governors supporting the development of rules for all three divisions based on the 17 April report of its Federal and State Legislation Working Group.

The report focuses mostly on long-overdue changes to rules which deprive students who are on athletic teams from the same rights as other students on campus, for example, a well-known actor or musician, for autographs, endorsements and personal appearances.. But it also notes that today’s technologies create new opportunities which should be allowed:

• Digital content creation and distribution, such as a video series on cooking, nutrition or exercise; • Social-media influencer marketing.

The suggestion of the working group is to keep the universities and conferences far away from involvement with any of this and prohibitions on any school hiring one of its student-athletes for direct endorsement activities.

Moreover, the working group also sounded a warning concerning support from companies directly involved with univer- sities already:

“When considering those regulations, the working group recommends that the Board of Governors encourage the divisions to consider the following issues in particular: …

“(2) Whether certain categories of third-party businesses (e.g., athletics shoe and apparel companies) should be precluded from, or have limited participation in, the newly permitted activities, due to their history of encouraging or facilitating recruiting and other rules infractions.”

Exhibit one is the ongoing recruiting payment scandal being pursued by the U.S. Department of Justice. In addition, ESPN reported today (Sunday):

“Attorneys representing Zion Williamson’s former marketing representative and her company have asked the New Orleans Pelicans star to admit that his mother and stepfather demanded and received gifts, money and other benefits from persons acting on behalf of Adidas and Nike and also from people associated with Duke to influence him to sign with the Blue Devils and to wear Nike or Adidas products.”

Looking to the future, the question will be whether universities will be able to obtain equipment and apparel support from companies such as adidas, Nike, Under Armour and others when their “stars” have endorsement deals with others? If this is allowed, look for such companies to simply skip sponsoring schools and just try and sign their top athletes.

Beyond the warning on “shoe and apparel companies,” the working group does not address questions of conflicts be- tween a university team sponsor and an endorsement – perhaps from high school days – by a scholarship athlete. This will need to be addressed in the forthcoming rules for Division I at least.

Like so much else today, these are unpredictable times for collegiate sports and while the future of football, men’s and women’s basketball and some number of other women’s sports to make up the scholarship difference are foreseeably safe, everything else could be on the cutting block.

As it always has in college sports, it’s all about football. TAFWA Newsletter - Page 19 - May 2020 Olympic qualification period suspended until 1 December 2020 World Athletics announces today the qualification period for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games is suspended effective from 6 April 2020 until 30 November 2020 included, following consultation with its Athletes’ Commission, Area Presidents and Council. During this period, results achieved at any competition will not be considered for Tokyo 2020 entry standards or world rankings, the publication of which will also be suspended. Results will continue to be recorded for statistical purposes, including for world records, subject to the applicable conditions. But they will not be used to establish an athlete’s qualification status. Subject to the global situation returning to normal, the qualification period will resume on 1 December 2020 and continue to the new qualification deadline in 2021 set by the International Olympic Committee (see qualification period table at the end). The total qualifica- tion period, which started in 2019, will be four months longer than it was originally. Commenting on the decision, World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said: “I am grateful for the detailed work and feedback from our Athletes’ Commission and Council who believe suspending Olympic qualification during this period gives more certainty for athlete plan- ning and preparation and is the best way to address fairness in what is expected to be the uneven delivery of competition opportunities across the globe for athletes given the challenges of international travel and government border restrictions.” Athletes who have already met the entry standard since the start of the qualification period in 2019 remain qualified and will be eli- gible for selection by their respective Member Federations and National Olympic Committees, together with the other athletes who will qualify within the extended qualification period. The end of the Olympic qualification periods are 31 May 2021 (for 50km race walk and marathon) and 29 June 2021 for all other events.

Overall duration of the qualification period Qualification starting dates for entry standards and world rankings remain unchanged with many athletes already qualified by meet- ing the entry standards during 2019. With the qualification period from 1 December 2020 to 31 May 2021 (or 29 June 2021 depending on the event) the eligible qualification period (taking into account the eight-month suspension period) is longer than the original period by an additional four months. See summary below:

Events Entry standards period World rankings period Marathon, 50km race walk 1 January 2019 – 5 April 2020 1 December 2018 – 5 April 2020 1 December 2020 – 31 May 2021 1 December 2020 – 31 May 2021 21 months 22 months

10,000m, 20km race walk, combined events 1 January 2019 – 5 April 2020 1 January 2019 – 5 April 2020 1 December 2020 – 29 June 2021 1 December 2020 – 29 June 2021 22 months 22 months

All other events 1 May 2019 – 5 April 2020 30 June 2019 – 5 April 2020 1 December 2020 – 29 June 2021 1 December 2020 – 29 June 2021 18 months 16 months

Temporary furlough decision World Athletics also announced today its decision to furlough temporarily 50% of its HQ staff effective today in order to secure jobs for the long term. All staff on furlough will continue to receive their full salary. The decision, which was approved by the Executive Board yesterday, has been made due to the temporary postponement of World Athletics Series events and many development activities around the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the strict self-isolation regulations in Monaco and France, where the majority of World Athletics’ HQ staff are based. World Athletics will access Monaco Government’s generous scheme to support businesses based in the Principality. This scheme allows organisations to temporarily reduce the working hours of staff who are unable, through no fault of their own, to carry out their roles to full effect. World Athletics will temporarily suspend parts of the organisation, primarily those areas which are heavily event driven, and put individuals on temporary leave until the offices are officially able to reopen. The Monaco Government will contribute 70% of the gross salaries of staff on furlough and World Athletics will fund the remainder. Commenting on this decision, World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said: “We need to reflect current realities and the uncertainty of the global situation we find ourselves in, particularly the business environment where due to COVID-19 crises, normal business prac- tices are breaking down around the world. For many of our Member Federations and a lot of our athletes this is a ‘very real, very now’ issue. The income we receive is not ‘our’ money. We are custodians of granted funds, which may well be disrupted this year, to spend on the development and delivery of athletics across the globe so we are always diligent and responsible with our finances. “This decision, made possible by the Monaco Government, means we will focus only on business critical activities for the short term which will help us manage our cashflow effectively and protect jobs in the long term. “All World Athletics HQ staff will remain on their full salaries during this period with the organisation topping up the Monaco Govern- ment’s contribution. We have taken care to ensure the support and services we provide to our Member Federations, Areas, partners, stakeholders, athletes and the wider athletics community remain in place with a reduced team. “These are tough times for everyone and I want to thank my whole team for positively embracing working from home some four weeks ago and those now entering furlough for what I hope is a short period of time to help us manage our business and our resources responsi- bly.”

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 20 - May 2020 Catching Up With ... With 2020 Olympics postponed, sprinter Allyson Felix continues the fight https://www.espn.in/olympics/story/_/id/29011805/with-2020-olympics-postponed-sprinter-allyson-felix-continues-fight

Felix and her coach, Bobby Kersee, have been forced off the tracks on which they usually train, using public -- and spread- out -- spaces in Los Angeles instead. At right is Australian hurdler Madison Gipson, Felix’s training partner. Ramona Shelburneaa A Contractor on the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field Renovation Walked Off the Job for Safety Reasons. He Lost His Contract. https://www.wweek.com/news/2020/04/06/a-contractor-on-the-university-of-oregons-hayward-field-renovation- walked-off-the-job-for-safety-reasons-he-lost-his-contract/

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 21 - May 2020 Prefontaine Classic postponed because of COVID-19 https://www.registerguard.com/sports/20200423/prefontaine-classic-postponed-because-of-covid-19

Oslo ‘Impossible Games’ announced for June https://www.athleticsweekly.com/event-news/oslo-impossible-games-1039929523/

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 22 - May 2020 When you disassemble Max Siegel’s $4.2 million comp re- ported for 2018, it all comes back to Nike & the USATF By Rich Perelman Track and field insiders were agog on Wednesday when The amount of $3 million is shown on the Statement of USA Track & Field’s Form 990 federal tax return was posted Activities as a “Non-Recurring Employment Cost.” That’s all for 2018, showing chief executive Max Siegel with total clear. compensation of $4,294,650, including $3.027 million for “retirement and other deferred compensation.” It also explains the $3,000,000 deferred compensation amount on the Form 990 federal tax return for Siegel. Be- So what is this all about? cause the $3 million payment has been escrowed – set aside and not available for other purposes – it has to be shown as In simple terms, it’s about the stunning Nike sponsorship an expense in the year it was sequestered. And if you believe agreement announced in April of 2014. the federal return, all of that money will go to Siegel. The other $27,250 of the deferred compensation is clearly for There’s a lot of accounting to go through to understand retirement fund contributions and is in line with the federa- all of this, so have patience. tion’s contributions to others.

In that single deal – with the actual terms never released Some confusion on the timing has been introduced by a publicly – Nike promised to sponsor USATF to the tune of cover letter placed at the front of the 2018 financial state- an estimated $500 million from 2018 through 2040. Most ments on USATF letterhead, not that of CliftonLarsenAllen of this was in cash and part in-kind, such as for national accounting firm which prepared the financial statements. team uniforms. Based on a review of the publicly-posted The USATF letter reads in part: USATF financial statements, a reasonable estimation is that USATF has been receiving about $20 million in Nike “CEO current year reported compensation includes sponsorship support annually, including a share of a $25 contractual deferred bonuses payable over a period of million “one-time commitment bonus” for the deal, paid out seven years through 2024. For accounting purposes, these in 2014 ($15 million), 2015 ($5) and 2016 ($5), but spread bonuses were deemed earned in the current and prior years, – for accounting purposes – over the length of the deal. but they will not be paid until the future years stated in the employment contract. This resulted in higher expense on With the commitment bonus averaging about $1.1 mil- the financial statements and deferred compensation being lion a year, that leaves about $18.9 million annually in Nike reflected on the Form 990, however the CEO has not yet support. That’s not all cash, since there is a significant in- received these future bonuses.” kind commitment. The statement that payments are due to 2024 instead of Over the last three years, Nike has provided $2.80 million 2022 as shown in the page 22 note in the actual financial (2016), $2.46 million (2017) and $1.83 million (2018) in in- statements must be explained. But the comment does shed kind product support. That leaves $16-17 million in actual more light on Siegel’s compensation program. cash payments by Nike – more or less – to USATF annually. As USATF chief executive, his annual salary has ranged So where does the $3 million in deferred compensation to from about $500,000 annually from his hire in mid-2012 Siegel fit into this? up to $611,014 in 2018. He received no bonus in 2013, but significant bonuses in each year since the Nike agreement A note on page 22 of the 2018 USATF Financial State- was signed in 2014: ments explains: 2014: $500,000 “Employment cost: 2015: $500,000 In 2018, USATF entered into compensation agreements 2016: $1,000,000 with key members of management for their employment 2017: $500,000 through December 31, 2021. Certain provisions of these 2018: $500,000 agreements resulted in $3,000,000 being accrued as of December 31, 2018. The board has designated cash to be Combined with the $3 million he is to be paid through escrowed to cover the future minimum payments that will 2022 – per the financial statements – Siegel will receive be paid as follows:” bonuses of $6 million total from 2014-22.

The figures show that as of December 31 of the next four Why? years, “minimum” payments will be made of: The obvious explanation would be that this $6 million is a 31 Dec. 2019: $500,000 essentially USATF Board-approved “commission” for Siegel’s 31 Dec. 2020: $500,000 role in delivering the 23-year Nike agreement, worth about 31 Dec. 2021: $500,000 $400 million in total cash (and about $100 million in-kind) 31 Dec. 2022: $1,500,000 from 2018-2040, with $25 million paid early, from 2014-16. TAFWA Newsletter - Page 23 - May 2020 What Siegel’s role in this deal was is not exactly clear. In a Don’t bother looking for approvals of these commissions; lengthy story about Siegel in October 2016, The Washington those are done in “Executive Session,” during which all per- Post reported that then-Board chair Steve Miller “acknowl- sonnel matters are reviewed, and which are not recorded in edged that the deal that produced most of that new income the minutes (of any corporation or association). Moreover, — a long-term sponsorship agreement with Nike worth a don’t look for even a mention of the Nike deal in the 2014 reported $500 million — was primarily negotiated by two minutes ... because there isn’t one! Amazing. former Nike executives whose small consulting firm is col- lecting $23.75 million in commission payments from USA Certainly, when the Nike deal came through, there was Track and Field through 2039.” great hope for even more significant sponsorships, but USATF has not signed a major new deal since. The finan- and cial statements show that much more than a majority of USATF’s total operating revenues come from two sponsors “Board chairman Miller, a former Nike executive, said the – Nike and Hershey – and grants from the idea to approach Nike about a long-term extension did not Olympic & Paralympic Committee: come from Siegel. Instead, Miller said, the idea came from former Nike executives Adam Helfant and Chris Bevilacqua, 2013: $19.6 million ~ 63% from 2 sponsors and USOC friends of his, who contacted him not long after Siegel took 2014: $35.1 million ~ 80% from 2 sponsors and USOC over as CEO and asked for Miller to introduce them to Sie- 2015: $32.4 million ~ 73% from 2 sponsors and USOC gel. Helfant and Bevilacqua then led negotiations for USA 2016: $37.3 million ~ 65% from 2 sponsors and USOC Track and Field on the Nike deal, Miller said.” 2017: $35.1 million ~ 68% from 2 sponsors and USOC 2018: $34.5 million ~ 72% from 2 sponsors and USOC But in a Sports Business Daily story announcing the deal in April 2014: Note the major rise from 2013 to 2014, when the Nike deal came in, but the financial performance has leveled off “USATF CEO Max Siegel said that the NGB reached out to since. But with the Nike agreement in hand, USATF’s total Nike about extending its sponsorship after the ‘12 London assets rose from $9.3 million in 2013 to $42.3 million in Games. He proposed negotiating a long-term deal to Nike 2014, and now back to $39.9 million at the end of 2018. because the organization wanted the stability such an agree- ment would provide.” There you have it, from as much information as could be pieced together from publicly-available sources and some So, between the commissions to the former Nike execs confidential conversations with some folks in the know. If and if the bonuses to Siegel are in fact another commission you were on the USATF Board, would you have given Siegel on the same deal, the cost of the possibly $400 million in those bonuses annually from 2014-18 and then agreed in cash and $100 million in in-kind support from Nike cost 2018 to $3 million more? USATF about $30 million, or about six percent of the total deal. (If the financial statements are correct that the $3 mil- lion in bonuses from 2019-22 were agreed to by the Board Let’s be clear on this: while Siegel may have requested in 2018, this could have been during the time that elected added compensation for bringing the Nike deal to fruition – president Vin Lananna was suspended by the Board on 18 Helfant and Bevilacqua’s terms – the USATF Board of Direc- February 2018 for conflicts of interest with his then-posi- tors is the group responsible for agreeing to it. You can see tion at TrackTown USA.) here the minutes from USATF Board meetings back to 2009 and who was on the Board at each step of the way. That’s the question you have to ask yourself, and the for- mer and current members of the USATF Board of Directors.

World Athletics chief Coe: “We’ve just got to get more one-day meetings going in the U.S.”

http://www.thesportsexaminer.com/the-big- picture-world-athletics-chief-coe-weve-just-got- to-get-more-one-day-meetings-going-in-the-u-s/

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 24 - May 2020 ‘Voice of New England Track and Field’ Haverhill’s Newman has no equal for track records, announcing By Dave Dyer | Eagle Tribune | https://www.eagletribune.com/sports/local_sports/voice-of-new-england- track-and-field/article_0d6a5100-628c-5c42-a15d-1365d790b38d.html Perhaps no one appreciated the attack on the track and field history books by North Andover senior vaulter/hurdler Erick Duffy this spring as much as Haverhill’s Larry New- man. The 67-year-old Newman, as most people involved with either cross country or track and field know, is the state’s most respected historian, record keeper and announcer for both sports. So, as Duffy kept breaking records on his way to becom- ing New England’s greatest-ever vaulter and one of its best hurdlers, Newman was closely keeping tabs, usually sending out excited emails after each performance. Very few other people, if any, could have chronicled Duffy’s historic rise like he did. Of course, very few others love the sport as much as Newman, who has spent a lifetime involved with both cross country and track. The proof of his passion for both sports is in the base- ment of his Haverhill home, which is crammed with note- books, papers and memorabilia going back 50 years. “It’s a labor of love,” said Newman. “There is a lot of his- tory in the sport and I’m a big fan of statistics. I want to see the correct information in print and I think people appreci- ate what I do.” That is certainly the case, although the appreciation is perhaps not as great as for Newman’s announcing of meets in both sports. But more on that later. Raised in Haverhill, Newman went to Central Catholic and ran for coach Carmen Iannicello. He was a good, if not great runner, but he developed a passion that has lasted a lifetime. “I think he (Iannicello) is the one who kept me in track,” said Newman, who preferred cross country to track in his younger days. With good coaches, it’s about their motivation and drive and he had it. “Plus, he tried to bring great perspective to sports, which I think is important. That’s (one reason) why I like to compare athletes from different eras. You look at the records first.” From Central, Newman went to Northeastern, where he ran some competitively. Usually, he was with a second tier of runners. “I just didn’t have the leg speed,” he says. But his track and field coach at Northeastern must have recognized Newman’s passion for the sport because for one big meet, he asked him if he wouldn’t mind going up to the press box at the old Boston Garden to announce the meet. “I was a little nervous, but I said ‘sure’, and the American record was set in the 35-pound weight in my first meet,” said Newman. “It was the first time I had announced anything so I thought that was pretty cool. “I liked being up there and announcing as long as it was track and field, which was something I knew about.” What seemed like might have been a one-time thing for Newman, later became a wonderful part-time profession and complement to his career as a policeman in Haverhill. Over the years, he has announced — among other things — the Dartmouth Relays, MIAA sectionals and state meets and the John Ottaviani Invitational in Haverhill and numerous college meets including the America East championships and the IC4A meet.

UNEQUALED ANNOUNCER Current Haverhill coach Mike Maguire, in fact, calls Newman the “Voice of New England Track and Field.” “What I really appreciate about Larry is that he really does his homework before the event he announces,” said Maguire. “He nails down the top competitors in each event and what to watch for and he takes a lot of pride in the history and tradi- tion of the event. “He adds great value to any event that he announces. ... The way Larry announces and builds excitement for each event gets more people to notice.” Newman has also been the announcer for several runnings of the and state cross country meets. In cross country, Newman adds pertinent facts about the top runners and calls the leaders out by name as they finish, creating added buzz to the race. “I want to make it more exciting and get information to the people watching,” said Newman. “A lot of parents come to

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 25 - May 2020 watch and don’t know what’s going on. I feel bad about that “I was like single-A in baseball compared to them, but I and want to bring the sport more to them.” loved the sport and I stayed with it,” said Newman. “It never Coaches and athletes certainly appreciate Newman’s ef- bothered me that I wasn’t better. I had other things I was forts to popularize the sport. into.” “He (Newman) has a lot of enthusiasm and when he’s at a meet, he brings professionalism and excitement,” said Newman’s Highlight Lowell cross country coach Scott Ouellet, a former Methuen Haverhill’s Larry Newman has enjoyed many highlights assistant. “He’s always prepared and I know the kids like as a track and field announcer. Following are his top four. hearing their names,” According to Maguire, when Newman announces the Ot- World Record — February 1, 1969, George Frenn (Pacific taviani meet, “he’s at the track days before asking for heat Coast Club), 35-pound weight (73 feet, 3 ½ inches) at sheets, order of events and wants to update records. He Northeastern wants to be prepared and really contributes to making our meet first class.” World Record — January 7, 1990, Lynn Jennings (Athlet- North Andover coach Rick Dellechiaie can’t say enough ics West), 5000 meters (15:22.64) at Dartmouth College about Newman as an announcer. “I think his running commentary and stats announce- World Record —February 20, 1994, Eamonn Coghlan ments at Reggie Lewis (track meets in Boston) provide (IRE), Master’s One Mile (Over 40) 3:58.15 at Harvard a level of excitement you can’t find in other sports,” said University Dellechiaie. “Larry has made the state meets seem like national championships to the athletes by tracking their New England HS Record —February, 1999, Franklyn performances. Sanchez (8:49.60) Andy Powell (8:50.29) two-mile at Reggie “It has to be a big boost to a kid, for example, to hear that Lewis Track & Athletic Center he has run the third-fastest time in the country in his event. Track athletes love that stuff. It adds excitement and a cer- tain level of credibility to a sport that doesn’t often capture Meet Larry Newman the headlines.” Only politics has kept Newman from announcing even Age: 67 more meets than he does, but he doesn’t complain about that. Anyway, he’s too busy checking records and doing Hometown: Haverhill research. Currently, he’s researching cross country champi- onships in New England since 1912. Education: Central Catholic, Northeastern “It can be very tedious and time consuming but the sta- tistical part of track can be rewarding,” he said. “I like to be Sports: Ran competitively in high school and college cross able to relate athletes to each other and compare, whether country and track and later for the Greater Boston Track it’s Dean and Mark Kimball or Mike Walukevich to today’s Club and the BAA. Completed five marathons with best top runners.” time of 2:37.

LOTS OF RESEARCH Past Profession: Retired policeman For years, Newman has related much of his research, as well as viewpoints, in various publications, including on a Current Profession/Hobby/Passion: Statistician, histo- regular basis for both Track and Field News and Eastern rian, author (Track and Field News and various magazines) Track. and announcer for cross country and track and field. Press All of this record keeping and writing can become over- Information Director for U.S. Track Meet Director’s Associa- whelming, and papers and momentos are taking up more tion, former press information director for Boston Mara- and more of Newman’s space. That’s why he has started thon thinking of where to put it all. “When I stop doing all this, I want it to go somewhere, Preferred sport: “I love them both, but probably cross maybe a library in Boston,” said Newman. “I don’t want it to country.” waste away.” Track and field athletes and fans shouldn’t want that Larry Newman is a longtime TAFWA member. either. History is so important in the ancient sport and Newman is doing his best to sustain it.

Running with stars Although he was never a star runner, Newman ran with some of New England’s best runners back in his days at Northeastern and then with the Greater Boston Track Club and the BAA. And he did record an impressive time of 2:37 in the Nike Marathon in Oregon, one of five marathons he ran. He would sometimes train with the likes of , Bob Hodge and Randy Thomas. He completed five mara- thons, including Boston twice. TAFWA Newsletter - Page 26 - May 2020 Lawsuit claims former USOPC chief executive misled donor over funding for US Center for SafeSport By Michael Pavitt | Inside The Games | https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1094082/usopc-global-sports-development-lawsuit The United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) is being sued by the Foundation for Global Sport Devel- opment (GSD) over alleged fraud, breach of contract and breach of covenant of good faith and fair dealing. According to the Orange County Register, GSD filed the case at the Los Angeles County Superior Court. GSD is led by David Ulich, a lawyer and former member of the Los Angeles 2024 bid committee.

The foundation reportedly began expanding its support of the USOPC - formerly the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) - back in 2013. It is claimed the organisation was approached by former USOPC chief executive Scott Blackmun in late 2015 or early 2016 over potentially contributing to the United States Center for SafeSport. The US Center for SafeSport was formed in 2017, with the responsibility to handle abuse cases in Olympic sports, as well as offer training and education. GSD contributed $284,000 (£228,000/258,000) to the centre from 2016 to 2018 according to the lawsuit, which claims Blackmun misled officials over plans for the centre.

“Mr. Blackmun and the USOC continually provided GSD with assurances that, with GSD’s financial support, the USOC would effectively remedy the issues of athlete abuse,” the lawsuit said, according to the Orange County Register. “GSD is informed and believes and thus alleges that Mr. Blackmun and the USOC knew and intended that SafeSport was merely and in actuality a public relations move to deflect criticism of the USOC for its failure to effectively handle the abuse problem and that SafeSport was never intended to actually address and/or remedy the abuse problem. “Mr. Blackmun and the USOC knew they were false statements, had no intent to do what they represented they would do, and were concealing the whole truth about the extent of the USOC’s knowledge of their systematic failure to protect athletes from pervasive abuse and sexual harassment.” Blackmun resigned from his position in February 2018, having been diagnosed with prostate cancer the previous month.

Blackmun stepping down came just two months after an independent report into the sexual abuse scandal was scathing of his failure to investigate allegations against former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar, jailed for up to 175 years in February. The report by law firm Ropes and Gray, commissioned by the USOC, said Blackmun knew about the accusations more than a year before they became public. Two US Senators in 2018 asked the US Department of Justice to investigate whether Blackmun lied in Senate testimony about his handling of the Nassar scandal. The USOPC and Ulich declined comment on the lawsuit, the Orange County Register reported. TAFWA Newsletter - Page 27 - May 2020 Construction to continue for Hayward Field despite event cancellations https://www.dailyemerald.com/news/construction-to-continue-for-hayward-field-despite-event-cancella- tions/article_dd71dc56-8d9f-11ea-8226-97d2f5bff12b.html

Cameron: Athletes Now Thinking Long Term - Three Coaches Back Those Who Opt For Overseas Scholarships http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/sports/20200503/cameron-athletes- now-thinking-long-term-three-coaches-back-those-who-opt Letter: Duke track and field, cross country alumni reflect on career of Norm Ogilvie https://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2020/04/duke-track-and-field-cross-country-norm-ogilvie-letter-to-the-editor

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 28 - May 2020 Back In The Day: Penn Relays streak holds fond memories By Alonzo Kittrels | Philadelphia Tribune | https://www.phillytrib.com/commentary/backintheday/ back-in-the-day-penn-relays-streak-holds-fond-memories/article_7a7046c9-9949-533f-aef0-8a34c0392cab.

Last Saturday’s weather was outstanding. When I telephoned one event on the Friday of the Penn Relays weekend, there was a short trek of my good friends, his wife answered and told me that she had just from Franklin Field to Gus’ home. returned from a relaxing leisurely walk. She encouraged me to do the same during the perfect weather. Some of those attending lived in the Philadelphia area, while others As I went outdoors and took a breath of the spring-like air, my come from places up and down the East Coast with a large contingent mind drifted to an activity that I would have been engaged in on this from Virginia and the Washington, D.C. area. day but for this coronavirus pandemic. Since my high school days, on It was a touching experience to enter Gus’ home and see approxi- the fourth weekend of April, as was this past weekend, I have been in mately 20 Black men laughing and smiling as they came together one a seat on “Rigor Mortis Curve” at Franklin Field, attending The Penn more time. Coming together one more time becomes very significant Relays Track and Field Carnival. when one reaches the fourth quarter of his life, to use a sports meta- I have missed but one of these weekends due to a military obliga- phor, and even assumes greater significance for those who have been tion. Since there was no Penn Relays to attend this year, I decided to blessed with being in overtime of their lives. reflect on those special moments I shared with friends during the Penn Given the fact that Gus Dingle is no longer with us, the thought of Relays, back in the day. being together again takes on more significance. Those of you that know me or are familiar with my columns, recog- While the track and field events are memorable, coming together at nize that the Penn Relays and gatherings of “the boys” at Gus Dingle’s Gus Dingle’s home is one of my fondest memories of The Penn Relays home on the Friday of Penn Relay weekend were inseparable. Carnival. It has been roughly four years since I have partied at Gus Dingle’s home. To the disappointment of many, he discontinued his Friday With the Relays being canceled, I embraced the memories of those night Penn Relay affair; it had become overwhelming as he aged. Gus Penn Relay Friday nights at Gus’ home, back in the day. Dingle passed away this year and I shall never have this experience Being unable to attend the Penn Relays this year also took me back again. But I can resurrect some of those memories at 5106 Race St., to my high school and college days. I still think about how friends in West Philadelphia, on Friday night of the Penn Relays. While the became closer and sometimes enemies would seek to become friends. events on the track were very memorable, Penn Relay Friday nights at This was especially true of those who lived in the Philadelphia area as Gus’ were special. they could provide a place to stay. One of the most popular low-end hotels where people stayed was So with no Penn Relays this year, resurrecting fond memories is the Essex Hotel, located back then at 13th and Filbert streets. exactly what I did. I even recall when people slept in their automobiles. People did not During my college days, we had major fun at both house parties and seem to mind because between the Penn Relays events and partying, cabarets, but mainly cabarets. While no one can pinpoint when these there was little time for sleep. gatherings started, those present in the early years believe that it was Even during my high school and college days, participation in Penn more than 30 years ago. Relay activities actually started on Friday evening. There were both Guys, and only guys, that were childhood friends, college class- house parties and cabarets. The Imperial Ballroom at 60th and Walnut mates, co-workers, members of various Greek-letter organizations and streets was one of the major places to party. Times Auditorium at several track runners gathered for the “old folk” version of partying. Broad and Spruce streets was another popular place to party before the We drank and we ate! major Saturday relay events. A permanent item at these Friday night gatherings was a roasted I smiled as I thought about the Penn Relays of the past. Some pig that stretched the length of the dining room table. According to passed up a new Easter outfit in order to secure a new outfit for the Dingle, these events were a result of several close friends going to the relays. In the past, everyone attended the relays “dressed to kill.” Penn Relays together each year. Then someone in the group introduced How I wish I was there watching these two competitors again. the idea of getting together to prolong the bonding experience shared during the Penn Relays. Gus provided a place where they could go to Clearly, I have no idea what impact this coronavirus pandemic will share good times and not so good times they experienced over the have on the Penn Relays Carnival of 2021. Hopefully, this virus will be years. Why no females? I was told that this decision was deliberately behind us and I will not have to sit idly by next year dreaming about made when the “get together” was conceived. The men simply wanted past relays. a place to go and unwind; a place where they could be loose; a place In 2021, I envision enjoying the Penn Relays from my designated where they would not have to bite their tongues. So, after the last seat at Franklin Field, as I always did, back in the day. TAFWA Newsletter - Page 29 - May 2020 France’s Guy Drut says the Games “must reinvent themselves”; how about throwing out 17 sports disciplines! Or 20! Or more! By Rich Perelman | http://www.thesportsexaminer.com/lane-one-frances-guy-drut-says-the-games-must- reinvent-themselves-how-about-throwing-out-17-sports-disciplines-or-20-or-more/ France’s Guy Drut is best known as the 1976 Olympic champion in the 110 m hurdles and a a controversial politician in his home country. He served as the Youth and Sports minister from 1995-97, has served in multiple appointed and elected local offices and was convicted – and later pardoned – for taking a “fictitious job” in the Ile-de-France public markets scan- dal in the 1990s.

Now 69 and a member of the International Olympic Committee since 1996, he has been a headline maker many times, most recently on Sunday in a column for the France Info Web site under headline – translated in English – “The Games of yesterday will not be the Games of tomorrow”

Noting that “the Games are useful - even more in times of crisis,” Drut then challenges the status quo (English version via Google Translate):

• “This is the reason why they must take place. This is the reason why we must rethink them to adapt them, to keep them suitable for the changing world. They will not be able to stand at any cost, disconnected from reality, on the ‘margins’ of the world.”

• “The beautiful project that we built and carried in the bid phase for Paris 2024 is now obsolete, outdated, out of touch with real- ity. ... we must review the means, and refocus on the essential. The first necessity is to make a budgetary reassessment of what the Paris 2024 Olympic Games will cost.”

• “The Games of yesterday will not be the Games of tomorrow. We must accept it and together imagine a new model. Within a few weeks and as I had expressed the wish, the IOC could bring together the Organizing Committees for the next Olympic Games (Tokyo, Beijing, Paris, Milan, Los Angeles). The objective of this meeting will be - in line with ‘Agenda 2020’ which had already laid the foundations for change - to explore new avenues, to think useful, sober, and responsible.”

• “We could thus sanctuarize certain events on a single site, whatever the organizing country. It is very expensive to build new equipment for an event that lasts only three / four days.

“Take the case of surfing. The Olympic site could always be the same and be, for example, in Tahiti or Hawaii. Same thing for -ca noeing, where you have to build an artificial river with each new edition. Again, this involves reusing existing sites. You have to keep the unit of time with the Olympic Games which take place from such date to such date, but the unit of place and action can vary. Another line of thought: limiting the number of additional sports on the program.”

Drut’s rambling commentary finally gets to the bottom line at the end: (1) Make the Games smaller by limiting the number of sports on the program. (2) Try to reduce costs by re-considering events that last only 3-4 days at most. (3) If it makes sense, place some events – he suggested canoeing and surfing – in a permanent location so the main host city of region does not have to build a new facility (whether permanent or temporary).

These are interesting idea and if the conference he proposes were to take place, they would find the Los Angeles organiz- ers from 1984 thinking – from home, of course, since no one would be invited – “nice of you to figure out what we showed you 36 years ago.”

But let’s take Drut seriously and look at what his reforms could entail:

(1) Cut costs by eliminating sports that take only 3-4 days and are therefore inefficient uses of time, space and money. Looking at the Tokyo 2020 schedule by discipline, this could mean casting aside

2 days: Cycling BMX Freestyle 2 days: Cycling BMX Racing 2 days: Cycling Mountain Biking 2 days: Aquatics Open-Water Swimming 2 days: Trampoline Gymnastics 3 days: Cycling road races 3 days: Karate (added sport for 2020) 3 days: Modern Pentathlon TAFWA Newsletter - Page 30 - May 2020 3 days: Rhythmic Gymnastics 3 days: Triathlon 4 days: Skateboarding (added sport for 2020) 4 days: Sport Climbing (added sport for 2020) 4 days: Taekwondo

Based on the Tokyo 2020 presentation of 46 total disciplines in the Games – including the one-time added sports – 13 could be eliminated (and 12 venues) in this way. This is a good start.

(2) Let’s go further and look at removing sports altogether. Which should go? How about eliminating those sports which are not timed or measured, but judged. Do we really need to have judging – so often a source of controversy and/or corrup- tion – in the Games? Such sports were not part of the ancient Games, so why not dispense with them now:

Artistic Gymnastics (but see the comment below) Artistic Swimming (introduced 1984) Boxing (1904) Cycling BMX Freestyle (2020) Diving (1904) Equestrian Dressage (1912) Rhythmic Gymnastics (1984) Skateboarding (2020 ~ added sport for 2020) Surfing (2020 ~ added sport for 2020) Trampoline Gymnastics (2000)

I would personally retain Artistic Gymnastics for the sole reason that it was in the first modern Games in Athens in 1896. The rest can go and would eliminate four more complete disciplines or sports, bringing the total to 17 out of 46.

You could go further and question the participation of sports such as fencing, judo, taekwondo, karate and wrestling, which are scored sports and do depend on officials or referees. The difference between these sports and boxing or diving is that the scoring in these combat sports is qualitative – yes or no – vs. quantitative, in which entire performances are as- signed an overall score.

The question for the combat sports – ancient and modern – such as archery, boxing, fencing, judo, karate, shooting, tae- kwondo and wrestling – is whether they belong in the Games at all, given the announced goal of sport for the furtherance of peace as a core value of the Olympic Movement. Personally, I would give a pass for fencing, shooting and wrestling, since they were on the Athens program in 1896.

How many martial arts do we need? Judo came in in 1964, taekwondo was added in 2000 and Karate is in for the first time in 2020.

And racquet sports? Tennis was in the Athens Games of 1896, but badminton came in in 1992 and table tennis debuted in 1988.

And looking to finances, should any sport be part of the Games whose international federation cannot sustain itself in business without the TV rights handout from the IOC every four years?

Drut is echoing his countryman Pierre de Coubertin, who back in 1909 told his fellow IOC members after the 1908 Lon- don Games:

“It will be necessary to avoid attempting to copy the Olympic Games of London. The next Olympiads must not have exactly the same character; they must not be so comprehensive. There was altogether too much in London.

“The Games must be kept more purely athletic; they must be more dignified; more discreet; more in accordance with classic and artistic requirements; more intimate, and above all, less expensive. ...

“The Olympic Games now stand at the parting of the ways – and we need .”

The 1912 Games in Stockholm was the best yet up to that time, reducing the number of sports from 22 to 14, disciplines from 24 to 18 and the length of the Games from six months to 16 days. De Coubertin was right then and perhaps Drut is right now.

Less is more. Let the arguing begin!

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 31 - May 2020 You Relays (Really) Got a Hold On Me By Alex Prewitt | Sports Illustrated https://www.si.com/track-and-field/2020/04/24/penn-relays-coronavirus-on-pause

Herb Douglas (front left) and his 4x110-champion teammates, in 1942. Letting go of this weekend’s Penn Relays, canceled by COVID-19 for the first time in their 125-year history, will sting harshly. By carrying on through past wars and national emergencies, the annual track and field extravaganza has enthralled millions, legitimized the sport in the U.S. and advanced racial integration.

Some five decades after Dave Johnson’s first Penn Relays, the details still return to him with ease. There was the tingling sensation he felt on that mild Saturday morning in late April 1968, arriving at Franklin Field as an alternate miler for his high school team and seeing an “absolutely mind-boggling” crowd of nearly 29,000 track fans—more spectators than he’d ever seen, save for that time his dad took him to Connie Mack Stadium to watch Sandy Koufax pitch. And the chills he got leaving the Relays that night, hustling to the parking lot with a coach who was hell-bent on beating traffic, when Villanova’s Larry James set a meet record with a scorching 43.9-second anchor leg in the 4x440 final and the stadium’s roar rumbled through the streets of West Philadelphia. “That’s what I remember,” says Johnson, whose wide-eyed fascination would later turn into a full-time job, director of the Penn Relays, that he has held since 1996. “Just the enormity of it all.” Haven’t been? Haven’t heard? Originally staged in 1895 as a single-day track and field meet for East Coast high school and college students, who squared off in events such as a two-mile bicycle race, a one-mile walk and “putting the shot,” the Penn Relays have since evolved into an international sporting spectacle. “If you run track and field, that’s something you want to participate in,” says Ron Bazil, who attended 34 straight Relays from 1968 through 2002 as the coach at Adelphia, Army and Tulane. “If you can’t, you at least want to be a spectator, to see the glamour. That’s the Mecca, really.” TAFWA Newsletter - Page 32 - May 2020 The list of celebrity alumni is eye-popping enough. To name a few: Jim Thorpe, Jesse Owens, Roger Bannister, , Allyson Felix, Usain Bolt and an Army pole vaulter named Edwin Aldrin, who would later attain greater fame for soaring much higher than the 12’ 6” he cleared (tied for fifth place) in 1950. But consider the full scope. Through last spring, the Relays had added up approximately 800,000 total registrants over the years, spanning ages eight to 100 (in the masters division), representing three dozen countries in 2019 (including eight government bodies who sent envoys of their nations’ best). Now held over three full days, always hooked to the last Saturday in April, the action runs from dawn to dark, per a frenzied yet precise schedule. “Races start every five minutes, but if we need to we can do it in four,” says Johnson. “From the time the last runner finishes until the next gun goes off, we average between 10 to 15 seconds.” That pace allows little respite for the fans who ring Franklin Field’s brick parapet each spring—close to 2.2 million total since 2000, more than any track meet short of the world championships or Summer Olympics. “There’s constant shrieking, bursts of cheering … ” Johnson says. “It’s a madhouse.” Gold watches are traditionally awarded to most champions, but glory is equally prized. “I used to be ashamed that the Penn Relays were so important to me,” legendary Villanova coach Marty Stern confessed to Penn’s student paper, The Daily Penn- sylvanian, in 1991. “During the Vietnam War, I would think to myself: How can I care so much about my team winning at the Penn Relays when people are being unnecessarily killed?’” Surely that wasn’t the first time someone at the meet had run into this moral dilemma. Last April the Relays celebrated their 125th consecutive staging, a streak that endured through World Wars I and II without so much as a one-day postponement. Of course, that was before the coronavirus pandemic paused sports as we know them. “[In the past] we’ve escaped major ca- lamities that suddenly befell the country,” says Johnson. “But the Relays have often been responsive to general societal changes, if you will, and this is a calamitous change.” Under normal circumstances, 14,000 or so athletes; 500-plus officials and volunteers; and 100,000-odd fans would’ve attend- ed the Penn Relays from April 23 through 25. Instead, the 400 gold watches, 3,450 winner’s medals and 144,000 runner’s bib safety pins that Johnson had ordered will be stashed away until next year. The madhouse will be empty. Franklin Field will be silent. “Without the Penn Relays,” Johnson said in the news release one month ago that announced a cancellation of the 126th carnival, “springtime in Philadelphia will not be the same.” For a time, though, Johnson had been holding onto hope. Even after the Jamaican government barred its schools from trav- eling for the meet, and after the superintendents at the Maryland track hubs of Baltimore County and Montgomery County followed suit, his staff kept busy by tweaking the qualifying standards to account for new fields. University higher-ups eventu- ally made the decision, leaving Johnson relieved it was out of his hands—but until then staffers around the office had been reaching back into history for signs of optimism. “ ‘What about World Wars I and II? It has to be the same, right?’ ” Johnson recalls being asked. “Well, no. While there were similar national emergencies, they were not so precipitous that they shut things down. This is completely beyond the scope of what we faced in those war years.” Even so, the 1910s and ’40s remain relevant to the legacy of the Penn Relays for other reasons. Without having persisted through those periods, when athletes ran the 4x440 and put the shot while bigger problems loomed outside Franklin Field, it’s possible that the carnival wouldn’t have become the crazed multicultural celebration that it is today. Inspired by a novel concept introduced two years earlier at a campus track meet, where teams of four had run quarter-mile legs in succession, the inaugural Penn Relays were held on April 21, 1895, coinciding with the dedication of Franklin Field (future home of the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles and, for a few recent years, an ultimate Frisbee outfit called the Philadelphia Spinners). An estimated 5,000 fans filled the newly built wooden grandstands that first year, while athletes from eight high schools and 10 colleges battled on the freshly coated cinder track. Much of the attention was grabbed by the relay team from Harvard, which breezed to a 50-yard victory in the 4x440, and by a Penn football star named Arthur Knipe, who, according to The Times of Philadelphia, broke the state record by 10 inches, “with absolutely no practice.” Otherwise, though, reviews were tepid. “The only particularly interesting and well- contested event of the regular programme,” wrote The Times, was the bicycle race, in which riders “fought a most interesting struggle for supremacy.” Clearly the competition wasn’t even that fierce. Having arrived in Philly the previous evening, runners from Harvard and Cornell reportedly yucked it up at a campus musical-comedy show alongside their Penn adversaries, sharing a theater box decorated in Crimson and Big Red colors. Still, it wasn’t long before the Relays’ reputation grew. By March 1914, as a squad from Oxford set sail across the Atlantic Ocean to become the meet’s first international participants, the Times of London observed: “These races have come to be the most important inter-collegiate and inter-scholastic games held annually anywhere in the world.” By then, several months before the outbreak of World War I in Europe, the event’s proper name had grown to capture the scene at Franklin Field: the Penn Relay Carnival, after the circus ring of tents that sprouted around the field’s perimeter, in lieu of locker rooms. The event, meanwhile, had positioned itself as an innovative presence on the U.S. track scene, becoming the first major meet Stateside to follow the example of the 1912 Stockholm Olympics in adopting the baton exchange over the old method of touching hands. Even after the U.S. declared war on in early 1917, leading to the likes of Cornell and Yale withdrawing their run- ners “due to the stress of martial preparedness,” according to The Daily Pennsylvanian, the carnival barely lost steam. Chilly weather limited fan attendance on that Friday, April 27, but an estimated 15,000 turned out beneath clear skies on Saturday to see Penn edge out Notre Dame in the one-mile relay while BYU high-jumper Charles Larsen—“the lad from far-away Utah” with “the elastic muscles” as The New York Times described him—bounded to a new Penn Relays record of 6’ 5 3/8”. Any result from the weekend, however, ran second to what the Gray Lady referred to as “all the panoply of war.” American flags filled every corner of the stadium grounds. Two college bands belted out patriotic tunes instead of fight songs. A soldier TAFWA Newsletter - Page 33 - May 2020 High school runners await their leg in the 1954 mile relay. Mark Kauffman/Sports Illustrated battalion of Penn students, clad in khaki military garb, stood watch with “businesslike-looking rifles in their hands” and filled breaks between races by performing drills in the infield. A hearty reception was given to hometown hero Howard Berry, who won his third straight carnival pentathlon on Friday before announcing he was immediately withdrawing from Penn to join the Army Aviation Corps in San Diego. All of which set up an even greater display of pageantry in 1918. Not only did the action regularly halt when troop trains rumbled past Franklin Field, servicemen waving out the windows as the crowd applauded their passage south. But hundreds of active soldiers, Marines and sailors—among them: Berry, returning to represent Camp Dix—were invited to compete in a full slate of special events on Army-Navy Day, including wall scaling, field drilling, a rescue race, a bayonet charge and a bugle contest. Charlestown Naval Training Station, perhaps buoyed by the freshness of arriving in town first and bunking up at the posh Colonnade Hotel, captured the half-mile marching relay, its members still decked out in service uniforms. The novelty competitions were never repeated, but the Penn Relays were nonetheless stamped as a marquee weekend on the track calendar. “The meet has become the most important held any place in the world,” The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote that year, “and the only athletic meeting that can be compared with it is the Olympic championships, whose continuity has been broken into by the war.” Two-day attendance totals throughout the next decade reflect this rise in popularity: 38,000 in 1920 . . . 50,000 in ’23 . . . 60,000 in ’26 . . . . So, too, in a roundabout way, does the infamous 175-yard dash final of April 28, 1928, when Franklin Field’s brick parapet crumbled beneath a sellout crowd’s weight and caused 100-odd fans to tumble (un- harmed) onto the track, right into the oncoming runners’ path. Today’s Relays pulse with similar energy, albeit with a much different look. Black athletes have competed at Franklin Field since the turn of the 20th century, establishing the Penn Relays as a truly open meet for all races, beginning with a local high school track star, the son of former slaves, named John Baxter Taylor. Johnson recalls once coming across an archival letter from the 1910s, sent by a Penn Relays official to a university administrator who was threatening to withdraw his school’s par- ticipation if African Americans were allowed at the carnival, basically telling the racist bozo to take a hike. That, says Johnson, “is the most significant document I think I’ve ever seen regarding the Penn Relays.” But it wasn’t until another global conflict broke out, decades later, that minorities began making their mark en masse. “Be- fore that,” Herb Douglas says with a snicker, “it was all Ivy League.” * * * The young man tossed in his bed, fuming as the stench of hops filled his nostrils. A sophomore sprinter at the historically black Xavier University of Louisiana—“a school only half the 5,000 shirt-sleeved spectators at the 48th annual University of Pennsylvania relays could locate,” as proclaimed by the Associated Press—Douglas and his teammates had traveled to Phila- delphia in April 1942 only to learn that no hotel would house them, “because we were a black school coming from the South,” Douglas says. The closest lodging his coach could find was miles outside of the city, smack next to a brewery. “That’s all we smelled all night,” Douglas says. “I was so angry. It [made you] want to go beat the world. And that’s what we did.” The next day, with Douglas running leadoff in the 4x110-yard final, Xavier knocked off favorites Pittsburgh and Penn State to become the carni- val’s first HBCU relay champion. “We were on our way as African Americans,” says Douglas. Until then, black athletes had only occasionally made the papers for their exploits at Franklin Field; even Owens was up- staged in 1936, mere months before his gold-medal performance at the Olympics, when the University of Texas team arrived wearing 10-gallon hats to practice their starts. But these Xavier runners of ’42 were hailed as trailblazers on the track. “Brown America hit the jackpot with gusto here last weekend at the Penn Relays,” reported the historically black Pittsburgh Courier, under the headline “Xavier Leads Sepia Brigade as Race Stars Dominate Relays.” “In fact, it marked the first time any TAFWA Newsletter - Page 34 - May 2020 all-Negro institution ever crashed the sacred portals of the relay’s inner sanctum of championships.” It was a banner weekend for breaking down racial barriers altogether. “Paradoxically, the event, once-upon-a-time strictly lily-white, has nurtured itself into the No. 1 Negro sports show of the year,” the Courier wrote. Though national rubber shortages and gas rationing had threatened to limit attendance, some 35,000 spectators watched Southern University’s Adam (Chu-Chu) Berry eclipse the meet’s old high-jump mark by a quarter-inch, while Douglas’s Xavier teammate Clarence Doak and Alabama State’s Leo Tarrant won gold watches in the 400-meter hurdles and 100-yard dash. Douglas recalls bolting out to a lead on his leg of the 4x110 relay and nailing his handoff to Doak, just like they had practiced every day, all season. “Shoot,” says Douglas. “I was going to bring that baton in there first if I had to die.” Crossing the finish line in 41.7 seconds, though, Xavier’s sprinters were more funereal than festive. “Well, you take an all- white crowd. . . ” Douglas says, trailing off. “We were very cool about it. We shook hands, stood up for a photo, and that was about the essence of it.” The reception that awaited those sprinters upon their return to New Orleans was only slightly warmer. Invited to a theater screening of Pathé News covering the Penn Relays, Douglas got to watch himself run for the first time ever. “Everyone cheered,” he says. But: “We had to sit up in the [theater’s] bleachers, because that’s where African Americans sat.” Over the next several decades, until SEC schools finally got with the times and integrated their track teams, “the athletic growth of the HBCUs along the Atlantic Coast was really what marked the 1950s and the early ’60s at Penn Relays,” says John- son. Just look at the list of champions: Nine HBCU teams captured relay titles in the ’50s (including Morgan State, with its four straight wins in the 4x100-meter dash), followed by 15 more teams in the ’60s. Black fraternities and sororities, meanwhile, have been putting on a Penn Relays step show on campus every Saturday night after the final race, dating back at least into the ‘80s. Based today in Philadelphia, Douglas, at 98, is believed to be the oldest living Olympic track and field medalist, having taken bronze in the in 1948, in London, before pivoting to a successful career in the liquor sales business. It’s clear that he hasn’t lost his passion for athletics. “I jogged until I was 66,” he says. “I worked out swimming until just three months ago.” He also makes the quick trip to the Penn Relays each year, donning the gold hat of an honorary official in the same sta- dium bowl where he once helped make history. “If someone comes up with a complaint,” he says, “I take it to a young guy and let him handle it.” As he sits there at Franklin Field, runners whipping past his post at the referees’ table in the corner near the first turn, some- times Douglas will peer into the stands, flags from European nations and Caribbean islands alike flapping in the spring breeze, and he will think back to April 1942. To the perfect baton exchange, to the all-white crowd, to the smell of hops. “We laid the foundation for African Americans. ... For the Caribbean as well,” he says. “I watched it change.” * * * Up until two weeks ago, June Griffith-Collison didn’t even know the Penn Relays had been canceled for the first time ever. Which is understandable. As the president and CEO of Community Hospital Health of San Bernardino (Calif.), she is respon- sible amid the COVID-19 pandemic for the well-being of 350 physicians, plus 1,400 other employees—not to mention a slow but steady ebb and flow of infected patients. “My goal every morning is to make sure my providers and my front-line staff stay safe, make sure they have all the personal protective equipment needed,” she says. “I think it’s going to be a joyous day when we come out of this.” For now, Griffith-Collison, 62, fills her hours by making rounds throughout the hospital, ensuring that her staff is practicing proper social distancing and wearing masks according to protocol. Presumably, this is accomplished at a swift pace. In April 1978, then a freshman hailing from and attending Adelphi University, June Griffith was the breakout star of the first Penn Relays to have a full day of women’s events, running a 53.3-second anchor leg on the victorious 4x400-meter relay team and winning the long jump. As with Johnson, the memories of that first carnival are still fresh. The warmup jog she and her teammates took through a rainy yet “vibrant” street festival outside Franklin Field, where vendors hawked arts and crafts and spectators welcomed them. The “thunderous applause” she heard upon entering the infield, and “the crowd right on top of you, yelling and screaming” as she tore down the final stretch to beat Morgan State by 2.7 seconds in the 4x400. “It was my responsibility to bring that win home,” she says. “I had to deliver.” More than the glory, though—women hadn’t yet “achieved [the] status” of earning gold watches at the Penn Relays, accord- ing to the next day’s New York Times, so she took home two championship medals—Griffith-Collison remembers with fond- ness the Relays’ unique scene. “America has come a long way, but they’ve never been into track and field like Europeans,” says Griffith-Collison, who later ran the 400 meters for Guyana at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. “But at the Penn Relays it was always packed, always crowded. That was the only [meet] that came close to a European setting.” She has been back to the carnival only once since college, coaxed several years ago by some former teammates who wanted to reunite. And that’s what it turned out to be, a reunion—not only with her fellow Adelphi runners, but also with a number of women against whom she’d once competed on that very track. “It surprises you to know how many of the ex-athletes are still engaged in the sport,” she says. “That said something to me.” Griffith-Collison stepped away from the running scene after giving birth to a son, Darren—the future NBA point guard— but she and husband Dennis, another ex-Adelphi sprinter, have slowly returned to their roots, attending the Olympics and the IAAF world championships whenever they can. Not long ago, Dennis suggested they add the Penn Relays to their regular circuit, for old time’s sake. Health care professional that she is, though, she cannot help but imagine how such a mass gathering would’ve spread the novel coronavirus if it had been staged as scheduled this weekend. (In the event’s absence, the university is hosting a Digital Penn Relays, centered around a virtual race set in the online world of Minecraft.) “There was no other choice but to cancel,” Griffith-Collison says. “The stakes were too high.” Through it all, she remains hopeful—about a flattened curve, about a widespread vaccine, about a world brought back to normal. “And one year from now,” she says, “I’m heading to the Penn Relays.” TAFWA Newsletter - Page 35 - May 2020 2020 Fixtures List Collegiate 19-20 Decastar, Talence April 22-25 Drake Relays, Des Moines POSTPONED October 23-25 Penn Relays, Philadelphia POSTPONED 4 Prefontaine Classic, Eugene TENTATIVE Rescheduled from June 6-7 May 9 Doha DL 14 Distance Classic, Oxy, LA POSTPONED 17 China DL, site TBA 21-23 Tucson Elite, Tucson POSTPONED 31 Boston Boost Games CANCELLED Roads June 18-20 Armory Indoor Marathon, NYC June POSTPONED to Autumn 4-5 Portland Track Festival, Lewis & Clark CANCELLED Sept. 13 Fifth Avenue Mile, NYC 12 Stumptown Twilight Meet, Portland POSTPONED Sept. 14 Boston Marathon NEW DATE Sept. 27 CANCELLED July Oct. 4 NEW DATE 11-16 Ironwood Throws, Coeur d’Alene (tentative) Oct. 11 17-18 American JavFest, East Stroudsburg, Pa. Nov. 1 NYC Marathon

November 2021 21 XC Nationals March Stillwater (I), Evansville (II), Terre Haute (III) 12-13 NCAA Indoor Nationals Fayetteville (I), Birmingham (II) Geneva, Ohio (III) High School 19-21 World Indoor, Nanjing April 10-13 Carifta Games, POSTPONED 20 World Cross Country, Bathurst, July 16-19 NSAF Nationals (Being held as a virtual event) 24-27 Texas Relays, Austin Note new dates National/International April May 22-24 Penn Relays, Philadelphia 30-31 Gotzis Multis CANCELLED Drake Relays, Des Moines 31 Rabat DL, Morocco CANCELLED May June 1-2 World Relays, Chorzow, 1 FBK Games, Hengelo CANCELLED 23 Boston Boost Games 11 Bislett, Oslo Now non-DL event 27-29 NCAA II-III Nationals 12-14 USATF Junior Nationals, Miramar, Fla. CANCELLED Div. I Regionals Tentative 19-28 US Olympic Trials, Eugene POSTPONED TO 2021 June July 9-12 NCAA Div. I Nationals, Eugene Dates subject to change 4 London DL CANCALLED 18-27 Olympic Trials, Eugene 7-12 World Juniors, Nairobi POSTPONED 25 TAFWA Awards Breakfast, Gerlinger Hall 9 AM 20-Aug 1 World Masters, Toronto CANCELLED July 24-Aug 9 Olympic Games, Tokyo POSTPONED TO 2021 July-August 23-Aug 8 Olympic Games, Tokyo August 11-12 Nurmi Games, Turku, August Rescheduled from June 9 18-29 World University Games, Chendgu, China 14 Herculis DL, Monaco September Rescheduled from July 9-10 Diamond League Finals, Zurich 16 Gateshead DL November 23 Bauhaus DL, Stockholm 20 NCAA XC - Tallahassee (I), Tampa (II), Louisville (III) Rescheduled from May 24 26-30 European Championships, Paris CANCELLED 2022 March September 11-12 NCAA Indoor Nationals 2 Athletissima, Lausanne Birmingham (I), Pittsburg, Kan. (II), Boston (III) Rescheduled from August 20 4 Van Damme DL, Brussels June 6 Paris DL 6-8 NCAA Div. I Nationals, Eugene 8 Ostrava Golden Spike Rescheduled from May 22 July 11 Weltklasse DL Final, Zurich CANCELLED 15-24 World Championships, Eugene 12 International, Kingston 27- Aug. 7 Commonwealth Games, Birmingham, England Rescheduled from June 13 13 ISTAF, Berlin August 15 Hanzekovica, Zagreb 11-21 European Championships, Munich 17 Golden Globe Rome/Naples DL September Rescheduled from May 28 Diamond League Finals, Zurich 19 Shanghai DL October Rescheduled from May 16 22 - Nov. 9 Youth Olympics, Dakar, Senegal TAFWA Newsletter - Page 36 - May 2020