Controversy at USA’s Indoor Track & Field Championship

At this year’s USA Indoor Track & Field Championships in Albuquerque, N.M. plenty of drama took place, ending with great controversy and harsh judgment from fans across the nation. This event is a highly prospected meet for track clubs across the nation endorsed my big names such as Nike, Adidas, Brooks, and so on, to show off their athletes and their skills.

Drama and controversy is often a natural incident when a race comes down to a photo finish, and a National Championship is left in the hands of an Official with the decision of who wins. However in the women’s 3000 this year, no such decision had to be made due to an overwhelming victory by Brooks sponsored athlete Gabe Grunewald.

Grunewald won with a powerful finish the last lap, blowing past favorites Jordan Hasay and Shannon Rowbury both sponsored by Nike and coached by Alberto Salazar. On the first turn of the last 200-meter lap, there was contact between Grunewald and Hasay, the field official signaled that he noticed the contact, but immediately decided it was not grounds for disqualification. After the race, coach of both Hasay and runner-up Rowbury, filed a protest against the call.

The same head official that noticed the contact overruled the protest. Soon after, Alberto backed up by Nike, appealed the ruling to a three-person USATF committee who also favored Grunewald. However, 20 minutes after the decision of the committee, the argument was reopened and soon after Grunewald was disqualified.

The main protest, along with the main source of controversy, is that in technicality after the USATF committee made their first decision, rules state that that is the end of the case unless new information is brought to the table. When the case was reopened, no new information was given to the committee and they only reviewed the tape they had already seen twice.

UHS Junior Keith Lee, also a track athlete said, “I’ve seen this dispute and the video of the race and it is clear that there is no foul play, it seems that in the end this is coming down to a battle of clubs.”

This is a very real possibility, the 20 minute gap in between the appeal and the reopening of the case was prime time for Nike to throw its weight around, according to Team USA Minnesota coach Dennis Barker Nike employees put extreme pressure on the Judges, seemingly hovering around the table.

Two days after the initial incident, Grunewald was finally reinstated and named winner of the Women’s 3000 and will go onto represent USA at the Indoor World Championships in Poland