July 2015 Track and Field Writers of President’s Message America

Gathering at the Heinonens’ (Founded June 7, 1973)

PRESIDENT Longtime members Tom and Janet Heinonen graciously opened their home to us Jack Pfeifer, 6129 N. Lovely St., Portland, OR for a TAFWA social event on Sunday morning June 28, the final day of the USATF 97203. Office/home: 917- meet in Eugene. Their home is just a few blocks from Hayward Field. 579-5392. Email: [email protected] Thanks to the organizing efforts of Kim Spir, Dave Johnson and Tom Casacky, VICE PRESIDENT Doug Binder. Email: everyone had a good get-together of breakfast and conversation. That included [email protected]. reminiscing about our old friend Jim Dunaway, who passed away earlier this year. Phone: 503-913-4191.

TREASURER Because of a personal conflict, your president was not able to attend. My apolo- Tom Casacky, P.O. Box 4288, Napa, CA 94558. gies. Phone: 818-321-3234. Email: [email protected] We hope to continue this tradition of small social events at members’ homes in SECRETARY/ AWARDS CHAIR Contents Don Kopriva, 5327 New- port Drive, Lisle IL 60532. P. 1 President’s Message Home: 630-960-3049. P. 3 TAFWA/FAST Social in Eugene Cell: 630-712-2710. Email: donkopriva777@ P. 5 FAST Award to Sieg Lindstrom aol.com P. 8 Lananna’s Summer Series for 2016

NEWSLETTER EDITOR P. 11 Race Volunteers’ Lawsuit Goes Forward Kim Spir, University of P. 14 Run Gum - Support Elite Athletes like Nick Symmonds Portland, 5000 N. Willamette Blvd., P. 16 Bert Used Private Firm For Testing? Portland, OR 97203. P. 19 Molly Huddle’s Blog Work: 503-943-7314. Email: kim.spir@gmail. P. 20 NIKE’s corporate “heart” com P. 24 Keith Conning - Athletics for a Better World

FAST P. 26 An Indifferent Toronto and the Pan Am Games Dave Johnson. Email: P. 29 Rod Dixon vs. Pre? [email protected] Phone: 215-898-6145. P. 33 Pan Am Games’ TO2015 Organizing Committee Threatens to Sue If You Link to the Website WEBMASTER Michael McLaughlin. P. 35 The RunnerSpace.com Story - Ross Krempley Email: supamac@comcast. P. 38 Partial Fixtures List net. Phone: 815-529- 8454. Photo: Steve Sutton, adidas International NYC future years including Portland, Oregon during the World Indoors in 2016.

FAST Annual By now, if you are a paid-up member for 2015, you should have received your FAST annual either in person in Eugene or by post. If not, please contact Dave Johnson, who is handling this year’s mailing.

Additional copies are available for $20.

For next year, the 2016 Olympic season, we are in discussion with our sponsors and editors to try to have the Annual ready in time for the 2016 USA and World Indoor meets, which will be held in Port- land in March. That would be a novelty, eh? We would also consider having additional indoors material, appropriate to the big indoor champs.

Championships And now we look ahead to the biggest 13 months of our sport – next month’s World Championships in Beijing, the Word Indoor in Portland, the Olympic Trials in Eugene a year from now, and the first-ever in South America, in in the summer of 2016.

Eugene Because so many of our most important meets now take place in Eugene, Ore. – the NCAA every year, a third straight Olympic Trials, USA Nationals, Prefontaine – we are all accustomed to Hayward Field, Franklin Boulevard, TrackTown Pizza, the Valley River Inn, the Hilton, Marche, McMenamin’s and so forth.

Logistical issues come up every year. Some things seem to get better, some seem to slide back. If there were things that particularly concerned you, as a member of the working press, this past season, please pass along your concerns to me and be as specific as possible.

One new and troubling issue appears to be the cost of housing in Eugene, a community that typically has provided affordable accommodations. No longer, as event-specific pricing has now driven motel rooms above $300 a night. We hope to address this in the off-season.

Parking near Hayward Field also remains an issue, and we again plan to look at this one in the off-sea- son. How much, for example, would you be willing to pay for a reserved parking space, two blocks from Hayward Field, per day? $25?

Photographer restrictions. We hear things went well this year at Pre, not so great at NCAA. How did it go for you? Suggestions?

Wi-fi. Did it work well in the tent this year? If you had your own cable, internet connectivity in the stadium was excellent. I can attest to this personally. Ethernet is the way to go at Hayward Field. You can purchase an Ethernet cable and, where needed, a laptop adapter, at the university book store just off-campus.

/JP/

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 2 - July 2015 TAFWA/FAST Social ---- FAST Award Presentation

Upper left: Dave Johnson Jack Shepard, Rick Russell, Keith Con- ning, Bob Jarvis. Upper right: Art Morgan, Nancy Nelson. Lower left: Tom Casacky, Bob Jarvis, Keith Conning, Art Morgan, Nancy Nelson. Middle right: Rick Russell, David Monti, Chris Lotsbom. Lower right: Copper TAFWA Newsletter - Page 3 - July 2015 TAFWA Newsletter - Page 4 - July 2015 The 2015 FAST Award was presented to Sieg Lindstrom (‘who me??”) in the Media Tribune during the USATF Championships at Hayward Field Sunday, June 28, 2015. TAFWA Newsletter - Page 5 - July 2015 TAFWA Newsletter - Page 6 - July 2015 TAFWA Newsletter - Page 7 - July 2015 http://portlandtribune.com/pt/12-sports/265804-138736-lanannas-summer-series-idea- would-keep-athletes-from-running-to-europe

Lananna’s summer series idea would keep athletes from running to Europe Created on Saturday, 04 July 2015 01:18 | Written by Kerry Eggers

Earlier articles: http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2015/06/25/new-circuit-planned-boost-track-and-field-us

TrackTown USA head aims to help competitors earn living, grow sport ______

EUGENE — A year ago, Atlanta-based sports agent Paul Doyle initiated a U.S. track and field team competition called the American Track League that didn’t gain a lot of traction.

Now Vin Lananna hopes to put together a similar enterprise called the TrackTown Summer Series that will culminate with a season-ending championship meet at Hayward Field next summer. The league is scheduled to begin shortly after the 2016 Olympic Trials July 1-10 at Eugene.

Lananna, president of the TrackTown USA organization that promotes the sport and stages major events, says he has reached out to representatives of 12 cities “in major media markets” to serve as sites for teams.

“I can’t provide details, but Portland is one of those cities, for sure,” Lananna says.

Other West Coast cities believed to be involved in negotiations for a team include Seattle, San Francisco and Sacramento, Calif.

Lananna’s idea is to provide competitive domestic meets for U.S. athletes after the USTAF national championships in late June and leading up to the World Championships or Olympic Games in late summer.

“We have felt for a long time we need to have opportunities in this country during the summer for our high-end athletes as they peak for the World Championships, Olympic Games or Diamond League events,” Lananna says.

Eugene played host to a high-performance professional meet last summer “with the full intention of shifting the paradigm of everybody running out of town after the U.S. championships or Olympic Trials and going to Europe,” he says.

Lananna says he has received “good response” from reps of four cities thus far, plus “great response from the athletes and great response from the investors. This is one of the first times when any initiative has started with having the financial background, then developing the outcome with the rest of the idea.”

There will be teams representing cities and team scores kept in dual meets. There will be an athlete draft con- ducted to balance the talent pool. TAFWA Newsletter - Page 8 - July 2015 “We feel we’ll (field) 200 athletes,” Lananna says. “Our objective is to provide opportunities for U.S. athletes. We may have some international athletes, too, but at a lower percentage.”

Not every event will be included in every meet, which Lananna says will take 90 minutes to complete. He says the championship meet in Eugene will take one hour and 45 minutes.

“The meets will be scored, and we’ll engage the team concept similar to the way the NCAA Championships are set up,” Lananna says.

Athletes will be “financially compensated for participating,” he says.

But those athletes will be able to continue with their shoe and apparel endorsement deals and will wear their normal uniforms during meets.

“They’ll continue to wear whatever they currently wear,” he says.

Lananna hopes to incorporate road racing in the meets, with the race to end at the finish line inside the stadi- um. TrackTown USA — which will stage the 2016 World Indoor Championships in Portland and the 2021 World Outdoor Championships in Eugene — will help operate each of the meets. Lananna says he is in negotiations with a “major television network” for broadcast rights.

The investors, Lananna says, “will either coach the team themselves or hire somebody.”

“We’ll pit one city’s team against another’s,” Lananna says. “Right now, we anticipate having at least four (dual meets), and there will be a national championship held at Hayward Field.

“The objective is a buildup to the 2021 World Championships. It’s my goal to create stars of our sport (to be- come) household names as we get ready to host the 2021 World Championships.”

Attendance at the dual “regional” meets, Lananna says, “won’t be important at all. They’re going to be on TV, so it doesn’t matter if (attendance is) 2,000. Attendance at the national championships in Eugene — the financial model for the investors — will be very important.”

U.S. athletes will to be able to continue to compete in Diamond League events in Europe.

“We will do our best to pick the dates so not to conflict with the Diamond League,” Lananna says. “But once you join, you do have to participate.”

Lananna says the league has been in the works for three years.

“We are mostly interested in engaging our younger athletes, some of whom have been part of our planning stag- es,” Lananna says. “They’re excited about it. We have some cool elements we’re not ready to roll out yet. I have every reason to believe once you put out some reasonable finances, and they don’t have to spend $5,000 to $6,000 (to go to Europe for meets), it’s a win-win for everybody.

“My intention is to grow the entire sport. We’ll take on what is a long-needed objective for our athletes in the U.S. We have to get track being thought about in the summer months. After our national championships, no- body utters the words ‘track and field’ in the U.S. except when something controversial comes up.”

In interviews with several athletes during last week’s USATF Championships at Eugene, none — including distance runner — said they had heard of the planned league.

Having no domestic meets after the USATF meet “is a big problem for U.S. athletes,” national 5,000 champion TAFWA Newsletter - Page 9 - July 2015 of Portland’s Nike says. “We have to go to Europe in the summer. Some of us would like to stay in the States and race.

“(A domestic league) would be fantastic. I’d love to see it. The only problem might be, the big names can make more money in Europe. But for athletes who don’t feel confident about making money in Europe, the best idea is to stay here and race.”

National steeplechase champion says much the same thing. “That would be pretty cool,” says the Nike BTC runner. “I don’t know what the payout structure would be, but it would be hard for some of the top guys to turn down the Diamond League money.

“But if if there’s some money in these meets, I could totally see that taking off. Why would you not want to stay in the States, stay at home, potentially race in your hometown in front of your fans? It would give people more opportunity to run faster races, which would be awesome for American track.”

Veteran high jumper Amy Acuff says it is becoming harder for the top-flight U.S. track and field athletes to make a living.

“Since I started (in 1996), I’ve seen a decline in the number and quality of meets,” the five-time Olympian says. “The European meets don’t take a lot of athletes. There are small fields, and prize money is not deep. There is not as much an incentive as it used to be. And when (the meets) are spread out, there’s incredible expense to put yourself up for a whole week or two.

“It’s really hard for U.S. athletes. The contract support (from shoe and apparel companies) has dried up substan- tially the last few years. There are people who are relying on track and field for their day-to-day survival — really talented people. We’re talking top 10 in the world making almost no money in the sport. That’s scary for them. They just don’t know what they’re going to do.

“(A U.S. track league) would be amazing. I wish Vin all the best of luck in pulling that off, but it’s no easy task. He’ll need a lot of help and support from the track and field community. I hope that’s achieved.”

Lananna says plans for the U.S. and World Indoors — which will be held a week apart in March at the Oregon Convention Center — are moving quickly. The track is currently being shipped from Estonia, where it was built, and is expected to arrive in Portland on Thursday.

“We’ll have it housed and surfaced in Portland and ready to be set up when the time comes,” Lananna says. [email protected]

Kerry Eggers is a former President of TAFWA.

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 10 - July 2015 http://www.runnersworld.com/races/race-volunteers-lawsuit-against-competitor-group-will-go-for- ward

NEWSWIRE RACES Race Volunteer’s Lawsuit Against Competitor Group Will Go Forward

At issue is whether volunteers at for-profit races need to be paid.

ByJon Marcus MONDAY, JUNE 8, 2015, 11:14 AM

A volunteer at the 2012 St. Louis Rock ‘n’ Roll has brought a lawsuit against the race’s owner, Com- petitor Group. PHOTO BY PHOTO RUN

In a case that could have vast ramifications for the growing number of running races organized by for-profit companies, a judge has agreed to let a lawsuit go forward brought by a volunteer against the parent of theRock ’n’ Roll series, demanding that she and others who work for free at the events be paid. TAFWA Newsletter - Page 11 - July 2015 The lawsuit, filed in federal court in St. Louis against Competitor Group Inc., alleges that the company uses its partnerships with charities that provide volunteers as “a veneer for recruiting free labor” to operate water stops, escort runners, direct traffic, and do other jobs, in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act, and contends that these thousands of workers must be paid at least minimum wage—$7.50 an hour in Missouri.

“We do not believe that the volunteers are working for the charities in any meaningful sense,” says Derek Brandt, one of the attorneys who brought the suit.

Then-Competitor Group CEO David Abeles said in a statement when the suit was filed that the charges were “completely baseless,” and that he expected the case to be resolved quickly. He said the company would not com- ment further while the action was pending.

But U.S. District Judge Ronnie White has now denied the company’s attempt to have the case dismissed, and set a preliminary hearing for this month to hammer out a schedule for the lawsuit to proceed. Competitor Group has asked that the scheduling hearing be postponed so it can have more time to prepare.

Lawyers who brought the suit say they hope to expand the case into a class action that could include all vol- unteers who worked at Competitor Group events since 2012, the year the named plaintiff, Yvette Liebesman, served as an unpaid bicycle escort in the St. Louis Rock ’n’ Roll Marathon.

If the suit succeeds, “it would have a significant effect on thousands of running events,” including community races organized by local running stores, says Phil Stewart, director of the nonprofit Cherry Blossom 10-miler and editor and publisher of Road Race Management. “It could fundamentally re-order the volunteer component of events.”

Stewart says the fact that such arrangements have been in place for years sets a precedent that may make it hard for the lawsuit to succeed. But labor lawyers and experts in philanthropy say the case could have at least a widespread impact on running companies’ public images and ability to recruit volunteers.

Assembled in 2007 by a venture capital company, Competitor Group runs the Rock ‘n’ Roll , TriRock triathlons, and Muddy Buddy adventure series. Privately held—now by another venture capital company—it does not reveal its financial information, though founder and then-CEO Peter Englehart said in 2009 that he expected annual revenues to exceed $100 million within a few years.

Partner charities help recruit volunteers and solicit runners, who pay the regular race fees and are encouraged to raise money for the charities. The lawsuit does not name the charity that brought in Liebesman to volunteer. But the lawsuit says that, in order to be recognized as an official charity for the race, the nonprofit had to have at least 10 registered runners paying $165 each, bringing in $1,650 in revenue for Competitor Group.

In exchange, nonprofits could recruit, fundraise, and market themselves as official charities, were allowed to use the event logo, were linked from the race website, and could solicit pledges from runners, the lawsuit says.

Competitor Group says that, depending on the size of an event, it uses from 1,000 to 3,000 volunteers, and has had hundreds of thousands of them since it began organizing races. It also says that about 100 partner chari- ties have raised $310 million through the Rock ’n’ Roll events since the series began in 1998, including St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America.

Other private companies also operate running races and triathlons that use volunteers, including Ironman par- ent World Triathlon Corporation and RunDisney. (Runner’s World has official charity partners for races it puts on, to which it recommends the runners contribute, but it recruits its volunteers directly.)

The charity connections may make volunteers and runners think events raise more money for good causes than TAFWA Newsletter - Page 12 - July 2015 they actually do, says Daniel Borochoff, president and founder of Charitywatch.

“I think the charities are getting used here,” Borochoff says.

He says for-profit companies working with charities to staff their events with volunteers is not much different from a hypothetical retailer giving money to a local charity in exchange for volunteers to work in its stores dur- ing the busy holiday season.

“The nonprofit is serving like a recruitment agency,” Borochoff says. “The lines are getting more and more blurred.”

The case would not affect nonprofit race organizers, Brandt says.

“Nonprofits are treated differently under the law,” he says. “As we allege, however, private sector for-profit race organizers cannot use a volunteer labor force.”

From unpaid interns to people who volunteer at events that profit private companies, uncompensated labor is coming under the regulatory spotlight, says Todd Newman, a labor lawyer and a partner at the firm Schwartz Hannum.

The U.S. Department of Labor has intervened four times over the last few years in questions about when and whether workers can go unpaid. One of its advisory opinions came after employees of a university agreed to volunteer at a road race on the campus; the department ruled that the employees could be asked to work for free only if they offered to participate without coercion, did so outside their normal working hours, and were not be- ing asked to perform their regular work duties without pay.

There have been other issues involving volunteers at running events and triathlons. Some medical volunteers who previously worked without insurance coverage have forced for-profit race organizers to provide it, for ex- ample. A volunteer at the 2013 All-Star FanFest sued Major League Baseball for alleged unpaid wages; that case was dismissed last year because of an exemption in the Fair Labor Standards Act for “amusement or recreational establishment[s]” that operate for fewer than seven months a year, a category into which Major League Baseball argued its FanFest fell—and the same exemption on which Competitor Group based its motion to have the lat- est case dismissed.

In its motion, Competitor Group said Liebesman “does not allege that she was coerced to provide those services, that she expected to receive wages, that she expected to receive a paying job at CGI, or that she needed to vol- unteer in order to support herself.” It said no court has ever held that the law bans for-profit businesses “from engaging willing volunteers.”

Like Stewart, Newman says the lawsuit against Competitor Group is also likely to face high hurdles.

“It sounds to me like it might be a very creative argument by those volunteers that they ought to be paid, if they are going to a local charity with the intention from the very start that they are assisting the charity and they’re not entering into any employment relationship and have no expectation of being paid,” he says. “They may be facing an uphill climb.”

The case does raise thought-provoking questions, though, he says. And given the preponderance of for-profit companies now organizing events like these, “it seemed only a matter of time” before it would be brought.

“It’s an area where employers really need to tread carefully,” Newman says, “because the spotlight from the De- partment of Labor is on all sorts of volunteer arrangements. These are very new, interesting types of issues.” Competitor Group has had disputes with its charity partners before. Last year it sued the American Cancer So-

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 13 - July 2015 ciety when the organization pulled out of a sponsorship agreement under which it paid fees in exchange for the chance to raise money at the Rock ’n’ Roll marathons in Chicago, New Orleans, and Seattle.

Competitor Group says the cancer society raised $5 million through the deal between 2010 and 2012. But the society says the arrangement cost it more than it took in.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story identified David Abeles as CEO of Competitor Group. Abeles was CEO when the suit was filed in 2014, but is no longer CEO. In addition, a lawsuit filed by a volunteer against Major League Baseball was filed in 2013, not 2014. That suit was dismissed in 2014.

http://getrungum.com/blogs/blog/46814595-runners-we-need-your- help BLOG RUNNERS: We need your help! JUL 06, 2015 #TEAMRUNGUM, NICK SYMMONDS

We are trying to do something unheard of and we need you to help us do it! If you tuned into the 2015 USATF Outdoor Championships, you may have seen a new logo on the chest of your

favorite athletes. Our company, Run Gum, invested in twenty competitors that were in need of financial sup- port. We provided these hard working men and women with gear, product, and CASH.

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 14 - July 2015 When my coach and I launched Run Gum in the fall of 2014, we knew that one of our most important goals was to give back to the community that had given us so much. We committed to earmarking 5 cents of every single packet of Run Gum sold for athlete sponsorship.

As we watched Team Run Gum athletes soar to new heights and punch their tickets to the 2015 World Champi- onships we knew we had taken our first small step towards repaying the running community.

When I made my way through the mixed zone after my own race, I was pleasantly surprised to run into another company equally committed to growing the sport of running: Flotrack. Their first question to me: “Nick, what can we as runners do to help Run Gum?”

There is one very simple way you can help us: please visit your local running store and ask them to stock their shelves with Run Gum. Retailers can email sales@ getrungum.com to place a wholesale order.

As a company, Run Gum has grown steadily over the last eight months. We couldn’t have done so without your support! Now, as we begin to look towards the 2016 Olympic season, we know that we need to continue to grow if we are going to be able to accomplish our next goal: making sure EVERY SINGLE eligible athlete at the 2016 Olympic Trials has a sponsor financially backing them.

We thank you from the bottom of our heart for supporting us in investing in athletes. To keep you informed of

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 15 - July 2015 how your investment is doing, I will be blogging for Run Gum every month until the opening ceremony of the 2016 Olympic Games. Blogs will be published on the first Monday of every month!

Thank you again. Your friend in running, -Nick Symmonds

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/69675782/athletics-coach-alber- to-salazar-used-private-firm-to-avoid-test-breaches Athletics coach used private firm to avoid test breaches

BEN BLOOM | Last updated 16:06, June 24, 2015

Photo by KIRBY LEE/USA TODAY SPORTS Galen Rupp embraces Alberto Salazar, right, after setting the American 10,000m record in 2014.

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 16 - July 2015 Alberto Salazar allegedly hired a private drug-testing company to ensure that his athletes would not trigger a failed test. The under-fire American coach is also facing allegations that he repeatedly applied for permission to use medication he did not require during his career as an elite runner.

Salazar, who coaches , has been accused in recent weeks of violating a number of doping regulations, including exploiting the therapeutic use exemptions (TUEs) system to give his athletes an edge without medical justification.

It has now emerged that Salazar’s association with suspicious exemptions actually dates back to the , when he would allegedly put in regular applications for conditions he was deemed not to suffer from.

A number of his former athletes have claimed he encouraged them to do the same, and today we reveal claims that Salazar employed an external company to check whether anything that his Nike Oregon Project runners were taking would result in a doping breach.

Don Catlin, one of the world’s leading anti-doping experts and founding father of drug testing in sport, says he was shown a report commissioned by Salazar not long after the Nike Oregon Project coaching facility was estab- lished in 2001.

“I was asked to review a list of drugs tests that somebody had requested from a company that did testing,” Catlin said. “That person turned out to be Salazar. I just thought to myself he’s looking and checking to make sure that whatever he’s doing isn’t going to ring any bells.”

It is not known whether the report showed any failed values or exactly which of Salazar’s athletes took part in the testing, although it precedes the time that Farah joined the camp in 2011. Among the allegations brought against Salazar by the BBC’s Panorama this month was one that he used his son Alex to apply testosterone gel to determine how much would trigger a positive test.

“It seemed ludicrous,” said Steve Magness, Salazar’s former assistant coach. “It was them trying to figure out how to cheat the tests. So it’s how much can we take without triggering a positive.” He added: “Why are you fooling around with something like testosterone anyway? And furthermore, why are you putting testosterone on your son, who presumably has no medical need for it?”

A former Nike Oregon Project massage therapist onTuesday told how Salazar often warned his athletes not to touch his bags because he feared contaminating them with his testosterone gel. Allan Kupczak, who left the camp in 2011, said he went to the United States Anti-Doping Agency before the London Olympics to voice his fears over Salazar’s conduct.

Salazar did not respond on Tuesday when asked to comment on the allegation that he ordered private testing of his athletes or on his own use of TUEs during his running career.

Catlin says he was initially alarmed by Salazar’s conduct when he was a member of both the US Olympic Com- mittee and the International Olympic Committee in the 1980s - a time when Salazar was a professional long- distance runner. He claims Salazar would repeatedly attempt to apply for medical exemptions - later known as TUEs - to use restricted treatments for conditions that Catlin deemed him not to suffer from.

“I used to be on the board that reviewed TUEs for the US Olympic Committee so if someone wanted a TUE they would write it up and I would review it,” Catlin says.

“The issue for me with Salazar has always been that he tried to get a TUE for all kinds of things. He was looking for TUEs where I didn’t think there was any reason and I denied all of them. It didn’t make any sense to me and I thought to myself this is a person looking to try to find an edge some way or another.” TAFWA Newsletter - Page 17 - July 2015 Around 18 of Salazar’s former athletes and colleagues are believed to have testified against the coach since a jointPanorama and ProPublica investigation accused him of -numerous doping offences, including plying Galen Rupp with testosterone when the athlete was 16 and encouraging his runners to flaunt the system regarding prescription drugs. The allegations came as no surprise to Catlin, who says he has been well aware of Salazar’s suspicious attitude towards drugs for more than three decades.

“His name has come up over and over again through the years. When his name comes up you are on guard. I suppose that’s because his name comes up fairly often and it’s always in a context where everything could be fine, but there could be something wrong.”

Salazar’s use of TUEs has been a major subject of concern over the past few weeks with numerous athletes, including , Lauren Fleshman and Stuart Eagon, speaking out. Fleshman, a two-time American 5,000-metres champion, says she was alarmed by the encouragement she received from Salazar to use her exercise-induced asthma to her advantage.

She claims Salazar had a “specific protocol” to induce an asthma attack and fail the medical examination by run- ning round a track and up stairs. Once Fleshman was on the medication she alleges Salazar explained “This is go- ing to be great for you, so many athletes once they got on this did so much better than they’d ever done before”. She added: “Something about it that made me feel very clearly that that approach to my inhaler was wrong. Turning illness into an advantage was not right.”

Catlin says the TUE system is ripe for abuse and if it was up to him he would “throw them all out”. He said: “I’ve seen a lot of people who have tried to get TUEs by getting doctors and all kind of people to support their request. Then in the cases where I’ve looked into them there’s been no reason to grant them. Getting a TUE or drug that enhances performance is a licence to cheat.”

Aside from a brief statement in which he denied “all allegations of doping”, Salazar is yet to speak publicly while he gathers evidence that he maintains will clear his name.

Giving his verdict on Catlin in 2006, Salazar said the anti-doping guru was “a hell of a lot smarter guy than me”.

- The Daily Telegraph, London - The Telegraph, London

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 18 - July 2015 http://www.runmollyhuddle.com/

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 19 - July 2015 http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/gen- eral/athletics/how-profits-replaced-passion- at-the-heart-of-nike-10317204.html

How profits replaced passion at the heart of Nike

It was far more subtlety, far less in the early days, says Ian Herbert, but now the firm that was inspired by Steve Prefon- taine’s memory has become the world’s biggest sports brand with the help of some dubious associations

IAN HERBERT | CHIEF SPORTS WRITER | FRIDAY 12 JUNE 2015

There was an emotional core to Nike once, in the days before their determination to be the richest, most ubiq- uitous brand led them to suffer the dubious coincidence of being the one attached to Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods and Oscar Pistorius when each of those individuals plumbed the depths of notoriety.

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 20 - July 2015 Athletics was a source of joy as well as income to the company back then and the community they created to help develop track and field stars was called Athletics West – a more homespun name and place than the pseudo- science fiction Nike Oregon Project which has mired British Athletics, its poster boy Mo Farah and its very well- paid consultant Alberto Salazar in controversy and suspicion this past week.

It was there, in Eugene, Oregon, that the sports footwear firm stumbled on a short, handsome, tough local car- penter’s son called , who set the world of distance running on fire in their shoes and made it to the cover of Sports Illustrated in June 1970. They called him just “Pre” and when he was killed in 1975, after his little gold MG skidded into a rock wall and he was catapulted onto the pavement by the impact, they grieved. It took the firm that would become Nike years to get over the loss.

It was far more subtlety, far less swoosh in those days. For years after changing the name to Nike Inc in 1980, they kept the firm’s original “Blue Ribbon Sports” name on the letterhead and the marketing strategy was “whispering loudly”: nothing too obvious. But now they bestride sport, bankrolling vast parts of it and satisfied – from that imperious position – to have just taken two-times drugs cheat Justin Gatlin back onto their payroll, while athletes such as Britain’s Jo Pavey, Greg Rutherford and Steph Twell and the American 1500m London Olympics silver medallist Leo Manzano have been dumped.

Neither does Nike seem to have harboured much agitation about Panorama’s investigation into Salazar. The company has not returned my calls on him, or Gatlin, this week. They’re yet to publish a word on either topic. Michael Vick was jailed in 2007 after admitting cruelty to dogs – but Nike later took him backThe cultural shift came not long after Prefontaine’s death as Nike realised that buying up and developing the world’s new athletes was the way to catch up and overtake Europe’s Adidas, an aim they had accomplished by 1980. They tried to retain the underdog spirit for as long as they could, but there was a desperation and frustration about how to generate an output of winners from Athletics West. Spending money there stopped them breaking the sport’s amateur sanctity but the problem was the Russian and East German athletes who were enhancing their perfor- mances through steroids.

Julie Strasser, a former senior Nike executive who was the company’s first advertising manager and wife of the late Rob Strasser, one of the firm’s three founding fathers, tells me that Athletics West began examining steroids as a way of helping athletes’ recovery from workouts in the late . “Is it justifiable to do that when the other guy is cheating?” she asks, rhetorically. “I don’t believe steroids are cheating. It’s so important to get muscle, you know. People still have to train and put the work in, even if they take them.”

In her 1991 book Swoosh: the Unauthorised Story of Nike and the Men who Played There, Strasser chronicles how Nike strategy meeting minutes revealed Athletics West’s fascination with steroids as a training aid. She quotes insurance records detailing testosterone tests and liver function tests, undertaken by athletes there, to test the physiological effects of steroids. The coach who ran Athletics West at the time has denied steroid use. Strasser also reveals how little sentiment there has ever been, where Nike and its choice of athletes is concerned. That is why they have always sponsored individuals – never events. “They like the brash, stylish, talented indi- viduals who get them attention,” Strasser says. “They are not going to drop any individual bad boy unless it is a catastrophe – a murder – he’s committed. They would reason that they’ve never been damaged by any athlete. I remember we laughed when [the] [apparel] brand once sponsored the referees. How stupid is that? Nobody likes referees.”

So here is the fabric of the story of a marketing strategy which would leave those companies seeking a pure image running for cover. Nike’s creative use of bad boys goes all the way back to the 1981 John McEnroe ad- vert – “McEnroe’s favourite four-letter word” – and though Strasser insists that the company has “never had its reputation damaged by any athlete”, many who stand for sanctity and positivity have been burned in the past few years alone, because their faces have not fit.

The Independent has spoken to a number of British athletes who have proved a less attractive proposition to the firm than Gatlin, who was brought back onto the roster despite testing positive for amphetamines and testos- TAFWA Newsletter - Page 21 - July 2015 terone. It’s been a familiar routine for them: a regular review meeting is scheduled, an athlete who has experi- enced success heads into it expecting to renew and is then told the relationship is over. For some it is the end of the valuable three-monthly “kit drops”. It’s worst for those whose training regimes in South Africa and competi- tion in the United States are contingent on Nike’s cash.

For a few – such as Rutherford, dropped by Nike despite delivering long jump gold which was one of the fin- est moments of London’s 2012 Olympics and presenting a modern, attractive face of athletics, who is highly engaged on social media – it has simply meant taking himself to partners who appreciate him. The same goes for Pavey, now sponsored by Adidas. Her several other sponsors – Silentnight, Intel and Thule – prevent any dependency on one.

Nike has not been the big bad wolf in every sense. Good relationships have existed. The former Nike manager Dave Scott, who for a long time drove the decision on which British athletes were engaged and dropped, was popular with many. But several athletes attest to it being a different type of relationship with Adidas. “It wasn’t all about the money with them,” says one. “They were excited to have you on board. They said, ‘You are a great role model’. That dimension interested them.”

Manzano is just puzzled. He won America’s first 1500m Olympic medal in 44 years at London and his is a com- pelling story as a Mexican immigrant made good. “Maybe it’s my age,” the 30-year-old told Sports Illustrated.

It would be easy – and wrong – to characterise Nike as a one-dimensionally ruthless machine. They are the most active sponsor of US track and field athletes, even though most are paid a £10,000 annual subsistence income and yet more just get the kit drop. And – make no mistake – it has become a dependency culture between UK Athletics (UKA) and Nike, too. The only reason why it took until yesterday afternoon at 2pm for UKA to provide a detailed media briefing on the Salazar allegations is that organisation’s need to discuss it first with Nike. UKA needs the £15million Nike deal – double the previous Adidas figure – which UKA chief executive Niels de Vos negotiated with them two years ago. Three years on from London 2012, Nike has British athletics over a barrel.

That is where the risk of exploitation comes in. Nike wants material evidence that its partnership is worthwhile. It was the same with Armstrong and it took the company a full six days after the publication of a damning 1,000-page dossier exposing the cyclist as a serial drug cheat, in 2012, before the company severed links with him. A coach needs to deliver them the tangible evidence for the investment to keep coming.

“When that happens, then a cor- porate with deep pockets has every incentive to play the same game that a coach might have,” Ross Tucker, a specialist in endurance running and professor of exercise physiol- ogy at Free State University in Cape Town, says. “They not only fund all the coaching behaviour, good and bad, they also drive it. They’re active participants rather than passive by- standers. And here, the game might involve fancy gadgets like underwater treadmills and altitude houses [that] scream ‘innovation, technology, advanced thinking’. These are the attributes the sponsor loves to com- municate.

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 22 - July 2015 “But if this innovation is ineffective, and can’t deliver visible results, then why stop there? And that’s the slip- pery slope that leads so many people to view the Oregon Project with suspicion. If you’re pulling out all the stops to make your athletes faster, then why stop at the line of legal? Why not push a little further into the grey and then into the black, as is now alleged…?” Salazar and Farah categorically deny any wrongdoing.

Another case there was no opportunity to discuss with Nike this week was that of their American football star Michael Vick, jailed in 2007 after admitting appalling cruelty to 70 dogs – mainly pitbull terriers – he was using in an illegal dog-fighting ring. The court case heard that dogs that performed badly were hanged, drowned and electrocuted and that Vick and his associates would throw family pet dogs into the ring, so they could watch the pitbulls rip them apart. Nike rewarded him with a new four-year sponsorship deal when he returned to the sport on his release from prison.

It isn’t the Nike Steve Prefontaine most probably knew. “Of course it’s changed,” says Julie Strasser. “It used to be run by individuals. Making a profit wasn’t the primary reason to get up in the morning. But then it became a corporation. It used to be that you could give a guy a pair of shoes and he would talk great about Nike. It’s not like that any more.”

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 23 - July 2015 http://www.theconningtower.blogspot.com/

JUL 8 Athletics for a Better World © IAAF World Youth Championships, Cali 2015 LOC

The IAAF World Youth Championships, Cali 2015 next week will have a strong environmental theme that em- braces the ideas and philosophy of Athletics for a Better World, the IAAF’s social responsibility programme. With one week to go, the local organisers in Colombia and IAAF can now reveal some of the initiatives which are hoped will inspire the estimated 1200 young athletes from more than 150 nations. *** In Pedro Grajales Stadium, which will be used for training and warming up, and is adjacent to the Pascual Guer- rero Stadium, there have been planted themed gardens.

During the five days of competition from 15-19 July, these will be staffed by trained volunteers.

The volunteers will be on hand to give information to the athletes, their coaches and officials about the use and purpose of the gardens. *** At the main entrance for the general public to the competition venue, the Pascual Guerrero Stadium, there will be an information point where volunteers will explain to the spectators about waste disposal and recycling. *** At the main entrance to the Pascual Guerrero Stadium, there will be a spectacular fountain of seaweed, which will have the function of the containing and purifying rain water, air pollution and the carbon dioxide. Again, the use of this kind of fountain will be explained by expert volunteers.

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 24 - July 2015 *** Also at the main entrance the Pascual Guerrero Stadium there will also be a collection point for used batteries, which will be collected by ANDI, a company responsible for the disposal of specialised waste. *** Nearby, the electric car Zero Emissions will be on display and spectators will have the chance to learn about the performance of these cars and how they contribute to the environmental preservation.

These vehicles will be used for transport during the championships.

*** Details of what is Athletics for a Better World can be found here. IAAF World Championships, Cali 2015 LOC for the IAAF

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Keith Conning: My Panagra plane refueled in Cali, Colombia on our way from Panama City, Panama, to Lima, Peru, in 1966. I was working for Pan American Airlines in San Francisco as a cargo salesman at the time. Pan Am gave us a weekend trip to reward us for working extra hard during the domestic airline strike. Pan Am was not involved in the strike action, because we were only an international carrier.

Editor’s note: Keith Conning is a long-time member of both TAFWA and FAST.

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 25 - July 2015 http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/10/world/ americas/in-an-apathetic-toronto-the-pan-am- games-land-with-a-thud.html?_r=1 In an Indifferent Toronto, the Pan-Am Games Land With a Thud

By IAN AUSTEN | JULY 9, 2015

Photo | Workers put finishing touches on a sign. The Pan-American Games’ opening ceremony is Friday. Credit: Ian Willms for

TORONTO — The new mayor is excited about his city’s big moment in the spotlight, but hardly anyone else seems to be.

After six years of preparation, construction, marketing campaigns, controversies and snags, the Pan-American Games officially open here on Friday, and some preliminary competition rounds are already in progress. But most Torontonians seem to be greeting the event with a shrug, and Mayor John Tory is so exasperated that he has taken to lecturing them about their attitude.

“I think the only sport that we’re not playing in the Pan-Am Games is sort of moaning and groaning,” Mr. Tory told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on Monday. “And Toronto, on a regular basis, would be qualifying for a gold medal in that.”

Some residents are annoyed by how much the city has spent to get ready — the total budget is 2.5 billion Ca- nadian dollars, or about $2 billion — and others by the risk of snarled streets. But many seem to be reacting to the arrival of the event in their city this week the way they would to a new tattoo discovered the morning after a wild night. The Pan-Am Games have landed in Toronto, it seems, with a thud.

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 26 - July 2015 “Other than having to deal with the traffic, I haven’t had any idea that the games are going to be going on,” said George Sakellis, a banker who was out shopping on Monday near a subway stop for the largest competition site, the Canadian National Exhibition fairgrounds. “I haven’t really felt the buzz for the games,” he said. Barring some final work at the fairgrounds, the city was all set logistically. A new express rail link to the airport has been running, an industrial wasteland has been redeveloped and large numbers of enthusiastic volunteers were on hand for orientation and training.

But too few spectators seem to care. Only about 800,000 of the 1.4 million available tickets had been sold by Monday afternoon, despite a last-minute discounting program offered by a major bank. Local news media reports found that hotel rooms were still available in abundance. And the public discussion, such as it was, focused not on the events but on the disruption caused by blocking certain lanes on the city’s already congested expressways for the use of official games vehicles and high-occupancy vehicles.

“What they haven’t done is capture the hearts and imagination of the country,” said Brian Cooper, the president of the S&E Sponsorship Group, a sports marketing company based in Toronto. “When was the last time you stopped your summer to watch the Pan-Am Games?”

Canada is a country where winter sports predominate, and the Pan-Am Games have never been of immense interest, not even when they were held in Canada in 1967 and 1999. Toronto’s bid to host this year’s games seemed to have more to do with trying to lure the Summer Olympics than with any interest in uniting the Americas through sports.

The bid, mounted in 2009, was largely the work of Bob Richardson, a public relations executive and high-level Liberal Party strategist. Mr. Richardson was a driving force in an unsuccessful bid for the 2008 Summer Olym- pic Games, and he was a co-chairman of Mr. Tory’s successful mayoral campaign last year, even though Mr. Tory is a Conservative. That campaign bridged party lines to defeat Rob Ford, Mr. Tory’s pugnacious, erratic, scandal- prone predecessor.

Mr. Tory and other public officials do their best to avoid answering questions about Toronto’s future Olympic aspirations, but Mr. Cooper and many others said that it was clear that the Pan-Am Games were sold to the Liberal provincial government of Ontario partly as a tryout for the larger event.

Once Toronto was chosen, the sparse atten- tion the games attracted mostly involved controversy. Some residents, including the writer Margaret Atwood, were angered by a plan to replace a lawn at the University of Toronto with artificial turf for field hockey, which has a very small following here.

The Pan-American Games officially open in Toronto on Friday, but most residents seem to be greeting the event with a shrug. Credit: Ian Willms for The New York Times

More troublesome were news reports that games managers had been both petty (claiming 91 cents in parking fees) and profligate (spending over $900 for drinks at a meeting) with their expense money. That, combined with a controversy over 7 million Canadian dollars prom- ised to executives as bonuses, led to the dismissal of the organizing group’s chief executive at the end of 2013; he was replaced with a senior provincial official. In a country where even minor misuse of public money can be the stuff of scandal, some observers think the Toronto games never got over the black eye.

“For the general public, there has been an apathy which is being driven by a dissatisfaction with the manage- TAFWA Newsletter - Page 27 - July 2015 ment of the games,” said Cheri L. Bradish, who teaches sports marketing at Ryerson University in Toronto. Mak- ing matters worse, officials have been issuing early and frequent warnings to adjust travel plans because of the expressway lane closings, resulting in apocalyptic news coverage.

“You can’t do that for weeks and then turn around and say: ‘It’s going to be great,’ ” Ms. Bradish said.

Some of the sports in the games are popular, like soccer, but many are niche pursuits like archery and roller figure skating, and there is a general absence of celebrity athletes.

Even the games’ mascot, Pachi, presents a marketing challenge: In a departure from the usual cute and cuddly, Pachi is a porcupine, with 41 quills representing the participating countries.

Talk to Saad Rafi, the chief executive of the organizing committee, and water glasses soon come up in the con- versation.

“I’m just not a glass-half-empty guy,” he says. He was quick to point out that 100 Pan-Am events had sold out by Monday, including the opening ceremony, which is being staged by Cirque du Soleil. “We’re pleased with where we’re at,” he said.

He said the griping in the city was typical of what goes on before any major international sports event, and cited complaints in Vancouver, British Columbia, before the 2010 Winter Olympics, which were widely viewed as a success.

But Ms. Bradish, the sports marketing specialist, said she believed that the antipathy in Toronto was much greater than what Vancouver experienced.

And she noted that unlike the Winter Olympics, the Pan-Am Games have no events like ice hockey, played by Canada’s best-known athletes, to build good will.

One thing the Pan-Am Games are not doing is pulling many visitors from afar. Mr. Rafi estimated that only about 11 percent of ticket holders live outside the Toronto region.

That may be a worry for Chris Jones, the floor manager at Paupers Pub in the Annex neighborhood downtown. A chalkboard outside was promoting a drawing for Pan-Am tickets, but “people are not pouring in the doors for it,” he said.

“I don’t know of anybody that’s really excited about the games,” Mr. Jones said, as a Toronto Blue Jays baseball game played on the television behind him. “But we’ll see what happens when we actually get people in town. I’m hoping it helps, really.”

.

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 28 - July 2015 http://athleticsillustrated.com/editorial/ steve-prefontaine-was-great-but-rod-dix- on-was-better/ Steve Prefontaine was great, but Rod Dixon was better

CHRISTOPHER KELSALL JULY 9, 2015

A collective outburst of veneration followed the all too early death of Oregon running legend Steve Prefontaine at the age of 24. His cult status flour- ished and continues today. Why not? He owned at least eight American track records, he was a brash frontrunner; he possessed a gun-slinging-like character trait that Americans seem to relish in their heroes. He was good looking and was a quotable post-race interview. He delivered lines which later became iconic statements of bravado like, “the best pace is a suicide pace and today looks like a good day to die.” Perhaps there was a little foreshadowing here?

In running circles his name stirs an ar- chetypal sense of nostalgia reminiscent of James Dean or Marilyn Monroe.

There were two movies made about him, one produced by Disney titled “Pre” that came out in 1997 and the other by Wag- ner-Cruise productions. The “Cruise” is Tom Cruise. Wagner and Cruise benefited from the interest that Disney stirred with his legend and then they did one better. They spent an extra million dollars on making their version, which they called “Without Limits” and released it a year later. They employed the great Donald Sutherland to play the legendary Bill Bow- erman and as usual Sutherland was excel- lent. Billy Crudup as Prefontaine received positive reviews. The movie continues to flitter towards a cult-like status, but it is not there just yet.

Pre’s Rock is a memorial to the fast-run- ning and fast-driving athlete. It is a monu- ment where runners visit from all corners the US to place flowers, hang memorabilia, leave notes or take selfies. It is a modest memorial, but a popular one, at least within American running circles.

“To give anything less than your best, is to sacrifice the gift.” Pre would tell kids at running camps. It is an indel- ible message. Who could argue? Some of Pre’s other quotes are now legendary too, for example he had delivered various iterations of, “A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts; who can punish himself into exhausting pace and then at the end, punish himself even more.” Or, “somebody may beat me, but they are going to have to bleed to do it.”

It was tough talk from an entertaining racer. The legacy of his quotes adds to his legend, but how good was he TAFWA Newsletter - Page 29 - July 2015 really?

In 1971 he broke the American 5,000m record with his 13:30.4 performance in Berkeley, California, in a meet between the US and USSR all-stars. He was just 20-years-of-age.

The next year he took two more national records, one in the 3,000m, by running a 7:45.8 and again in the 5,000m with a 13:22.8 performance. He again broke the American record in the 3,000m in the Bislett Games in Oslo, Norway with his performance of 7:44.2. He took American records six more times in the two-mile, 3,000m, 5,000m and the three mile. He also held the 10,000m record at 27:43.6. He was definitely good.

As a racer, he was a frontrunner. He preferred to race hard to see what comes of it, rather than sit and kick. He perpetuated the brash, perhaps moody, perhaps tough and certainly tough-talking prototypical American hero. But his suicidal race strategy was not going to win him medals in global championship events and does not lend itself to breaking world records. Americans in the past have been accused of self-indulgence. Perhaps a national record is big enough for many American sports fans. Who needs a world record when the big sports in the US are confined to the country anyway like the NFL, MLB, NBA and NASCAR?

Pre’s rebellious front-running style likely cost him a better performance at the 1972 Olympics, a race where he finished fourth in the time of 13:28.4. He was beaten by the legendary Finn Lasse Viren, who was then considered a very intelligent trainer, an athlete who seldom raced and peaked just at the right time. Viren was the antithesis to Pre: quiet, reserved and very private. Mohamed Gammoudi of Tunisia finished second and Ian Stewart of Great Britain finished third. Viren won in the time of 13:26.4.

Sure Pre was an international level runner, but was his status bolstered by America’s running fraternity and their need for a hero? He possessed all the ingredients that make up a hero, especially his early and untimely exit.

But athletically-speaking he was no Jim Ryun. Ryun perhaps was a little too straight-laced for mad public adora- tion. He was neither awe shucks-apple pie nor brash. Perhaps his religious views tempered broad public ap- proval. Ryun came before the and -credited American running boom. As Malcolm Gladwell would likely attest, Ryun’s career did not contain all of the four primary ingredients for vast public acceptance, such as timing, hard work, opportunity and help – especially the timing. At a younger age, he was faster than Pre. Ryun ran the mile in 3:51.1. In high school he ran 3:55.3 in 1965, perhaps five years too early. Ryun had no peers.

How about Rod Dixon? He was often considered the most versatile runner of his time. Although not an Ameri- can, Dixon competed during Pre’s time. Well part of the problem is he is still alive. The true hero worship will have to wait.

Dixon was from Nelson, which is a very hilly town in New Zealand and probably not much different than Coos Bay, Oregon, where Pre is from. Both areas offer a temperate climate are hilly, forested environments and the burgeoning athletes had many running heroes to learn from.

Dixon was coached by his brother, who – like most other Kiwis – trained by the Arthur Lydiard method. Inter- estingly, Pre’s coach Bill Bowerman followed Lydiard training principles. In fact, when Bowerman was given a ci- tation by President Kennedy in helping to create the American running boom, Bowerman said in his acceptance speech, “I am merely the disciple; it is Arthur Lydiard of New Zealand who is the prophet.”

Bowerman was a great coach, Pre was an excellent athlete, but the Dixon brothers were better.

Head-to-head Pre never beat Dixon in any race at any distance. In comparing their personal bests Dixon is faster than pre in the 1500m by a stunning five seconds. Pre wasn’t even in the same ballpark. Their mile times were closer, however Dixon edges Pre there too 3:54.6 to 3:53.62. Again in the two-mile, Pre isn’t even close, TAFWA Newsletter - Page 30 - July 2015 although one could argue that the distance is an odd one and it is likely that neither athlete raced it enough to find out their true potential, which leads us to the 10,000m distance, where Pre was faster. Dixon ran only one 10,000m race in his life and finished in 28:11.0. Pre’s time was an American record at 27:43.6. It could be safely assumed that based on Dixon being a faster 5,000m runner, he would have likely raced at least as fast as Pre over 10,000m.

Yes Dixon takes Pre again in the 5,000m distance, this time by over four seconds. See the comparison below. Dixon’s legend is actually more interesting.

For example, there is a yarn about Dixon and a mate of his out for a 2.5 hour long run, when they came across a wild boar. The story is priceless. They spent another four to five hours chasing the boar through the New -Zea land bush with knives, on foot and with several dogs sniffing out the trail. Death and carnage endued. In the end, the boar copped it in a dramatic, throat-slicing finale. Locked out of the car on a long run.

“He (John Dixon) had me run 13 miles at time trial pace, around 4.45 per mile and the understanding for me was when he was satisfied with pace and distance we would ‘wrap it up’. So at 13 miles at race pace I went to get in the car.

John said, “nice work, you know the way back, you have just have to run it” …John rolled up the windows, locked the doors and drove home,” wrote Dixon in an Athletics Illustrated interview from 2011.

Did Prefontaine’s death at the early age of 24 not give him the opportunity to better his times, where Dixon continued to run into the 1980s?

Well yes, but well no. Prefontaine was just six months younger than Dixon. He was born in January 1951. Dixon was born in July of 1950. They both achieved their middle-distance bests roughly at the same age – within a year or two of each other. Dixon’s half-marathon and marathon bests were performed in the 1980s, but we are not comparing those distances as Prefontaine did not race the longer events. As was customary at the time, the practice was to move up in distance as one aged – as it was assumed that the speed left the athlete, the athlete would begin to race longer. Surely Pre would have been a great marathon runner. Or would he?

He would have had to learn to run like Rod Dixon to be a great marathon runner. To aggressively front-run a marathon is a very risky way of racing. Dixon’s 1983 victory was a methodical and pa- tient exercise in chasing down the leader ; he did so in the final metres, just before he ran out of real estate to do so. It was a truly legendary performance, the finish-line photo is iconic; arms raised skyward, with Smith laid prone on the asphalt just behind Dixon in the finish chute.

Dixon won a bronze medal in the 1972 Munich Olympics in the 1500m event. He also won two medals at the World Cross Country Championships. He won that 1983 New York City Marathon in only his second attempt at the distance with that come-from-behind 2:08.59 performance, which remained his personal best. At the time 2:08:59 was world class. The world record then was held by Australian Robert De Castella at 2:08:18 on a faster course. Today it is still a very strong time, especially in NY.

The 2014 New York City Marathon was won by former world record holder Wilson Kipsang of Kenya. He fin- ished in 2:10.59, exactly two minutes slower than Dixon, 31 years hence. Sure it was a very windy day, but in 2013 Kenyan , who owns the fastest Boston Marathon time with his 2:03:38, won NY in 2:08.24, not much faster at all. In the 45 years of the running of the New York City Marathon only 11 times has someone won the race with a faster time than Dixon. This is saying a lot considering the progression of the marathon world records. The world records are now down to glorified time trials, run on perfectly flat courses (mainly -Ber lin) in antiseptic conditions. Eight of those 11 faster NY times were run slower than 2:08.00 – within a minute of Dixon’s time. Dixon’s 1983 New York City Marathon win is the stuff of legend.

Prefontaine was a great athlete. To be fair, Pre did not get a chance to mature and back away from his suicidal TAFWA Newsletter - Page 31 - July 2015 race strategies that he employed. Perhaps if he lived into his late 20s he would have raced smarter and perhaps he would have been faster. And that is mostly what grips American running fans of his legend; what would have become of the great Pre if he lived?

We will never know, but we do know that Rod Dixon displayed the greatest range of his time. He was fast from 800m to the marathon and every distance in-between. Rod Dixon of New Zealand is a legend.

Steve Prefontaine – US: born January 1951. 1500m 3:38.1 Mile: 3:54.6 3000m: 7:42.6 2-mile: 8:18.29 5000m: 13:21.87 10,000m: 27:43.6

Rod Dixon – NZ: Born July 1950 800m: 1:47.70 1500m: 3:33.89 Mile: 3:53.62 3000m: 7:43.46 2-mile: 8.14.4 5,000m: 13:17.27 10,000m: 28:11.0 Marathon: 2:08.59

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 32 - July 2015 http://www. theregister. co.uk/2015/07/11/ pan_am_games_ warns_link_to_us_ and_well_sue/ Pan Am Games: Link to our website without permission and we’ll sue Toronto2015.org lawyers appear confused by this internet thingy

11 Jul 2015 at 15:00, Kieren McCarthy

Updated The organisers of the Pan American Games in Toronto, which start this week, require that people seek formal permission to link to its website at toronto2015.org.

Under the website’s terms of use, amid piles of incomprehensible legalese seemingly designed to hide from the fact that social media exists, it is decreed that no one is allowed to use one of those hyperlink thingies to con- nect to the website unless they first get approval. It reads:

Links to this Site are not permitted except with the written consent of TO2015™. If you wish to link to the Site, you must submit a written request to TO2015™ to do so. Requests for written consent can be sent to branduse@ toronto2015.org. TO2015™ reserves the right to withhold its consent to link, such right to be exercised in its sole and unfettered discretion.

Eagle-eyed readers will have noticed that the $2bn sports event – effectively a mini-Olympics – also appears to have trademarked the term “TO2015.” Which makes about as much sense.

Incredibly, this is not a misreading of the terms, and it doesn’t appear to have been a mistake either. Instead, it’s about the increasingly insane approach that intellectual property lawyers are taking to sponsors – and non- sponsors – of sporting events.

Alongside such gems as forcing people to put tape over their own computers if a computer company is a spon- sor, and stopping people for drinking anything that isn’t a sponsor drink (if there is a drinks sponsor), now it seems the Pan Am Games lawyers have decided they need to prevent the internet from entering the hallowed sponsor world.

Strictly speaking, anyone who links to the website or even anyone who uses the games’ own hashtag of #TO2015 is violating its terms, and could be sued. Although not a court in the land would actually enforce it. It’s also worth pointing out that the website has yet to add a robots.txt file or other technical method to stop search engines from indexing and linking to the site, so they are effectively forcing Google et al to unwittingly and automatically break its own rules.

But then, we were already assuming that the people who wrote the terms of use are not exactly up with the times.

Just to be on the safe side however, we wrote to the organisers asking for their permission to link to them for this article. We politely emailed:

Dear Pan Am Games lawyers,

Welcome to the internet.

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 33 - July 2015 We would like to seek permission to link to your website for a story we are writing about how ludicrous it is that you are requesting people to ask permission to link to your site.

It is only fair that we warn you the article is likely to be critical of yourselves and contain a good degree of mock- ery.

We should also note that we will link to your site regardless of your response. But all the same, it’s nice to have permission.

And before you ask: there’s no need to ask us for permission to link to the story when it’s up. It happens all the time.

Good luck!

The response?

Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently: [email protected] details of perma- nent failure…

Let’s hope the organisers are better at running games than they are servers. ®

Updated to add at 1935 UTC, 1235 PDT on Sunday, July 12

The toronto2015.org masterminds have pulled a U-turn: they have updated the website’s terms and conditions following the publication of our story on Saturday to excise the demand for written permission to link to the site. This is a screenshot of the original text...

...and this is the new text:

The use of or embedding of content from this Site is not permitted except with the written consent of TO2015™. Requests for written consent can be sent [email protected]. TO2015™ reserves the right to withhold such consent, such right to be exercised in its sole and unfettered discretion.

Oh, did we just ruin someone’s weekend?

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 34 - July 2015 http://registerguard.com/rg/news/local/33270472-75/former-oregon-ducks-runner-now-runs-a- growing-website.html.csp

BUSINESS Former Oregon Ducks runner now runs a growing website Ross Krempley’s RunnerSpace.com a popular track resource

Former Oregon runner Ross Krempley (center left) races at the Hayward Field All-comers meet with his 3-year-old son Chace. Krempley founded the website RunnerSpace in 2005, but two years ago he took over the popular high school track and field social networking website DyeStat, and has since grown it into the official digital partner of USA Track and Field and Athletics Canada, adding features like live streaming of events. (Chris Pietsch/The Register-Guard)

BY ELON GLUCKLICH | The Register-Guard | JULY 12, 2015

From 1999 to 2002, Ross Krempley was one of the West Coast’s top 800-meter runners for the track and field team.

But Krempley has found even greater success since turning in his running shoes for a desktop, and trading the track for the World Wide Web.

Krempley, 37, is the founder and CEO of RunnerSpace.com , a social networking website for runners that’s TAFWA Newsletter - Page 35 - July 2015 grown from a small startup in 2007 into a high-traffic portal for high school, college and professional track meets.

The Eugene-based website began with a dozen volunteers posting Oregon and Washington track results online. It now has 30 full-time employees and a global reach as the official digital partner of USA Track and Field and its Canadian counterpart, Athletics Canada.

That means viewers around the world who wanted to watch live streams of the recent Prefontaine Classic, the NCAA and USA outdoor championships — all in Eugene — had to go through RunnerSpace.com. The site has partnerships with big corporate names in the track and field world like Nike, New Balance and run- ning shoe maker Hoka One One.

“In last four weeks, we’ve done 16 live webcasts,” Krempley said. “One day we did three at one time, with all our own production. That’s amazing when you consider all the money it takes to get equipment and staffing.” He declined to disclose financial information for competitive reasons.

But this growth almost didn’t happen. Krempley launched the site with help (and tens of thousands of dollars) from his father, David Krempley.

By 2010, the site was breaking even, with a small core of employees posting information and videos about track events across the country.

“But we just weren’t happy with the site, how it worked and functioned,” he said.

“We felt like we were going to die a slow death...by always being disappointed in our product. You can’t excite your employees with a boring product with a bunch of bugs and flaws.”

So Krempley hit pause on RunnerSpace in 2012. He stopped seeking out new partnerships and nearly let the site go dark for a year, focusing on creating a more video and social media focused website.

Social media site Instagram turned into a driver of RunnerSpace’s rebirth.

After tinkering with Facebook and Twitter, Krempley decided to promote RunnerSpace heavily on Instagram because of its ability to post photos and videos. The website now has nearly 250,000 Instagram followers, with most of their posts being “liked” anywhere from 7,000 to 13,000 times.

“We shifted our resources into that over Twitter and Facebook, and that made us so we’re the number-one running-based Instagram account in the entire world,” Krempley said.

Another driver was added emphasis on live broadcasts of running events. Krempley brought on full-time vid- eographers and production staff, sending them across the country to shoot events and tape interviews. To view live streams of events, users subscribe to the site for $12.99 per month, but can pay less with a longer member- ship.

Krempley wouldn’t say just how many page views RunnerSpace draws each month, but said business has dou- bled each of the last three years. Some of the athlete interviews posted online have been viewed 150,000 times. RunnerSpace has found success by tapping into a niche market of mostly younger, tech-savvy track fans who feel underserved by traditional sports media such ESPN, said Lee Berke, president and CEO of New York-based marketing firm LHB Sports, Entertainment & Media.

As the Internet has evolved into a hub for social media and streaming video, startups like RunnerSpace have thrived by embracing the new technology, he said.

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 36 - July 2015 “Nowadays you have a lot of viewers cutting the (television) cord,” Berke said. “Sports fans are extremely pas- sionate, and they’re looking for immersive content.”

For track and field fans, this means constantly updated results from track meets, in-depth interviews with ath- letes, videos with tips for amateur runners and more.

Despite this demand, RunnerSpace has continued to merely break even, in large part because Krempley has continually added new staff and purchased new equipment as the site has grown.

The other big piece of RunnerSpace’s evolution came in September. Krempley secured an undisclosed amount of investment money from real estate developer Dan Neal to fund a redesign that would make the site more friendly for smart phone and tablet viewers.

“This is not the type of investment I would normally make,” said Neal, who met Krempley 15 years ago through his running coach at UO.

But, when Krempley approached him about investing in RunnerSpace, Neal said, “He said that he thought Run- nerSpace could achieve a much more rapid growth spurt if they had access to some additional capital.”

Neal said he is now a passive shareholder in the company. The new website launched in late June.

“If it wasn’t for that, we’d be light years behind where we are now,” Krempley said. RunnerSpace is currently gearing up for next year’s Olympics in Rio, where it will stream USA Track and Field content online.

Krempley said his focus today is on securing more investors to keep RunnerSpace growing. He expects the com- pany’s payroll to grow to 45 employees by the start of the Olympics, with a little help.

But none of RunnerSpace’s success would have come without the decision to slow down and re-brand three years ago, he said.

“Not many businesses choose to ride the line like that. We knew that for us to be set up right now and for the future, it was worth the risk,” he said.

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 37 - July 2015 Partial Fixtures List

2015

June 30-July 1 World Youth Trials, Lisle, Ill. July 4 Meeting Areva, Paris Saint-Denis July 9 Athletissima, Lausanne July 15-19 World Youth Championships, Cali, Colombia July 17 Herculis Zepter, (Stade Louis II) July 20-26 Pan Am Games, Toronto July 23-26 U.S. Masters Championships, Jacksonville, Fl. July 24-25 Stainsbury’s Anniversary Games, London (Olympic Stadium) July 30 DN Galan Stockholm, Stockholm July 31-Aug. 2 PanAm Juniors, Aug. 4-16 World Masters Championships, Lyon, France Aug. 22-30 World Championships, Beijing Sept. 3 Weltklasse, Zurich (Letzigrund Stadium) Sept. 11 AG Insurance Memoria; Vam Damme, Bruxelles Nov. 21 NCAA XC Championships, Louisville, Ky.

2016

March 18-20 IAAF World Indoor Championships, Eugene, Or.

TAFWA Newsletter - Page 38 - July 2015