I live in Minneapolis and serve on a committee in Minnesota that nominates and selects similar awards for the Minnesota region. I have met Jenn Scudiero, USAT duathlete of the year award winner for 2013 (see below) and I think she is a great person and great athlete BUT…
She did not win the award for best amateur duathlete in Minnesota region for 2013 but she wins the national award???!!!
The award winner in the Minnesota region was Suzie Fox that beat Jen Scudiero 3 times in 3 meetings in Duathlons in 2013 by healthy margins.
How can you select Jen Scudiero over Suzie Fox for USAT Duathlete of the year given that she has never beaten Suzie??!!
can someone from USAT explain their logic??? I am all ears.
I am a USAT member and tried to post on their website to no avail.
If you want awards to have credibility you have to select the person with the best resume!
**COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — **USA Triathlon today announced the 2013 Duathletes of the Year, including the nation’s top age-group, junior and elite duathletes, recognized for outstanding performances in the United States and abroad. The honor, presented by Garmin, is awarded annually by USA Triathlon’s Age Group Committee, following nominations by the Duathlon Committee.
“Duathlon competition results in 2013 highlighted many of our competitive and outstanding athletes,” said Steve Sutherland, chair of the USA Triathlon Age Group Committee Athlete of the Year Subcommittee. “To rise above and stand out in this group as a Duathlete of the Year is truly a great accomplishment.”
Alex Arman (St. Charles, Ill.) and Jenn Scudiero (Eagan, Minn.) were named the overall Duathletes of the Year. Arman was the first amateur finisher at the Apple Duathlon, and he finished second in the 25-29 age group at the ITU Duathlon World Championships in Ottawa, Canada, where he was seventh overall. Scudiero was the first overall amateur female finisher in the standard-distance USA Triathlon Duathlon National Championships, and she set course records en route to wins at the Falls Duathlon and the Dubuque Duathlon.
I looked at the field for USAT national duathlon (because I give a thorough look at top athletes from the Minnesota region to base my recommendations and picks for Multisport awards) and I can assure you the womens USAT national field was very soft.
I could at least understand their rationale if thet say they pick the athletes that win their nationals (even if its a soft field…I would not agree with that but might at least I could understand their rationale) BUT…Patrick Parrish won USAT am nationals and was not selected. He “won the race that counted” and was not selected…
Dan Hedgecock, on the other hand won elite male duathlete of the year by winning 2 local races (Apple and Gear West Duathlon here in MN. He did NO national duathlons. The only two duathlons he did all year, no national ones. So I guess he didn’t win the race that counts and still won the national award. Please understand: I am not saying Dan Hegecock should not have won the award, He is likely a worthy pick. What I am saying is that IF the criteria is heavily weighted to USAT nationals or National type races, which is the ONLY criteria that might explain Jen Scuderio’s pick, then Dan should not have won the elite Duathlete of the year award.
…and all the above players are from Minnesota so I am vary familiar with their race resumes
And as an aside…Suzie Fox also did the Gear West and Apple Duathlon here in MN (2 VERY competitive duathlons with national cache’) and beat Jen Scuderio by margins of 3:43 and 1:48 in those races!..Jen Scuderio finished 5th at Gear West Duathlon beaten by 4 local women…Suzie Fox won that race and she did not even get an honorable mention from USAT???
I know people may care less or no much about duathlon or these awards, but the duathletes do…if you are going to pick award winners you need to make a good faith effort and due diligence for the picks to have credibility.
I would love for someone on their committee to defend these picks. Based on what I know this was a huge miss.
If you go to nationals and do well, you’re going to get a sizeable bump from that.
I agree with what your saying though. Over the years the years athletes rank ahead of others just bc they did Nationals & Worlds in the case of duathlon or an IM in the case of triathlon.
That same person ranks well even though they got spanked numerous times or never beat people ranked below them in head to head.
It would be great if USAT could figure out a way to configure the rankings to include head to head meetings, and they may, I haven’t checked into the new rankings.
Look at the men’s winners. Dave Slavinski is the only person with a 110+ score (I noticed this as we are in the same age group) and does not win the o/a or masters and beat the guy that won the master’s athlete of the year.
I agree with everything you said. Jen is a fine athlete but probably not among the top five duathletes in Minnesota (also a MN athlete myself).
I would have said that USAT was rewarding her for winning national or racing more until you pointed out the thing about Dan and Pat. Almost the same situation really…Pat races a bit more and wins nationals, but Dan beats him comfortably in two local races. Different result though. Certainly no consistency in what they’re looking for
I get that no system is perfect, and I serve on a team that selects awards and we have many long and loud arguments when its close between two multisport athletes for nominations and awards in Minnesota. You have to decide things like: how much racing a lot trumps racing a few times, how to value long and short races, if racing many distances trumps just racing Oly’s or sprints, whats better, having many wins over soft fields vs placing on the podium in more talented fields…there is some subjectivity…But this was not even close. This aint Oscar picks. We have plenty of objective race results to guide us here…
imagine saying to Suzie Fox “yeah, you beat Jen handily in 3 of 3 races but Jen Scuderio is the USAT Duathlete of the year and you dont even get an honorable mention”…???
I cant speak for her, but I bet Jen Scuderio knows Suzie Fox was the better duathlete last year…
…and if Nationals for USAT races count so much, how come Patrick Parish (2013 national duathlon am winner, did not win Male Duathlete of the year…and how does Dan Hedgecock win elite Duathlete of the year by only doing 2 duathlons (standard distance) does NO national races…if they were using that F’ed up criteria (USAT committee members can speak for themselves) they are not even using THAT consistently…
I know, or know of all these people I am talking about and they may not be happy with me saying all this but its just a huge mistake…
Award or no award, Miss Fox is a great athlete and representative of the sport and So is Dan. I think I should be buying water from Long Lake, Gear West Bike and Tri has quite a stable of athletes racing from their shop!
Suzie, Dan, Jen, and Patrick are all fantastic athletes and people. …the land of 10,000 lakes has a great due scene…these people who made the selections screwd the pooch!
If you want your complaining to have any creditability you need to use your real name. Calling out others for winning awards is about as classless as you can get, Unless you have proof she did something unethical to win?
Parish has his pro card and won Elite Duathlon National Championships. While I think he was very qualified for Elite Athlete of the Year, I think they got it right since Hedgecock beat him twice head to head at Gear a West and Apple.
Stephen Bullard…Minneapolis I have been on the committee to select the Minnesota region multi sport awards for 10 years? I spend hours each year looking at results of tri/duathletes from our region to vote on nominations for the Minnesota multisport awards. I talked to Jen at the award ceremony this year and she seemed very cool and committed. …and I am not calling her out. She did not reward herself. I am asking the USAT sub group to explain the logic of their pick…here in Mn…Suzie Fox won Duathetes of the year over Jen and she was my pick. It wasn’t that close looking at objective race results.
Just to be clear…I agree with you. I would pick Hedgecock over Parish also. I was using that comparison to demonstrate that if they were picking USAT Duathlete of the year weighing Nationals heavily (I am guessing this is why Jen won over Suzie) then why didn’t they pick Parish if they were consistent with their own criteria (if that is what it was…I don’t want to talk for them… they can speak for themselves)
It would be good for those that selected the awards to explain it.
The reason I am so interested in all this is that I had to make the same decision for the local awards and was stunned at their pick knowing all their race resumes and times. It has nothing to do with knocking any athletes. I am just left to wonder if the group that picked the USAT awards worked at if very hard…and I think they should.
You, me, and the athlete that won it and the athletes that lost it know the award is meaningless. So does Slowtwitch.
What more can you ask for now?
this x2
the only people that care about these lists are those who are on it and their friends. most peole could care less about the tri rankings, the du ranking? ooooo, so-and-so was the top ranked duathlete in the blah blah region. WOW
You convinced me, but don’t hold your breath waiting for USAT to say essentially, “Yeah, we were wrong and haven’t the slightest idea how to evaluate race results fairly.” And they won’t tell you their criteria either knowing it won’t stand up to the light of day.
I don’t know anything about USAT’s criteria, and don’t know either woman personally, but just from looking at the 2013 rankings (and from doing the Apple du) I saw a few things that maybe influenced USAT:
Fox only had one du ranked for 2013(Apple du), and 6 tris. Obviously a more tri focus season, at least if USAT is only considering ranked races
Scudiero did 5 dus, including nationals and worlds. No tris (at least in rankings).
at the apple du, Fox raced in the elite wave, so it surprised me she got points at all. I raced in the age group wave specifically to get ranked/slot to worlds. Lost out on decent prize money since I would have been 2nd elite woman.
since she only did one ranked race, Fox wasn’t officially ranked in her age group at the en of the year. Can the duathlete of the year not be age group ranked in duathlon?
I don’t know if there is any personal story/circumstances taken into account either? Comeback from injury or overcoming some unusual obstacles?
On a side note, are some dus in Minnesota not USAT sanctioned? I only see two that have rankings in the system for 2013 (apple & irongirl)
I’m assuming that there are criteria for the award and that the criteria are subjective. For example, they are not awarded based on any kind of point system or the total number of wins during the season. Someone nominates an athlete and the athlete is given an award based on a committee vote. The committee uses their subjective criteria to give the award as opposed to giving it to the person with the highest USAT ranking.
If someone meets all the criteria of an award and then is given the award, I don’t see what the outcry is all about. Everyone knows this subjective policy ahead of time. It’s like someone complaining that Harvard has a flawed acceptance process because they didn’t get into Harvard when they had a 4.0 GPA while a classmate with a 3.8 did. Havard, just like every college out there, has a minimum GPA/SAT requirement. If you meet that, you are eligible for acceptance. It doesn’t mean that you will be accepted. The same logic can be applied to this award. Just because you have the most wins doesn’t mean that you should win the award. It just means that you are eligible to win the award.
I look at my local tri club. We give out an “Athlete of the Year” award. The winner of that award is rarely ever given to someone who is the fastest in the club or has the highest USAT ranking. It’s usually given to the person who races a lot, has a lot of good results, and helps the club in other ways.