Delegates to the USATF convention who attended the open session of the Long Distance Running Division chaired by Fred Finke were anxious to debate the ban on headphones in road races which was imposed by USATF at last year’s convention.
“We realize this issue has caused a great deal of angst,” said Finke, who has received hundreds of e-mails on the subject. “It seems to be a hot button issue.”
USATF enacted the ban in accordance with a rule put in place by the IAAF which banned the use of headphones in championship events. The IAAF ban was intended to prevent athletes from receiving information via radio about the whereabouts of their rivals, a practice which is permitted in the big bicycle tours, like the Tour de France.
But in practical application, it has meant that recreational runners are not allowed to wear MP3 players, like Apple’s iPod, and listen to music during road races. Only a handful of U.S. races have actively enforced the ban.
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With his books in the black and 26 medals (14 gold) won at last August’s IAAF World Championships in Athletics, USATF CEO Craig Masback was riding high as he strode the podium to give his State of the Sport address at the opening session of the USATF annual convention here.
Reminding the 800+ attendees that their organization was $3,000,000 in debt back in 1997 when he took charge of the Indianapolis-based governing body, Masback said today that his organization was sitting on a significant reserve fund and was “poised to use our power to make a difference.”
Indeed, under Masback’s guidance the United States has minted global stars like Allyson Felix and Tyson Gay, Jeremy Wariner and Sanya Richards, Bernard Lagat and Alan Webb and Deena Kastor and Meb Keflezighi. He called athletics “the world’s best sport,” and thanked the federation’s members for their hard work and support to make the United States the world’s #1 track team.
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