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USA Track & Field
USA Track & Field (USATF) is a United States national governing body for the sports of track and field, cross country running, road running, and racewalking (known as the sport of athletics outside the US). The USATF was known between 1979 and 1992 as The Athletics Congress (TAC) after its spin-off from the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), which governed the sport in the US through most of the 20th century until the Amateur Sports Act of 1978 dissolved its responsibility. Based in Indianapolis, USATF is a non-profit organization with a membership of more than 130,000. The organization has three key leadership positions: CEO Max Siegel, Board of Directors Chair Steve Miller, and elected president Vin Lananna. U.S. citizens and permanent residents can be USATF members (annual individual membership fee: $35 for 18-year-old members and younger, $65 for the rest), but permanent residents can only participate in masters events in the country, and they cannot win USATF medals, prize money, or score points for a team, per World Athletics regulations.
USA Track & Field is involved in many aspects of the sport at the local, national, and international level, providing the rules, officials, coaching education, sports science and athlete development, youth programs, masters (age 25+) competition, the National Track and Field Hall of Fame, and an annual meeting. It also organizes the annual USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships, the USA Track & Field Indoor Championships, the USA Cross Country Championships, the USATF National Club Cross Country Championships, and the USATF National Club Track & Field Championships. Through its sanctioning program, the national body provides the insurance coverage necessary for members to rent facilities, thus allowing for competitive opportunities for all athletes to happen. USA Track and Field has held National conventions since the 1870s or 1880s. NAAA Track and Field Championship and Convention locations Dec 3–6, 2020, virtually; earlier announced the 2020 USATF Annual Meeting to be held virtually instead of face-to-face.
On April 22, 1879, the National Association of Amateur Athletes of America (NAAA) was formed.[citation needed] On January 21, 1888, in the city of New York, rower William B. Curtis and runner James Edward Sullivan founded what officially became the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU). The AAU governed the sport of track and field in the United States until 1979, when the Amateur Sports Act of 1978 decreed that the AAU could no longer hold international franchises for more than one sport. The enactment of the Amateur Sports Act was prompted by lobbying by athletes, particularly runners, who felt that the AAU imposed artificial rules preventing widespread participation in sports.[citation needed]
The Athletics Congress (TAC) emerged from the AAU in late 1979; its first annual meeting was conducted in Las Vegas in conjunction with the annual AAU Convention. A constitutional convention was subsequently held in Dallas–Fort Worth in 1980.[citation needed]
In 1992, TAC changed its name to USA Track & Field (USATF) to increase recognition for the organization and for the sport in the United States.[citation needed] USATF inherited from AAU the 57 regional associations that are responsible for promoting the sport in a particular state or locality.[citation needed] Many of these associations were viewed as unaccountable to their members and some were accused of operating in a racially discriminatory manner.[citation needed] In response, the USATF restructured the regional associations and adopted Regulation 15, which set minimum standards for association performance and called for biannual accreditation of each association under those standards.[citation needed]
In May 2008, the United States Olympic Committee notified USATF that its governance was deficient and threatened to remove its national governing body status unless major reforms were made. In response, at USATF's December 2008 convention, the size of its board of directors was reduced from 31 members, who had represented constituencies within the organization, to 15, and none of the new directors could have an operating role in the organization. Most of the new board members represented sponsoring organizations. On February 18, 2009, the members of the new, reduced board were announced.
After the restructuring of the board and the hiring of Max Siegel as CEO, USATF in 2016 achieved its highest medal count at an Olympics since 1936 (32) and its most-ever medals at a world championships, winning 30 at the 2017 IAAF World Championships. The organization has seen growth of its budget and sponsor ranks, with the annual budget growing from $22 million to nearly $37 million. In 2016, it established an "Athlete Revenue Distribution Model" that provided additional money to elite athletes.
At the 2014 annual meeting, the member delegates voted 392–70 to re-nominate Robert Hersh as the USATF's nominee to the IAAF Council. At the time, Hersh was the sitting senior vice-president of the IAAF Council and, by virtue of that position, a USATF board member. However, the reconstituted Board disregarded the vote of the member delegates and instead voted 11–1 to nominate president Stephanie Hightower as the nominee to the IAAF Council. The Board's action caused such a controversy that USATF sent an email two days later to all of its members attempting to explain its action. The email said, "This is a different era and a different time. We think Stephanie Hightower provides us with the best chance to move forward as part of that change." Later that summer, at the IAAF Congress, Hightower was elected to the IAAF Council with the most votes of any candidate; all USATF candidates for IAAF positions were elected. In 2018, after serving on the IAAF Council for four years, Hightower came up for reelection. She was defeated by a vote of the delegates in favor of Willie Banks.
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USA Track & Field
USA Track & Field (USATF) is a United States national governing body for the sports of track and field, cross country running, road running, and racewalking (known as the sport of athletics outside the US). The USATF was known between 1979 and 1992 as The Athletics Congress (TAC) after its spin-off from the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), which governed the sport in the US through most of the 20th century until the Amateur Sports Act of 1978 dissolved its responsibility. Based in Indianapolis, USATF is a non-profit organization with a membership of more than 130,000. The organization has three key leadership positions: CEO Max Siegel, Board of Directors Chair Steve Miller, and elected president Vin Lananna. U.S. citizens and permanent residents can be USATF members (annual individual membership fee: $35 for 18-year-old members and younger, $65 for the rest), but permanent residents can only participate in masters events in the country, and they cannot win USATF medals, prize money, or score points for a team, per World Athletics regulations.
USA Track & Field is involved in many aspects of the sport at the local, national, and international level, providing the rules, officials, coaching education, sports science and athlete development, youth programs, masters (age 25+) competition, the National Track and Field Hall of Fame, and an annual meeting. It also organizes the annual USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships, the USA Track & Field Indoor Championships, the USA Cross Country Championships, the USATF National Club Cross Country Championships, and the USATF National Club Track & Field Championships. Through its sanctioning program, the national body provides the insurance coverage necessary for members to rent facilities, thus allowing for competitive opportunities for all athletes to happen. USA Track and Field has held National conventions since the 1870s or 1880s. NAAA Track and Field Championship and Convention locations Dec 3–6, 2020, virtually; earlier announced the 2020 USATF Annual Meeting to be held virtually instead of face-to-face.
On April 22, 1879, the National Association of Amateur Athletes of America (NAAA) was formed.[citation needed] On January 21, 1888, in the city of New York, rower William B. Curtis and runner James Edward Sullivan founded what officially became the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU). The AAU governed the sport of track and field in the United States until 1979, when the Amateur Sports Act of 1978 decreed that the AAU could no longer hold international franchises for more than one sport. The enactment of the Amateur Sports Act was prompted by lobbying by athletes, particularly runners, who felt that the AAU imposed artificial rules preventing widespread participation in sports.[citation needed]
The Athletics Congress (TAC) emerged from the AAU in late 1979; its first annual meeting was conducted in Las Vegas in conjunction with the annual AAU Convention. A constitutional convention was subsequently held in Dallas–Fort Worth in 1980.[citation needed]
In 1992, TAC changed its name to USA Track & Field (USATF) to increase recognition for the organization and for the sport in the United States.[citation needed] USATF inherited from AAU the 57 regional associations that are responsible for promoting the sport in a particular state or locality.[citation needed] Many of these associations were viewed as unaccountable to their members and some were accused of operating in a racially discriminatory manner.[citation needed] In response, the USATF restructured the regional associations and adopted Regulation 15, which set minimum standards for association performance and called for biannual accreditation of each association under those standards.[citation needed]
In May 2008, the United States Olympic Committee notified USATF that its governance was deficient and threatened to remove its national governing body status unless major reforms were made. In response, at USATF's December 2008 convention, the size of its board of directors was reduced from 31 members, who had represented constituencies within the organization, to 15, and none of the new directors could have an operating role in the organization. Most of the new board members represented sponsoring organizations. On February 18, 2009, the members of the new, reduced board were announced.
After the restructuring of the board and the hiring of Max Siegel as CEO, USATF in 2016 achieved its highest medal count at an Olympics since 1936 (32) and its most-ever medals at a world championships, winning 30 at the 2017 IAAF World Championships. The organization has seen growth of its budget and sponsor ranks, with the annual budget growing from $22 million to nearly $37 million. In 2016, it established an "Athlete Revenue Distribution Model" that provided additional money to elite athletes.
At the 2014 annual meeting, the member delegates voted 392–70 to re-nominate Robert Hersh as the USATF's nominee to the IAAF Council. At the time, Hersh was the sitting senior vice-president of the IAAF Council and, by virtue of that position, a USATF board member. However, the reconstituted Board disregarded the vote of the member delegates and instead voted 11–1 to nominate president Stephanie Hightower as the nominee to the IAAF Council. The Board's action caused such a controversy that USATF sent an email two days later to all of its members attempting to explain its action. The email said, "This is a different era and a different time. We think Stephanie Hightower provides us with the best chance to move forward as part of that change." Later that summer, at the IAAF Congress, Hightower was elected to the IAAF Council with the most votes of any candidate; all USATF candidates for IAAF positions were elected. In 2018, after serving on the IAAF Council for four years, Hightower came up for reelection. She was defeated by a vote of the delegates in favor of Willie Banks.