The New York Times quoted her so it's credible: "...Hardy, 21, was informed of the failed drug test Monday, which was also the deadline for national governing bodies to submit their rosters for the Beijing Games. Kirk, in an exchange of e-mail messages, wrote, “I have confirmed that USA Swimming knew about the positive drug test before the deadline to submit the names.” She declined to say whom she spoke with. ..."USA Swimming did not submit the names of Kirk and Lara Jackson, who finished third in the 50 freestyle at the trials, as alternates on its roster, to be summoned only if Hardy loses her appeal. ..." [Link]
Memo to USA Swimming: If the above is correct, the perception of ethics and morals within the organization are looking way beyond sketchy at this point. You have an anti-trade lawsuit on the horizon with TYR, you failed to follow your own rules in determining the proper line of succession if a swimmer or swimmers fail a drug test, You have bullied Floswimming which is one of the most popular swim sites on the net and finally for a government sanctioned National Governing Body you are the least transparent non-profit I have ever seen.
How often do non-profit governing bodies get sued anyway? Apparently, Tara Kirk, looks pretty amped up to perhaps make it another lawsuit too. Could this become a class action lawsuit with Kirk, Jackson, and Weir on the list?
All of this nonsense in just the past six months as well. Pathetic!
5 comments:
Oh, it's a dreadful mess, isn't it?
Kirk has spent the last three weeks holidaying in Ireland. US Swimming should choose the athlete with the best prospects in Beijing, and that's Soni who has been training hard at Stanford. If Kirk was to be reinstated she would be working on what I would guess to be a 2 month taper. The only solution to avoid this problem would be to have trials earlier IMHO.
Soni and Joyce are fantastic swimmers and quite capable of doing the job.
However, I do think the Boy Scouts could have planned US Trials better than USA Swimming did.They have to avoid situations like this.
However, they ultimately chose not to follow their own rules.
I agree with Steve, the only real preventative here is lead time. That said, I think the USOC is ultimately the organization in charge of Trials, not USA Swimming (who executes and plays nice in the sandbox, but I don't think has the ultimate control/authority on timing). I also imagine that the drug testing is not done by USA Swimming, but rather facilitated by them and conducted by another source, who probably notified them right around when they notified Hardy, at the last minute, before they could look into the accuracy of the tests and the odd neg-pos-neg pattern from an athlete whose been passing drug tests for the last 4 years. USA Swimming is in a lose-lose position.
Kerry, I never realized that. I thought USAS controlled when trials were held since it was their sport but come to think of it, Track and field was holding their trials the same time as USAS.
Still, the USOC is lucky that the same nonsense that happened to Tara Kirk et al. didn't happen to any track and field stars.
Trials have to be better organized They have to fix it. Also, alternates should be invited to the Olympics.
You are so smart Kerry!
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