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USAT Responds to Life Time Fitness Announcement about "divorce" from USAT Sanctioning
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I'm surprised that this hasn't already appeared in the Forum.
Any responses or thoughts?
USAT has weathered some real storms in the past such as their very contentious experience with both WTC and ITU and I suspect they will survive this one as well.
It is my opinion that this will hurt Life Time Fitness more in the long run than it will USAT.




Dear USA Triathlon Key Stakeholder:

Greetings, I hope this finds you well and your season has so far proven to be both rewarding and enjoyable!

I am writing to address last week's announcement by Life Time Tri that it will no longer sanction its eight races with USA Triathlon. This announcement resulted in the circulation of misinformation, as well as several questions being posed to us. None of these items are new, and we have addressed them many times over the years.

However, as we continually strive to communicate openly and proactively with our community, I wanted to once again clarify some specific points:

The benefits of sanctioning with USA Triathlon are many.

  • Experience – USA Triathlon has sanctioned more than 40,000 races over the last 35 years, delivering athlete peace-of-mind by ensuring, among other things, industry-wide safety standards and high-quality event criteria.

  • Event Services – USA Triathlon offers an experienced and expert team to support race directors and event production companies with questions and issues, as well as provide certification, best practices, educational opportunities, and other resources.

  • Risk Management – Sanctioning ensures unmatched insurance protection designed specifically for multisport events – not gym memberships – to cover the event, the athlete, and the venue at the most nominal cost possible. Athletes (and their families) and race directors who have unfortunately needed to utilize this general liability and excess medical coverage, including in the tragic circumstances of catastrophic incidents, can personally attest to its irreplaceable importance. The costs incurred by USA Triathlon and our policy providers to cover claims and defend against unwarranted lawsuits have saved race directors tens of millions of dollars over the years.
Other points of clarification:

  • The cost for a USA Triathlon one-day membership is not a “hidden fee” as alleged by Life Time. Race directors are strongly encouraged to always notify athletes in advance about the requirement for either USA Triathlon annual or one-day membership.

  • Utilizing USA Triathlon Rules and Certified Officials does not result in “surprises” for athletes. In fact, just the opposite. Implementing penalties mid-race (i.e., penalty tents) actually does the following:

    • Removes the ability for any due process or realistic appeals by athletes – The process of assessing USA Triathlon penalties does not interfere with the athlete during competition, but instead allows the athlete to address any concerns about the violation after completing the race, and may result in the penalty being rescinded should a mistake be determined.

    • Threatens on-course safety – For sprint- and Olympic-distance age-group races, having officials on motorized vehicles directing athletes in real time to penalty tents can significantly decrease on-course safety, particularly on the bike leg. Short-course races for at-large age-group athletes differ considerably from long-course races, elite races, or age-group world championship races where penalty tents can all be more effectively integrated.

  • Regardless of claims to the contrary, customized event offerings such as the ability for athletes to choose their own wave/start time or have greater access to transition areas, are already being implemented at other sanctioned races and are not new concepts. There are many examples currently within USA Triathlon’s 4,000-plus sanctioned races where these approaches and other innovations have been successfully offered. Our goal as a sanctioning body is to be flexible and accommodate event-specific requests whenever possible, provided they do not compromise safety or the quality of experience for the athlete.
For competitive athletes, sanctioned races provide coveted points for USA Triathlon Regional and National Rankings (comprised of more than 37,039 athletes in 2016), including USA Triathlon All-American status. And only sanctioned races provide the opportunity to qualify for USA Triathlon National Championships and the chance to represent your country at ITU Age Group World Championships as a member of Team USA.

As the official National Governing Body (NGB) for the sport of triathlon in the United States, we are responsible for selecting and training teams for international competition including the Olympic and Paralympic Games. We are dedicated to supporting and growing youth and women’s participation in our sport. Our commitment to paratriathlon is perhaps the strongest and most successful in the world. We help educate first-time triathletes, as well as race directors, coaches and officials. And we have a very strong Safe Sport program, helping protect our members, including the most vulnerable.

The fees for one-day and annual memberships are recirculated back into the sport to accomplish all of this – and more – while fulfilling our mission to advance and promote the sport of triathlon. For example, this year we will award $60,000 in youth grants, directly assist high school programs and state championships in significant ways, and continue to support our NCAA Emerging Sport for Women initiative in order to reach full championship status.

Change for the sake of change is not a compelling strategy. Ultimately, the sport loses as a whole . . . a “strategy” that is not good for anyone.

As always, we welcome feedback, questions and concerns, so please feel free to contact me personally at barry.siff@usatriathlon.org. Our commitment to you and our great sport is unwavering, and we thank YOU for being such an important part of it.
Sincerely,



Barry Siff
USA Triathlon President
ITU Executive Board Member
CAMTRI Executive Board Member
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Re: USAT Responds to Life Time Fitness Announcement about "divorce" from USAT Sanctioning [smoothoperator] [ In reply to ]
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not surprisingly, that response isn't really saying anything. unfortunately, USAT just isn't a ''value add'' for some athletes and/or races.
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Re: USAT Responds to Life Time Fitness Announcement about "divorce" from USAT Sanctioning [smoothoperator] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks for posting. I have not had a chance to chime in the other thread when this was announced. This response from USAT is what I would expect. Just my 2c.
I applaud the effort by Lifetime. However, USAT is only one part of the problem. They really offer nothing substantial to the races at this point. Drug testing is none existent, so likely we have a sport that we can question whether it's clean on or not at PRO and AG level. Further, drafting is rampant and unenforced. Been in the sport for 10 years and have seen all from local races to Kona (broadcast only, not good enough for it, however, images are pretty telling).
The other half of the problem is still silent. ACTIVE.COM fees!!!!!! Where is the rocking the boat on that? That is what I think is a grand theft here. When will active.com be eliminated, put away?
Let's include that here. My 2016 IMAZ active.com fee was $80+, what is that all about?????
My 2c.
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Re: USAT Responds to Life Time Fitness Announcement about "divorce" from USAT Sanctioning [atasic] [ In reply to ]
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atasic wrote:
Thanks for posting. I have not had a chance to chime in the other thread when this was announced. This response from USAT is what I would expect. Just my 2c.
I applaud the effort by Lifetime. However, USAT is only one part of the problem. They really offer nothing substantial to the races at this point. Drug testing is none existent, so likely we have a sport that we can question whether it's clean on or not at PRO and AG level. Further, drafting is rampant and unenforced. Been in the sport for 10 years and have seen all from local races to Kona (broadcast only, not good enough for it, however, images are pretty telling).
The other half of the problem is still silent. ACTIVE.COM fees!!!!!! Where is the rocking the boat on that? That is what I think is a grand theft here. When will active.com be eliminated, put away?
Let's include that here. My 2016 IMAZ active.com fee was $80+, what is that all about?????
My 2c.

This issue has been beaten to death on other threads. You need to be more generic: rather than saying active.com fees, you should use the term "registration agent fees" (or some such). Many races (especially in the Boston area where I live) do not use Active as their registration service. All these services charge a fee. The real issue is when the fee is identified. Some services (or race directors) will identify the fee up front. Others, including Active, wait until checkout.

Also, you're not going to eliminate the registration fee. If it's not explicitly called out, the fee will probably be built into the base cost.
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Re: USAT Responds to Life Time Fitness Announcement about "divorce" from USAT Sanctioning [HandHeartCrown] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks for correcting me. Registration fees are more appropriate to include all. Agree. Upfront is better, still not acceptable. And I really don't care whether it has been beaten to death, no it has not been beaten enough as it is still alive and well. I would rather pay the money to RD for his race and let him decide how much money he/she wants to pay the "middle man" doing nothing. Market will fix that.
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Re: USAT Responds to Life Time Fitness Announcement about "divorce" from USAT Sanctioning [HandHeartCrown] [ In reply to ]
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HandHeartCrown wrote:
The real issue is when the fee is identified.

that's half the issue. the other half is the size of the fee. for large race organizations this is often simply more entry fee: a large portion of the large fee is rebated back to the RD. this is why the RD is happy to keep letting a "full service" registration company keep on taking their registrations.

in the end, tho, this is short term thinking. everybody wants to protect his position. his income. his place. so the whole industry declines because nobody wants to consider doing things differently than they have been done in the past.

Dan Empfield
aka Slowman
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Re: USAT Responds to Life Time Fitness Announcement about "divorce" from USAT Sanctioning [smoothoperator] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks for posting USAT response. I think it is good and on point. I don't like what LT is doing and nor do i like them asking the USAT as thry do it. However, i also think usat is stale. Barry is new leading USAT and maybe he will help USAT become more relevant.

But, USAT, whether it is perfect or not, is working everyday to support triathlons. Active.com is not! They are a money sucking leech upon our sport that offers unwanted services in order to justify what they charge. i would love to see USAT and races end their relationship with them and have USAT add their own registration process that is included in their membership or one day fee.

I'm sure all of us could come up with other ideas to improve USAT, but getting rid of Active.com would sure go along way for me in increasing USAT's value.

2018 Races: IM Santa Rosa, Vineman Monte Rio, Lake Tahoe 70.3
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Re: USAT Responds to Life Time Fitness Announcement about "divorce" from USAT Sanctioning [smoothoperator] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks for that.

IMO the only valid point in the response from USAT is with regards to penalty tents for short course racing. Now that I think about, penalty tents will be a disaster for events like Lifetime Chicago. It's definitely best to just assess a time penalty and then leave the option for an appeal later. Maybe give the bike course marshals (all two of them) GoPros to help with the appeals process.
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Re: USAT Responds to Life Time Fitness Announcement about "divorce" from USAT Sanctioning [GreenPlease] [ In reply to ]
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GreenPlease wrote:
Thanks for that.

IMO the only valid point in the response from USAT is with regards to penalty tents for short course racing. Now that I think about, penalty tents will be a disaster for events like Lifetime Chicago. It's definitely best to just assess a time penalty and then leave the option for an appeal later. Maybe give the bike course marshals (all two of them) GoPros to help with the appeals process.

I love the go pro idea for officials!!!

2018 Races: IM Santa Rosa, Vineman Monte Rio, Lake Tahoe 70.3
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Re: USAT Responds to Life Time Fitness Announcement about "divorce" from USAT Sanctioning [smoothoperator] [ In reply to ]
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It reads like less of a response and more of a reiteration of current USAT talking points. I.e., USAT is not mature enough at this point to accept any criticism and learn from it. Instead, they regurgitate their marketing spin.
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Re: USAT Responds to Life Time Fitness Announcement about "divorce" from USAT Sanctioning [Slowman] [ In reply to ]
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Slowman wrote:
HandHeartCrown wrote:
The real issue is when the fee is identified.

that's half the issue. the other half is the size of the fee. for large race organizations this is often simply more entry fee: a large portion of the large fee is rebated back to the RD. this is why the RD is happy to keep letting a "full service" registration company keep on taking their registrations.
in the end, tho, this is short term thinking. everybody wants to protect his position. his income. his place. so the whole industry declines because nobody wants to consider doing things differently than they have been done in the past.
============================================================================================
i agree: the issue is the size of the fee. i seem to recall that active started with something like a $1 fee. or a tiny, set one. then it went to a percentage. but the original anger was over the added fee to the (any) race organizer's entry. for usat, at least when they first went to a contract with active, the anger seemed to be this: "hey, we pay you to do this. do it and don't bleed us to make business for someone else." it was phrased and addressed in a variety of ways, but the resistance was not effective, clearly.
peggy
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Re: USAT Responds to Life Time Fitness Announcement about "divorce" from USAT Sanctioning [HuffNPuff] [ In reply to ]
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Agreed
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Re: USAT Responds to Life Time Fitness Announcement about "divorce" from USAT Sanctioning [HuffNPuff] [ In reply to ]
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HuffNPuff wrote:
It reads like less of a response and more of a reiteration of current USAT talking points. I.e., USAT is not mature enough at this point to accept any criticism and learn from it. Instead, they regurgitate their marketing spin.


Another off-putting thing is that it's littered with management jargon. "Utilizing," "proactively," "continually strive," etc.
Last edited by: trail: Jul 19, 17 9:12
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Re: USAT Responds to Life Time Fitness Announcement about "divorce" from USAT Sanctioning [smoothoperator] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks for posting.

I continue to believe USAT is going a great job! Since I only race USAT events, guess I do not need to worry about ever racing
a LTF event.

Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

Boom Nutrition code 19F4Y3 $5 off 24 pack box | Bionic Runner | PowerCranks | Velotron | Spruzzamist

Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep
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Re: USAT Responds to Life Time Fitness Announcement about "divorce" from USAT Sanctioning [Slowman] [ In reply to ]
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Slowman wrote:
HandHeartCrown wrote:
The real issue is when the fee is identified.


that's half the issue. the other half is the size of the fee. for large race organizations this is often simply more entry fee: a large portion of the large fee is rebated back to the RD. this is why the RD is happy to keep letting a "full service" registration company keep on taking their registrations.

in the end, tho, this is short term thinking. everybody wants to protect his position. his income. his place. so the whole industry declines because nobody wants to consider doing things differently than they have been done in the past.

Got it. I only race short-course and most of the fees are in the $6-9 range (or around 7-10%). As a dollar amount, I don't find this so bad, in the grand scheme of costs. $80, on the other hand, is a bit excessive.
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Re: USAT Responds to Life Time Fitness Announcement about "divorce" from USAT Sanctioning [HandHeartCrown] [ In reply to ]
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in my opinion, we have 2 problems, and i've expressed this many times. people don't always make decisions based on "fair percentages" based on the calculation. i put on a race in 1997 bringing back the US Triathlon Series after a 5 year hiatus. we tried to bring in a whole new crop of first timers. worked our asses off to do that. the USAT head ref penalized 25 percent of my athletes. "they'll know better next time."

okay. but being told you're a cheater is offensive. having that kiss at the end of registration, when you THINK you know the cost, but it turns out that's NOT the cost, that's offensive. thankfully USAT has moved past that kind of thinking, but they haven't entirely moved past it.

what LTF has decided to do may work out well. it may work out badly. barry makes valid points. but USAT has a responsibility. it is failing (in my opinion) to address the problems LTF is addressing.

one real way, one good way, to keep the LTFs of the future from making the decision LTF made is to address the issues.

Dan Empfield
aka Slowman
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Re: USAT Responds to Life Time Fitness Announcement about "divorce" from USAT Sanctioning [Slowman] [ In reply to ]
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Slowman wrote:
in my opinion, we have 2 problems, and i've expressed this many times. people don't always make decisions based on "fair percentages" based on the calculation. i put on a race in 1997 bringing back the US Triathlon Series after a 5 year hiatus. we tried to bring in a whole new crop of first timers. worked our asses off to do that. the USAT head ref penalized 25 percent of my athletes. "they'll know better next time."

okay. but being told you're a cheater is offensive. having that kiss at the end of registration, when you THINK you know the cost, but it turns out that's NOT the cost, that's offensive. thankfully USAT has moved past that kind of thinking, but they haven't entirely moved past it.

what LTF has decided to do may work out well. it may work out badly. barry makes valid points. but USAT has a responsibility. it is failing (in my opinion) to address the problems LTF is addressing.

one real way, one good way, to keep the LTFs of the future from making the decision LTF made is to address the issues.

Dan, that was your choice to have USAT officials!! Most of the USAT races I do have zero officials, and I am totally fine with that. :)

Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

Boom Nutrition code 19F4Y3 $5 off 24 pack box | Bionic Runner | PowerCranks | Velotron | Spruzzamist

Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep
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Re: USAT Responds to Life Time Fitness Announcement about "divorce" from USAT Sanctioning [Sanrafaeltri] [ In reply to ]
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+1 on USAT stepping up to handle registration without having additional fees. That would be exactly the kind of value that people could see right away.
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Re: USAT Responds to Life Time Fitness Announcement about "divorce" from USAT Sanctioning [smoothoperator] [ In reply to ]
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TL;DR = Bullshit.

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Experience – USA Triathlon has sanctioned more than 40,000 races over the last 35 years, delivering athlete peace-of-mind by ensuring, among other things, industry-wide safety standards and high-quality event criteria.

Bullshit. I jumped in one year to be RD of a collegiate club's triathlon. I got sanctioning by delivering precisely fuck-all apart from the fee to USAT. They asked no questions and assured jack shit.

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Event Services – USA Triathlon offers an experienced and expert team to support race directors and event production companies with questions and issues, as well as provide certification, best practices, educational opportunities, and other resources.
Bigger bullshit. The race I ran we had a situation: snow was in the forecast for the night before and the water temp was under 50 degrees. I called USAT to get some guidance on cancelling the swim. They told me it was up to me, and my judgement. Fuck you USAT, that's why I'm calling you. I'm a newbie, and looking for experience guidance and judgement. I got none of that.

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Risk Management – Sanctioning ensures unmatched insurance protection designed specifically for multisport events
Well. They did insure us here. But the risk managers at the University didn't deem their coverage sufficient, and got us additional insurance coverage. So I'm less upset about this, but I'm still going to say Bullshit.
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Re: USAT Responds to Life Time Fitness Announcement about "divorce" from USAT Sanctioning [Slowman] [ In reply to ]
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Slowman wrote:
in my opinion, we have 2 problems, and i've expressed this many times. people don't always make decisions based on "fair percentages" based on the calculation. i put on a race in 1997 bringing back the US Triathlon Series after a 5 year hiatus. we tried to bring in a whole new crop of first timers. worked our asses off to do that. the USAT head ref penalized 25 percent of my athletes. "they'll know better next time."

okay. but being told you're a cheater is offensive. having that kiss at the end of registration, when you THINK you know the cost, but it turns out that's NOT the cost, that's offensive. thankfully USAT has moved past that kind of thinking, but they haven't entirely moved past it.

Staffing with a large multisport company has shown me another side to this sport... I've gotten to know some of the officials. I'm tight lipped in my discussions with them, but sometimes there are a lot of questionable penalties with some upset athletes. Most races don't have enough officials, which might not be a bad thing seeing how some officiate. Races done by other companies I've noted as an athlete, don't have USAT officials at all... so rules don't mean anything there.

Sanrafaeltri wrote:
But, USAT, whether it is perfect or not, is working everyday to support triathlons. Active.com is not! They are a money sucking leech upon our sport that offers unwanted services in order to justify what they charge. i would love to see USAT and races end their relationship with them and have USAT add their own registration process that is included in their membership or one day fee.

Love this idea! If USAT came up with a race registration vehicle to offer their RDs and subsequent athletes, that could be a real game changer!
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Re: USAT Responds to Life Time Fitness Announcement about "divorce" from USAT Sanctioning [xeon] [ In reply to ]
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If active is ditched, all other similar registration processing sites tack on the stupid processing fees. Has something to do with credit card companies. Now I'm not sure, but I think papal avoids this exorbitant fee.

As for USAt, with decline in partipants you need to cut staff and salaries as well. Lean out more... that stupid magazine with repetitive info every year, it's as if they have an AI bot printing it

What value is there to the athletes? I would expect bike/run distances as advertised to be on point, if not more for margin of error
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Re: USAT Responds to Life Time Fitness Announcement about "divorce" from USAT Sanctioning [smoothoperator] [ In reply to ]
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I came in second in my age group at NYC Triathlon this weekend. I went to the Awards Ceremony where they made a big deal about being able to sign up on the spot for the “Championship” next year. I talked to a few other people and it didn’t seem to me like they were going to have a single taker across any of the age groups. Do they really think they are going to turn the NYC Triathlon into the Kona of Olympic distance? That people are going to fork over $300+ on the spot for a race 12 months away. It’s ridiculous. I think this is going to be an abysmal failure. I won’t even take my chances and sign up through the lottery for next year, and I’ve done it 3 years in a row. Like USAT said, if I can’t get a USAT score that will help me make All American, then I just as soon find a different local Olympic distance race where I can.

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Re: USAT Responds to Life Time Fitness Announcement about "divorce" from USAT Sanctioning [RallySavage] [ In reply to ]
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RallySavage wrote:

I came in second in my age group at NYC Triathlon this weekend. I went to the Awards Ceremony where they made a big deal about being able to sign up on the spot for the “Championship” next year. I talked to a few other people and it didn’t seem to me like they were going to have a single taker across any of the age groups. Do they really think they are going to turn the NYC Triathlon into the Kona of Olympic distance? That people are going to fork over $300+ on the spot for a race 12 months away. It’s ridiculous. I think this is going to be an abysmal failure. I won’t even take my chances and sign up through the lottery for next year, and I’ve done it 3 years in a row. Like USAT said, if I can’t get a USAT score that will help me make All American, then I just as soon find a different local Olympic distance race where I can.

Totally agree

Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

Boom Nutrition code 19F4Y3 $5 off 24 pack box | Bionic Runner | PowerCranks | Velotron | Spruzzamist

Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep
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Re: USAT Responds to Life Time Fitness Announcement about "divorce" from USAT Sanctioning [JustinPB] [ In reply to ]
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I feel like I just bought a new vehicle.....and got stuck with the undercoating and doc fees.....every time I see the USAT charge on a race sign-up page.
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Re: USAT Responds to Life Time Fitness Announcement about "divorce" from USAT Sanctioning [RallySavage] [ In reply to ]
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RallySavage wrote:
That people are going to fork over $300+ on the spot for a race 12 months away. It’s ridiculous.

Well, people do it for Kona (but triple the money) and 70.3 WC (but another 50% more money)...

So yea, it's a solid model.
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