Sorry I have no idea what you are asking there?

Now that we're past the "two sides to every story" lets discuss punishment and consequences. The criminal (EDIT - replace mischief) tampering in the 3rd degree occurred at a WTC and USAT sanctioned event and she is a member of the Canadian Triathlon Federation. Suspension in all 3 governing bodies is a no-brainer but for how long? I Assume her team and coach have already dropped her-If not, would love their input. How about criminal charges or would Sharon need to be injured or dead for that to happen?

This one has followed the same path as so many before it. Smoke, then fire, then people arguing that all the facts aren't in, then more damning facts, until only the most naive' cannot see it for what it is.

A 'DQ' is insufficient punishment for this infraction. A lifetime ban, at least from WTC, is definitely in order. Tri Canada should also review the case for the possibility of a suspension ala JM.

I don't think that part in bold is up to WTC. Local police would need to lay charges for that. Not sure what NY state law or Syracuse area municipal law would apply. Maybe some of the legal guys around here can pipe in, but it seems someone would need to approach the police to lay charges. If I recall in the case of Vancouver Canucks player Todd Bertuzzi who attacked a Colorado Avalanche player steve Moore, when criminal charges were laid for an on ice pre meditated attack, the police had to go out of their way to lay charges, its not like the NHL brought the case to the police....but that was public all over the media, so it was easy for the police to dive in. Seriously though tampering with the safety of another athlete is deserving of some charge in the court of law. This to me is way beyond sport.


In any case if you don't know the case I am referring to above here is the link on the full story: http://www.cbc.ca/...tuzzi-case-1.2756008

Sharon would have to be a victim willing to come to court and testify. There are laws that cover this , you can endanger someone and face a criminal charge without actually causing any injury. I think it would be hard to prove intent to cause injury , but could someone prove Kristen recklessly did something and should know the possibility of injury that could occur from her actions? I would believe so.

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Big Sexy Racing 2018

Sorry, she's not going to jail for this.

You can run over cyclists with your car and kill them in our country and nothing happens to you. Letting a little air out of a tire is not even a drop in the bucket.

can we throttle this back a little? nothing criminal happened here. there are parties here who're going to pay a heavy price, and thankfully whatever might've happened to Ms. Schmidt-Mongrain didn't happen.

i never get the glee some people feel over these kinds of things. there are husbands, parents, kids, that are affected by this, and who are themselves innocent but are going to pay a price anyway.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

Steve, for what it is worth I found the foregoing post to be very reasonable at the time it was posted -- whether you knew Kristen or not. At that point, I had not seen anything other than anonymous allegations as to the reason for the DQ (could be I missed something in my reading of the thread though). I was holding out until someone posted a story based on their investigation or their observation and were willing to put their name to it. I'm sure this is small consolation for the grief you've -- undeservedly imo -- received. Sometimes the lynch mob gets it right, and when that happens, one won't be very popular arguing about process.

Thankfully no one was hurt. I hope Kristen gets the help she needs. I hope also that the sporting authorities take appropriate actions.

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It doesn't really matter what Phil is saying, the music of his voice is the appropriate soundtrack for a bicycle race. HTupolev

I don't think the lynch mob often gets it right. They're just oftentimes comforted in the knowledge that the person they anointed the devil is in fact guilty. Of something.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

Just playing devils advocate here, looking down from 30,000 ft., and asking, is there another side to this story?


I find it fascinating that 100% of the people on here and elsewhere, have taken ONE side of this story - not knowing ANYTHING else!


Is that what they/you do in life - ONLY look at one story, and closing ALL other options/facts/details out?


Let me be VERY clear - I don't know all the details here, either! This is NOT supporting one side, or individuals of this story or the other - just advocating for getting ALL the information, before rushing to judgement!


I agree that your post is very reasonable. I jumped in earlier only because she was disqualified and I assumed she wouldn't have been so quickly without clear evidence.

You shouldn't be criticized for being a voice of reason.

I stand corrected. I should have said that when the lynch mob gets a bad guy, they will not listen to any argument about the process.

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It doesn't really matter what Phil is saying, the music of his voice is the appropriate soundtrack for a bicycle race. HTupolev

If she was hurt as a result of a deflated tire, I assume everyone's position would be quite different? I am not so quick to let someone off the hook who tampers with safety critical nature of my bike gear.

X2 agreed . Saying unequivocally there's nothing criminal here is a stretch. A sound argument could be made that it was indeed a criminal act. Will that argument ever actually be made? I highly doubt it .

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Big Sexy Racing 2018

Your front page article and the triathlon Canada article paint a complicated picture of this lady and she has been in fact previously guilty of... somethings. Hopefully this is a wake up call and she takes care of herself, whatever that might be.

you're right. we should wait till someone gets hurt or dies from this type of incident before we view it as a criminal offense. cus you know, that makes the most sense.

we also shouldn't punish people for things, you know, cus their family will suffer.

this doesn't need less throttle, it needs more. either wtc and or the triathlon community takes this seriously, or athletes will take this into their own hands. then you'll have 2 sporting events, triathlon, then the ufc.

john

Anyone suggesting criminal charges or jail time has a screw loose themselves.

Letting air out of an "enemy's" tires is standard issue grade-school misbehaviour in Canada. I had a kooky neighbour that did something so hilarious I couldn't help myself from laughing. Next day my Jeep tires were flat, valve cores gone (hidden sneaky-side only of course). I had spare cores and wheeled the big compressor up to the road, no harm done.

But we Canadians aren't always on the cheat. In fact this very last race I did, a fellow competitor was looking frantically for a tube. That morning I chucked one in my car so I handed it over without question. He offered me compensation and I flatly refused. But I didn't tell him it had a slow leak :)

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Training Tweets: https://twitter.com/Jagersport_com
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What, a bunch of AG women are gonna head up to Canada and give her an old fashioned beating? Or see her at a race and snap her wheels in half and throw them at her???

Should be asked to find another sport or told she's not welcome in ours!

While I have no knowledge of US law on this issue, I'm always fascinated by the fact that people have a tendency to excuse possibly harmfull behaviour by the fact that no-one got hurt. Where do you draw the line? A few (exaggerated, I'll admit, to make my point) examples:

- Drunk driving your car 60 mph through your average residential area passing schools etc.. Should this be ok as long as no-one gets hurt?

- Throwing a rock from the top of empire state down to the street below - ok as long as no-one gets hurt?

- Perhaps abit more relevant to this case - cutting your competitors brake-wire leaving him/hur without brakes. Just ok as a "prank" as long as the person does not get hurt?

All of the above could easily lead to serious injury / death, and I bet everyone would be calling for heavy punishment should someone actually commit those acts with fatal outcome. As I said - I'm not arguing weather or not this case is "worthy" of jail time of any other form of criminal reaction, but I think it's fair to say that letting the air out of someone's tire could also potentially lead to an accident. Was this Ms. Johnsons intent? Probably not. Could it still be punishable? Perhaps - I know it could be in my home- country. I also know you would have to go a very long way to convince law enforcement to actually pursue this kind of incident.

Well if you can't see the difference between cutting a brake wire and letting air our of a tire... Hint: tire go flat all the time and people rarely get hurt as a result. Plus in this case the tire was flat from the get go, it's not like it would suddenly blow mid race in a high speed descent.

What she did was wrong obviously and I'm all for a ban, but criminal charges, really?

I do see the difference, and as I stated my examples were exaggerated. Tires go flat all the time - yes. Brake-wires can also snap mid-ride without having anyone tampering with them. This is not the point. The point is that what she did could potentially be harmful, and I believe your thinking is flawed if you think that this is a non-issue because no-one got hurt. The outcome is not the main issue here, it's the potential damage she could have caused.

Now if you argue this is not a criminal issue because letting out the air is not very dangerous - that's a fine argument. Also - arguing that riding with a (partly) deflated tire is less dangerous than riding without brakes - also a fine argument.

I don't think we have all the facts here to make a sound judgement, and viewing it from a safety-standpoint I'd say it'd been far worse had she only let out say half the air vs all the air. If the tire was totally deflated the incident would have been discovered as soon as she sat on the bike - not very much potential for harm. A partly deflated tire - however - could go undetected. And say the athlete riding the bike did not notice this, and had the tire roll of the rim in the first sharp turn after a decent. Are you fine with this? No criminal inquires what-so-ever? If the athlete in question broke her neck following such an incident I feel confident inquiries into criminal charges would be made.

Just to emphasize again - I'm not arguing that Ms Johnson should go to jail or even be charged with anything, because we simply do not have the facts to consider any basis for this. And I leave entirely up to others to decide on this. However - I am arguing that something like this should not be brushed away simply cause "no-one got hurt" - that's really beside the point.

You just described the current Democrat party.

What facts are outstanding?


She was DQ'd and there is a 12-page thread on ST as well as a front page article. Who's brushing it away? In any sporting infraction resulting in a disqualification, depending on severity there is almost always a 3rd party investigation by the governing bodies in question into whether further action is required. Personally I would be very surprised if Tri Canada didn't ban her for an extended period of time as well as IM.


I'd argue that's exactly the point. Nobody got hurt. I would bet she'll avoid criminal charges; all be they warranted in some people's opinions!

I think you just stumbled upon the magic recipe that would make triathlon "Must See TV." Kind of a Death Race 2000 style event, just without any motorized vehicles.

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"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"