{"id":204,"date":"2008-10-19T04:43:24","date_gmt":"2008-10-19T12:43:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theathleteslawyer.com\/cases\/penalties-understand-evaluate-and-improve\/"},"modified":"2008-10-19T04:43:24","modified_gmt":"2008-10-19T12:43:24","slug":"penalties-understand-evaluate-and-improve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/landauinjurylaw.com\/theathleteslawyer\/2008\/10\/19\/penalties-understand-evaluate-and-improve\/","title":{"rendered":"Penalties: Understand, Evaluate and Improve"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"USATHaving gotten penalties in only the last 3 years after 30 years of racing, my first inclination is to find out what the alleged infraction was for, and then educate myself so as not to do it again, and finally to continue to try to improve. I have never threatened a referee or race official, and I have never challenged a 2 minute penalty, even for “crossing the imaginary center line” while cycling around a sharp turn in an Olympic Distance Triathlon ! I have never been penalized for drafting, and I am very careful to keep my distance. My other two infractions were for “blocking” and “passing on the left” on crowded courses where I was passing other competitors the entire time I was on dry land. I say these things not as any defense, but as a lead in to a recent post by the USAT President. I accepted the penalties, even though they cost me spots on the podium. I respect the time and effort the USAT referees put in to fulfill the difficult task of tracking hundreds and even thousands of athletes going as fast as they can over many miles of road. <\/p>\n

In “Rules, responsibility, and rewards<\/a>” the USAT discussed a penalized athlete who threatened the national governing body with litigation because of a 2 minute penalty !
\nThe individual, who happens to be General Counsel of a publicly traded corporation, condemned the Officials, condemned the race rules, condemned USAT and provided a list of demands that must be met within a given timeframe or he would file a massive lawsuit against USAT. The USAT President noted that this was akin to a pitcher filing a lawsuit against Major League Baseball because an umpire called a balk which forced in the winning run.
\nThis incident is simply symptomatic of a growing trend in sports. An increasing number of athletes are refusing to take responsibility for their actions and insistent that their mistakes are the fault of others. The rules are meant to promote safety and fair competition. USAT’s position is that:<\/p>\n

“In the several disciplines of multisport, the common thread is that they all are tests of individual endurance and as much as the athletes are competing against others, ultimately they are competing against themselves. And if we all were to take that ethic to heart in our individual training for races and then at the actual competitions, the multisport lifestyle will continue to be one of the safest, fairest and most rewarding tests of individual athletic competence.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Having gotten penalties in only the last 3 years after 30 years of racing, my first inclination is to find out what the alleged infraction was for, and then educate myself so as not to do it again, and finally to continue to try to improve. I have never threatened a referee or race official,…<\/p>\n

Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[780,942,1147,1588,2894,3466,3902,3903,4913,5251,5386,5401],"class_list":["post-204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cases","tag-bicycle-crash","tag-bike-helmet","tag-brain-injury","tag-cyclist-injury","tag-injured-athlete","tag-mechanical","tag-penalties","tag-penalty","tag-stops","tag-triathlon-trial-lawyer","tag-usat","tag-usat-rules"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPenalties: Understand, Evaluate and Improve - Sports Injury Law<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/landauinjurylaw.com\/theathleteslawyer\/2008\/10\/19\/penalties-understand-evaluate-and-improve\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Penalties: Understand, Evaluate and Improve - Sports Injury Law\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Having gotten penalties in only the last 3 years after 30 years of racing, my first inclination is to find out what the alleged infraction was for, and then educate myself so as not to do it again, and finally to continue to try to improve. 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