Was on a training ride yesterday with buddies and this whole USAt/Lifetime situation came up. And I have to admit, our one guy who slows us down the most- yet was a race director a few years back- put this in a view that I frankly would like to hear what others think about. I’ve been a big USAT fan and was surprised by the Lifetime move, but now I am thinking harder about this split.

1) 1) USAT states they have “sanctioned more than 40,000 races over the past 35 years”. Big numbers! But let’s forget about events that date back to a time before computers and when only water was passed out at aid stations. How many events did USAT sanctioned in 2015? 2016? The race director said it was about 1500-1600 a year. Still big numbers, and lots of money pulled in for each of these sanctioning application fees (which runs the RD about $200-$400) and all the one day memberships that are pulled in. On top of, each USAT sanctioned race MUST have a USAT certified race director, which costs a crazy amount of money (paid to USAT) to take the course and be certified.
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2) 2) Many people in triathlon think of the USAT SANCTION as a gold standard, the big seal of approval for a proper and safe race with officials to enforce the rules. Yet it is really only a RD filling out an on-line sanction form consisting of about 20 questions, many of which are the RD’s name/address/phone/date of event and then paying their sanctioning fee. A better question may be HOW MANY USAT RACES ARE DECLINED SANCTIONING? Again, the RD in our group says he can’t think of one event that was actually even declined. and he was witness to many poor events, yet USAT would sanction again the next year. So the magical USAT Sanction stamp doesn’t seem so magical anymore for me.
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3) USAT states there are no “surprises” using USAT rules and USAT Officials. Our RD used officials, paid dearly for them only to have athletes not know they were penalized and if they did actually know there was a penalty unsure exactly what they did. The cost of having officials is all on the RD and some officials live far away incurring an even higher travel fee. There was no shortage of officials, just the cost of getting them to his event became outlandish and USAT would not assist with the fee to keep the integrity of the event. He learned that there was NO USAT requirement to have officials at his events in order to be USAT sanctioned. It was easy math. He stopped using officials. The best estimate was that only about 30% of races use USAT Officials, and that is how USAT keeps the integrity of the sport.
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4) I am unsure why USAT states that having officials on motorized vehicles directing athletes in real time threatens on-course safety? Ironman does this! And USAT has no problem putting their sanctioning stamp on them and accepting all their sanctioning fees and one day memberships. USAT adds that short-courses races differ considerably from long-course races. What? So the short course races only have a 12 or 24 mile bike leg. Do the short-course athletes go that much faster than the long-course athletes? I don’t think so. Does IM not give penalties for the first 24 miles of their USAT sanctioned event that makes their system so much more solid. I think USAT is grabbing at straws here.

I’ll be watching this lifetime split. I’m definitely going to get to a few of their races next year to see how this goes first hand and think they are possibly on to something here.