USATF Rudderless and Clueless
The dust has settled and USATF has reinstated Gabrielle Grunewald as the indoor 3000 meters National Champion.
In my admittedly inexpert opinion, based on repeated viewing of the available video, Grunewald didn’t deserve a DQ. Track–particularly indoor track–is a physical sport. Elbows are thrown and minor jostling is commonplace.
Truthfully, I can’t really fault Salazar for protesting or even appealing the initial dismissal of his protest. It’s pretty normal for a coach to advocate on behalf of his athlete, even to the point of obnoxiousness. What was disturbing to me (and many other observers) was that there seemed to be an extra-legal process that led to the disqualification, and that Salazar got deferential treatment.
If Grunewald had simply been DQed, there would have been complaints. There would have been accusations of favoritism, but if it appeared the rules had been followed the disturbance would have passed. But instead, the protests grew in volume. “USATF corruption” was a trending hashtag on Twitter.