As an organization, USA Track & Field has a knack of getting in its own way. They've become somewhat notorious for playing favorites or making up rules as they go along or contradicting themselves (sometimes all three).
Case in point, Vin Lananna, who was elected President of USATF in 2017, was put on leave by the Board of Directors more than a year ago because of a "conflict of interest" regarding the 2021 World Championships in Oregon. Lananna is the former head coach at Oregon and former president of TrackTown USA, the organizing committee for those World Championships. However, he was chosen in a public vote of USATF members and essentially removed from office for reasons that are pretty weak (the real "conflict" is that the Board of Directors has different interests than those Lananna was looking out for and they didn't like that). It's also absurd that he hasn't been given a chance to either defend himself or do his job, since they still haven't had a hearing regarding Lananna's status.
That's just one example of USATF incompetence. Another was the messy selection process for the Pan Am Games team. As the National Federation, one of USATF's primary tasks is naming the U.S. team for various international events.
This is normally through the athlete's placement at the designated selection event (usually U.S. Nationals). However, the World Championships are later this year, so U.S. Nationals were pushed back a month to late July. This timing meant they couldn't be used as the selection meet for the Pan Am Games like they normally are, since the entry deadline was at the end of June. As a result, they had to come up with a different method.
Now, the Pan Am Games aren't on the same level as the Olympics or World Championships, so, for the most part, the top athletes generally choose not to participate. That's especially the case this year with the timing (Pan Ams start right after U.S. Nationals end). Nevertheless, the U.S. still fields a full team of two athletes per event.
The selection process they decided on seemed pretty straightforward. It would be based on the 2019 performance list (although they ended up using the combined 2018-19 list, mainly because some athletes started their season later and didn't have any 2019 marks yet). The two athletes who had the best marks in that time and wanted to go would be offered spots on the team. This is what USATF published on its website, so it appeared everyone was on the same page. As it turns out, they were not.
For some reason, USATF didn't follow its own procedures while selecting the team. In some events, they did what they were supposed to and based it off the 2019 list. But in others, they used just the 2018 marks. And some were based on the combined 2018-19 list. So, in other words, they used three different lists, only one of which was right, to choose the team!
When they realized the error (which it sounds like was simply a sorting mistake on the spreadsheet), they tried to fix it. But they only made matters worse instead. They tried to do it quietly, changing the names on the press release as if nothing had happened. Except people noticed. And it was more than just a handful of names that were different.
Several athletes who had been incorrectly named to the team were replaced by those who should've qualified. But they weren't all notified right away. And they only did it for the handful of athletes who filed grievances, not all of those who were affected!
LetsRun.com, which doesn't hold back in its criticism of USATF, has been all over this since the beginning. They helped move the case to arbitration, where the arbitrator ruled against USATF and ordered them to re-pick the team based on the published criteria (the 2019 list). However, since we're well past the entry deadline, it's up to the Pan Am Games organizers to decide whether to accept that amended roster or not. If they don't, the original team will compete in Lima.
So, in other words, because of USATF's screw up, we still have no idea who's actually on the Pan Am Games team! Especially since some of those who should've been offered spots don't want them because it'll result in somebody else (who might be a friend) getting removed from the team. And that's the most unfortunate part of this entire thing. For someone to get put on, someone else has to get taken off. Through no fault of their own.
Granted, this is a unique circumstance because of when the Pan Am Games are in relation to U.S. Nationals. Ordinarily, Nationals would be used to select the team for both Worlds and Pan Ams, and they'd just keep going down the results in order until they filled the roster. So the timing is partially to blame. But the way USATF handled the situation was beyond embarrassing.
Instead of being upfront about the mistake, they tried to save face. The official explanation was that, "Unfortunately, the published selection criteria was susceptible to an alternate interpretation." Whatever that means. Also, despite never changing it on the website, they evidently informed the athletes in December that they'd be using the combined 2018-19 list. (I actually agree with USATF on this one. If not everybody had a 2019 mark to go by, it made more sense to use the combined list.)
Fortunately, when it comes to choose the team for the World Championships and next year's Olympics, things will be a lot more clear cut. The top three with the standard make the team. Plain and simple. Nothing arbitrary about it. At least I hope not.
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