Skip The Races, Track & Field's Corruption is More Fun To Watch

The sport of track and field is what Notre Dame football is today – an organization basked in glory for achievements awarded several decades ago. For most Americans track and field is watched either (1) every four years during the Summer Olympics and/or (2) when their unathletic child is relegated to the most basic of all sports because he/she was unable to use hand eye coordination effectively to perform decently in a stick and ball sport (I can say this because I was an unathletic child relegated to track and field).

Even the most revered track and field stars aren’t remembered for their actual winning, but more for winning under certain circumstances. Jackie Owen won 4 gold medals in the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics. Think of all the things needed to be lined up for Owen to be remembered through time: (1) he had to be a minority (2) the Olympics were held in a time and place where Nazi Germany was dominating Europe (3) he had to be an American (4) and he had to win. If any of these four things did not happen, Jackie Owens would be as famous as Jaws 3 (yeah that’s right, the movie studios tried to make a Jaws Universe…). If Owen was British and won all those medals, Americans wouldn’t care and in turn, the world wouldn’t remember. Why? Because America is like what Disney is as a movie studio whereas Britain is more like Lionsgate. In other words, although you personally might not care about the newest Avengers movie coming out, you’ll be hard-pressed to not have heard about it. That’s what America is like when it accomplishes something – the whole world will know about it, regardless if the whole world really cares, because America will make the world care.

Track and field is also remembered for its doping more so than its winnings. Ben Johnson, the Canadian sprinter, was disqualified from his gold medal in the 100 meters that took place in the 1988 Seoul Summer Olympics. This was made famous for several reasons: the first is that Carl Lewis, an American, would receive the 1988 gold medal and, secondly, Ben Johnson’s defense for doping did not vindicate him but rather implicated more of his fellow sprinters. Johnson’s defense was that he only used steroids in order to be able to more effectively compete with all the other sprinters who were also using steroids. Ironically, a report disclosed in 2003 by Wade Exum, the United States Olympic Committee’s director of drug control administration from 1991 to 2000, issued documents that revealed that 100 American athletes failed drug tests from 1988 to 2000. The documents revealed that Carl Lewis failed three drug tests in 1988 and should have been prevented from competing in the Olympics.

Of course, the Ben Johnson and Carl Lewis stimulants were self-prescribed, whereas South African runner, Caster Semenya, was ordered to undergo “sex verification” testing after winning gold in the 800-meter at the 2009 World Championship. The international track officials ordered such testing due to her muscular physique and vast improvement. In the end the test results were never shared, and Caster was able to keep both her prize money and gold medal. Again, track and field entertains the viewers, not from the stories made at the finish line, but the stories made from it.

Rather than go into full fledge details, let me just end with this example – Caitlyn Jenner. Need I say more?

So, with all the off the track story lines hovering around this ancient, respected, boring sport, it Is no wonder that USA Track and Field, Inc., the nation’s track and field governing body, is in a leadership feud masked in all sorts of corruption. In 2016 Vin Lananna was elected as the USATF’s President, which holds a spot on the governing body’s board of directors. Lananna also operates a non-profit called TrackTown USA and Lananna is also an Associate Athletic Director of the University of Oregon since 2005. TrackTown helps facilitate certain international track events in America. One of these events, the 2021 World Championships, was awarded to Eugene, Oregon. However, the bidding process was nonexistent. The IAAF (the international body which governs and awards the venues for the races) bypassed the usual bidding process. The sole bidder, Vin’s TrackTown USA, won the 2015 bid even though Sweden pleaded that it wanted to place a bid but was unable to due to the IAAF awarding the 2021 World Championships to Oregon. In 2018 the U.S. Department of Justice got involved and questioned Vin regarding the TrackTown and the IAAF’s bidding process. In light of the federal questioning, the USATF board elected to place Vin on leave. Vin has been on leave since February of 2018.

This past February Vin filed a grievance with the USATF, claiming that he should be reinstated as the governing body’s president and that the directors violated the organization’s bylaws by placing him on leave, which is a power relegated to the broader organization’s membership. What becomes even more insightful is that Vin’s grievance alleged that in July of 2018 the board chair, Steve Miller, would allow Vin back as president, if he promised to support a bylaw change that would allow Miller to remain as the governing body’s chair. Miller was to end his tenure as a board member at the end of 2018 due to term limits set in the organization’s bylaws. Vin refused the deal, and because the bylaws weren’t changed Miller is no longer on the board. Please note that both positions, the president and chair, receive no payment in their roles.

So, what to make of all this corruption? Nothing really. This seems to be what keeps track and field in the lime light. If there weren’t any steroid issues back in the Summer of 1988, Ben Johnson and Carl Lewis would have been, most likely, forgotten. Jackie Owen stays relevant not because of his accomplishments, but because of the setting in which those accomplishments were completed. Then without Bruce turning into Caitlyn, he mostly would have been remembered as the “middle aged, one too many plastic surgeries, pale guy, who can’t stop staring at the backsides of his step-daughters” in Keeping Up with the Kardashians. In other words, if track and field were without its off the course controversies, it would turn into your kid’s middle school track meet all over again – something that you felt obligated to watch but given the opportunity would do anything else instead.