Topic: News: 2009 USA Sr Nationals Combined with Pan Am Champs

[Roger Sadecki]

ARTICLE 24
                           Championships
The Championship events of the Federation are: National Men’s and Women’s, National Juniors, National Collegiates1, National Masters, National Schoolboy/ Schoolgirl, and American Open.  Each of the foregoing listed championships shall receive the full title of: USA (or USAW) (and appropriate) Championships (or Open) on Entry Forms and all publicity references.


ARTICLE 25
Records
325.1   Requirements. So far as is practicable, the requirements for record approval shall conform to the requirements of USAW and IWF, with respect to application for and approval of National and World Records.
     1)    American and International Records may only be submitted and approved when made in drug tested competitions.
325.2   Submission of Record Lifts.  It shall be the responsibility of the Competition Secretary at the meet where the record was made to have the record application form properly filled in and forwarded to the central office without delay.  When American records are made at an IF calendared and drug tested event, the USAW Team Leader will complete the record form and submit it to the USAW central office for approval and processing.
 
325.3   Special Note—LWC, State, Regional Records.
      1)    Refer to the USAW PROCEDURAL RULES and USAW’s TECHNICAL
      RULES ADDENDA for methods of handling and approval of non-American and   
     non-World records.

325.4   Approval of Records. The central office will provide a copy of the record to the chairperson of the Technical Committee for approval.  If there are questions between the chairperson of the Technical Committee and USAW’s Executive Director as to the validity of the record, the record will be submitted to the full Technical Committee for review and recommendation.  This recommendation will be forwarded to the Board of Directors, who will make the final decision for approval/disapproval.



So for your first question: the by laws state that the meet is simply the AMERICAN OPEN.

For your second question: the by laws certainly indicate that you could set a Sr American Record at the meet you describe.

But 325.4 gives the BOD opportunity to make a final decision. If we take the past board that ended their reign last Sunday, there could be problems. They never took recommendations from the technical committee, let alone seldom ever asked for a recommendation. They made up their own rules.

The new by laws the USOC want to push on us doesn't address the above items. Who knows what will happen?

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

Roger,

Thanks again. Honestly, I think the North American Open is total crap but I didn't want to lift in it anyway. The Sr Nationals are the big show. This definetely is a better bylaw to fight my grievance on than the extra lifter rule with the built in escape/exception for anytime the BOD desires it. But where is the citizenship requirement?

On setting a sr record at the Dube, here is the problem I see:

"1)    American and International Records may only be submitted and approved when made in drug tested competitions."

The meet isn't drug tested. I could probably arrange for USADA to test me there (not WADA- misstatement there) because they have a major hard-on for me after our fight. If I tell them I am going to lift one week before, I would bet the farm they will show up to test me. But, thats not technically the same thing as being a drug tested meet. On the other hand, didn't the BOD approve a non-drug tested Sr American Record set by Shane Hamman in some meet in Russia or something a few years back? I agree. They seem to have set themselves completely above the rulebook, though that seems nothing new based on my experience- though I fight them on the rules now and didn't when I was young and uninformed (1992).

[Roger Sadecki]

Request USADA to make it a drug tested meet. Don't know if they will make you go through USAW. Some local meets in Canada are drug tested meets and sometimes their antidoping folks do not show. Why couldn't USADA do something similar? It would be up to USADA to determine how many tests are taken. At least the meet could be designated drug tested that way.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

Roger,

Thanks very much. Honestly, I don't think USADA is going to care much about my requests after the way I hammered them for not following their own rules last time around. So much not known publicly on that. They never followed through on our settlement agreement after I kicked their ass either. They may well go crazy when I compete and even try to do something dramatic that violates all their rules again. They will lose if they do, but I doubt they will do so. They obviously don't really care much about individuals or even fairness or a level playing field- just a huge bureaucracy like any other.

Honestly, I don't even much care about the records. The Dube is a great meet and I just want to lift big weights.

Thanks again.

[Matt Foreman]

Aside from the discussion, does anybody know why the American Open is being called the North American Open this year?  I've asked this question a few times in a few places and I can't get an answer.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

Matt,

The meet is in North America and is open to other countries in North America, contrary to the entry form and bylaws:

Link

2008 North American Open-  USA Weightlifting would like to welcome the following international teams to this year’s North American Open:  Canada, Mexico & Puerto Rico.  We look forward to this event in December.

[Matt Foreman]

Gotcha.  I copied this straight off the entry form:

ELIGIBILITY:
All USA Weightlifting registered athletes who have met all of the following criteria:
1. Participant must be a US citizen and may be required to provide proof of citizenship.
2. Athlete must be a currently-registered member in good standing with USA Weightlifting at the time of registration and at the competition. Athlete must show this by presenting a current USA Weightlifting card at registration/weigh-in. Organizing Committee and USA Weightlifting reserve the right to refuse entry.
3. Participant must have met or exceeded the qualifying total in a USA Weightlifting sanctioned competition between November 30, 2007 and November 11th, 2008.


So the USAW website link you gave says that lifters from Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico are invited.  But the entry blank says you have to be a US citizen with a USAW membership number.  Two completely different situations.  What the hell?

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

Matt,

They probably just forgot to change the entry form. But, the real question is are they going to follow our bylaws or not. Do we have any bylaws? It would seem not. So, if they won't follow the bylaws, what good is the USOC mandated reform? I'm not impressed. If anything, the objective seems to be to silence dissent and increase power at the top. I'm sure they are well intentioned in wanting to have international competition, but they are wrong nonetheless. If lifters want to lift in international competition, fine. But, to combine them with our national meets is just flat wrong and will not help our athletes at all. It will hurt most of them and will hurt our sport, though its in sad shape anyway.