to you, and to dev, there is a school of thought that forgiveness can be extended, but it’s not granted unless it’s accepted. everyone to whom i have spoken feels this way about this situation. even her supporters to whom i’ve spoken are supporters rather than abettors. they support her, and maintain their confidence in her, but don’t absolve the acts.
i have not spoken to anyone who thinks she ought to be given a pass, absent her accepting the forgiveness and that means acknowledging the need for it. nobody wants to be forgiven for an act that he or she does not acknowledge requires forgiveness. that’s the stand-off. last i knew, that’s where we’re at. i just don’t know that 100 more posts reiterating this serves the purpose.
i have 3 dogs, and there’s a 12-foot long, 4" diameter piece of PVC pipe on the property where we walk in the morning. when there’s a varmint in that pipe, a dog gets on each end of the pipe and barks repeatedly, reasoning i guess that enough barking will convince the varmint to come out and get eaten. that tactic never works. it’s cathartic for the dogs, i guess, but it never coaxes the varmint out. in fact, it probably convinces the varmint to stay put.
Dan, given that I don’t know the course cutter athlete, I don’t really care if she admits to it or not.
What I care is that what was taken from others is restored (podium placements, Kona slots etc) and that measures are put in place so that neither Julie Miller nor anyone in our community can easily circumvent the system. The most important thing is that courses are properly designed and timing wires put in place for early alert of course cutting (intentional or unintentional makes no diff from a pure results angle).
I don’t care if she repents or not, because unlike a pro athlete who I might have a vested interest in following, I have no vested interest in this athlete. I only care that she nor others have future chances to steal podiums, Kona slots or placements that rightfully were earned by others.
I sat down with Marc Roy CEO of sportstats and he showed me the complex analytics they run on the data to catch the 5-10 athletes at every race that either try to intentionally or non intentionally cut corners. You don’t hear about all these folks who get DQ’d. Sportstats on the night of IM Whislter, alerted WTC to the course cutting and recommended a DQ. Marc was timing at IMLP and was also helping his team remotely who were in BC. They check all the top 40 age group finishers who might be in line for a KQ immediately the night before rolldown and can see where entire segments are being cut, or where there are sudden “speed ups” (for example, an athlete could get a lift in a car, but if that athletes pace on a segment was out of line with the median change in pace and their own pace, it shows up rather glaringly). They go through a fairly complex analysis of Mdot race results, but they can only work with race course set up and where timing wires are put in place or not. They make recommendations on placements of wires etc to ensure there is no course cutting, but RD’s due to budgets may or may not pay for that.
I have gone to way too many races (including IM Branded) where there is no timing wire at the turnarounds on the bike or run, or in the case of Whistler, no return to land after swim loop 1 for chip “in” before swim loop 2. These are fundamentally flawed problems in course design. Part of the big value that WTC holds is the keys to Kona, but if they can’t put on a fair competition for those who strive to get access to the elusive KQ club, then they are de valuing their own Goose that is laying the golden eggs. After a while the eggs won’t look so golden, when you have course cutters, drafters and dopers rewarded (or as a minimum no means of catching them in action).