Hello Karen,

I just noticed your post.

I hope that the referee your referenced was not a USA certified official! First, we are not to speak to athletes on the course. The protocol is to witness the infraction, take copious notes describing the location, athletes, and situation and move along. Those notes are presented to the head referee prior to the posting of the officials results. The head referee determines the validity of the infraction and either dismisses it or applies the appropriate penalty that is then presented to the timer.

The event may have been USA sectioned but the referee may have been local non-certified individuals. If so, I prefer that the RD not bring in non-certified individuals because incidents such as yours taint all USA certified referees. Just for the record, USA certified referees have distinctive apparel clearly indicating that they are USA referees. The head referee wears a black stripe referee shirt. Also, in most cases they are allowed to address the athletes at a pre-race meeting.

Regards,

Jose Valdes

Jose, If all officials, board directors, regional directors, anyone else that is making decisions for the quality and intergrity of what is USTA , had the goals and drive like you to make this sport like it should be, would make a tremendous difference in bringing back the fun and excitment of what triathlon is all about. I elect you for the next president of USTA. Anyone else agree?

Hello Gale,

You bring up a proposition that has long standing, Is it realistic to control drafting? I posit that it depends, as you stated, on numerous variables, some controllable and others not. The integrity of the athlete is, in my view, an uncontrollable variable, but the design of the course, swim wave size, field size, are some controllable variables and may affect the incidences of drafting. However, the reality for most events is that they are govern by local governmental and/or geographical restrictions for the course and also a business need to have a "profitable event". Those directly govern the course layout, how long the roads may be controlled, etc. There is also the pressure from athletes to register for higher profile events that drives the size of the field.

I must believe in the ability of good USAT certified officials to make a difference otherwise i could not continue to officiate. Realistically, I realize that often we are not able to oversee an event as well as we should because of resources, number of officials, number of motorcycles, etc. However, I prefer to make an attempt rather than consider the problem unsolvable. I know many USAT certified officials that feel the same way.

I go back to a very important point, the athletes have a great deal of influence on the fairness of the event by knowing and adhering to the competitive rules. I have experienced where an athlete gets on the podium and their is evidence that they had an unfair advantage, just not witnessed by and official at the event. But, I witnessed their unfair tactics as an athlete sharing the course with them. What I do not understand is how that athlete could take the award!

Regards,

Jose

Check out the following link from 2009 FL!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbLbHfj7CNYhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbLbHfj7CNY