From an RD perspective: there's insurance problems (that individual is not covered by the race policy or waiver), there's potential legal liability out of informing the wrong family of something that happened on course, results management, ensuring that others don't try to do this ("well, someone else did it so I thought it was fine,"), etc.
Speaking about athletes themselves: non-permitted bib swapping is a code of honor / ethics type of violation. It's generally harmless in a single situation. But given that our sport relies heavily on a code of honor to govern itself (e.g., drafting, course-cutting, etc.), it's an indicator that the individual, when given the choice, may not wind up following the same code that we expect others to act in.
Kinda one of those "why we can't have nice things" types of situations -- because others can't seem to follow the basic rules.
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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com |
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