It has been 12 days since the Bantam Girl Long Jump controversy began. Over the past few days, a very important piece to the puzzle to prove our contention, as well as all the people who saw the jump also believe….. Lauren Loader didn’t jump 16’10″ nor did she even jump one fair jump in the first round to move her to the finals . If you have been keeping up with the comments on the post you may have seen the pictures via the links attached that a reader placed on thesite. If this story is new to you ,read the following post below then check out the pictures from the links I have placed below.
The Bantam Girl Long Jump ….A Confusing Final
I think you have seen just how many people have deep feelings regarding this situation. Below I have posted a few of these comments. and I have also posted the most recent “evidence” that in most eyes provides definitive proof that Lauren Loader didn’t not jump one fair jump nor did she jump to a National record and Gold medal performance.
Look at the photographs for yourself and you can make your own decision. Note that the photographs are all the first round jumps,these jumps are for sure Lauren Loaders first three jumps that lead her to the finals.
These pictures clearly show that all three attemptswere ultimately fouled jumps .
Lauren Loader 1st jump scratch http://www.backprint.com/view_user_photo.asp?PID=bp%18yG&EVENTID=53865&PWD=&ID=71220030
Lauren Loader 2nd jump
http://www.backprint.com/view_user_photo.asp?PID=bp%18yG&EVENTID=53865&PWD=&ID=71220487
Lauren Loader 3rd and final jump
http://www.backprint.com/view_user_photo.asp?PID=bp%18yG&EVENTID=53865&PWD=&ID=71220871
Here are links of the multiple picture series of jumps
1st jump
2nd jump
3rd and final jump
It is our contention that the stated rationale below follows the error of the officials to place her in the finals and ultimately new National Record holder at 16′-10″ and National Champion .
1.Lauren Loader scratched 3 times in the preliminary round and therefore should have never been in the final round for medal placement note her cones were placed at the 8 ft board. She jumped 3 times from the 3 foot board this is an automatic foul. It is reported that she did declare from the 3 foot board. If she declared to jump from the 3 foot board or the 8 foot board it is still a scratch.This proves the same outcome .
2. Fouling three times would have allowed another deserving athlete to jump in a final for a chance at improving her marks and ultimate medal placement. At the very least a proud 8th place showing and a podium moment.
3. Lauren Loader’s 3rd and final jump was from the 3 foot board as shown in the photographs. The cones were at the 8 ft board. The board which the National “Record Jump” was measured. It was reported that an official that was at the pit stated he “saw” the jump from the 8 ft board but the pictures prove his recollection of the jump was incorrect.
4. National records and National titles are very serious and a meaningful milestone in an athlete’s career. To attain either is the hallmark of a very special athlete, not to be taken lightly. Giving Lauren Loader both of these titles has removed a level of integrity of the organization , namely the USATF who issue and sanction such titles and records.The error not only undermines our daughter’s efforts and hard work as the rightful 2009 Bantam Girl Long Jump Champion which would give her a grand total of 3
I have copied some comments from the original long jump post. Thank-you for all your input. I encourage you to continue to comment on this situtation, your voice is important, please leave your insight and observations.
Donald wrote: ”I was watching the long jump and with many others protested immediately when the measurement was made from the 8 foot board instead of the 3. As a long jump and triple jump official, I and many others have made the same mistake. The difference is that we saw no shame in addressing and correcting the problem immediately. The officials with arrogance ignored the protests and produced the steel tape for national record purposes. Evidently the officials does not know how special a national record performance is. It was interesting that someone instructed the young lady to move to the 8 foot board in the finals. If anyone needed to be booed, it was the officials, coach and parents who allowed this mistake to make it to the awards stand. It was not her fault and I felt bad that she was subjected to the verbal abuse” Donald Davis North Carolina
Bob Wrote: “Unfortunately this type of error occurs too frequently. I will attempt to write each of the high-level officials of USATF because this is just totally wrong. At the AAU JO, the same thing happened in the Sub-Midget Girls Pentathlon. The difference there was the parent/coach of the athlete would not let it die and insisted it be corrected, which they eventually did. If it were not corrected the athlete would have had a medal but instead ended up just missing out. Her coach or dad (don’t know which), should be commended for displaying such character. Too bad that was not the case in NC. That record must be dropped because it never happened. USATF should have owned up to the mistake of the officials and fixed the situation. I have seen this happen on a number of occasions including my daughter once being listed as a DNS in a 400-m race when their own video showed her finishing in 2nd. We brought it to their attention when the results were posted and they did nothing. It is actually quite embarrassing for USATF”.
Leonard wrote : “It is definitely horrible for everyone involved that this happened at a national meet. I have routinely seen many weird incidents and number fudging like this at lesser youth events though. Has anybody ever challenged a result at a youth event and had a result changed? The field events in many cases take place in hard to view places with few checks and balances. Experience has shown me that the unwritten rule in field events is that the person with the tape measure determines the winner. Maybe it is time for some type of automatic distance measuring device. We already have FAT and may also need FAD(Fully Automatic Distance) measuring”.
Eric Wrote:
“First of all, congrats and thanks for a great website with incredible information. As you know, I was at the Nationals at the bantam girls long jump watching my daughter who runs for So Cal Cougars. After we left that day, I kept checking the final results on the USATF website while sitting in the airport. I couldn’t believe my eyes to see that they had awarded the other girl the gold medal. I was sitting right there along with many other parents and coaches and watched the officials measure from the wrong board. I was hoping they would get it right, especially after watching Lauren pull through and push through her two scratches. I can’t tell you how disappointed I was. It was as if it were my own child who had been deprived. Because, really ALL of these kids are “our” kids. We all want them to do their very best. And to add some irony to it, if you look at the ActionSportsImages.com pictures of the bantam LJ you can see the girl’s foot is over the line they marked from, on each of her jumps. Anyway, I’m sure you’ve already explained to Lauren that she’s a Gold Medalist in our book. Thanks for a great year, look forward to talking to you next season”.
More To Folllow……
Thanks for the update, I definitely hope this gets worked out because its the right thing. I hope the USATF finally decides to do the right thing and correct this grievous error!
Here are her result from her regional championships, furthering the case of a jump of this caliber is and was simply beyond this athletes ability!
Results – USATF Region 12 Junior Olympic Track & Field Championships
7/7-11/09 – Houston, Texas
Event 109 Long Jump Bantam Girls
2 Loader, Lauren Highland Lakes T 3.62m NWI 11-10.50
3.34m(NWI) 3.39m(NWI) 3.25m(NWI) 3.40m(NWI) 3.62m(NWI) FOUL
A five foot improvement at Nationals! WOW AMAZING and very improvable!
Well the pictures show it all. She fouled ALL her jumps! AND it sure looks like that not only did she scratch from the 8 ft board she is even over on the 3 ft board! That is a bummer for her, I hate to see an athlete foul all their jumps, but that it what happened and unfortunately the way it goes. It sure makes you wonder what really went on……does she have a ‘fan’ on the inside? Why and how could a mistake like that be made in the first place? and then after a protest still come back with the same outcome? Just does not add up.
At this point the only RIGHT thing for USATF to do is to observe the obvious evidence and make the proper corrections. A record cannot be made out this, that is crazy! Not even to mention how unfair it is (and nothing really can be done about that now) that the ‘real’ girl in 8th place never even got a chance to jump in the finals or get a medal. I will be watching to see how this ends up and I am really hoping that USATF corrects this so that athletes can continue to WIN WITH INTEGRITY.
Ah, yes. With all my heart, Fairness, Baruch Hashem. Wisdom should prevail. At least, ~we~ know who won, who was _ACTUALLY VICTORIOUS_ based upon reliable evidence.
Can our paid officials deny us this?! Who was incautious enough to put an innocent pretender in 1st? _ All_ of the _protests_ REAAAAALY went unheeded? NOOOOObody looked at the films, or tapes?
C’mon, USATF. We expect the Best. We teach our kids to Win With Integrity, fist or last. Catch Up To Us!
Respectfully,
Coyote1
These pictures seem to show the need for a camera device at the boards, similar to the photo finish on the track. If there was such a device it would be relatively easy to substantiate protests. As I mentioned in a previous post, we witnessed quite a few ‘false’ finishers in the pit this season so it is clear that problems in the pit range from, the local level all the way to the national level. While it is probably too expensive for local meets to have a ‘board camera’ I think an argument can be made for one at all JO qualifiers.. At the least, there needs to be more professionalism in the pit, from the exclusion of parents and unnecessary coaches from the competition areas, to keeping all athletes a respectful distance from the runway and pit. Sometimes too many people in the competition area can be a distraction from the volunteers who are working the pit. I hope the unfortunate, and sadly not uncommon, lapse in professionalism experienced by the Bantam girls at JO nationals will spur reform next season.
Wow! The truth is obvious, and it must be very difficult to be involved in such a situation. It seems to me that USATF would make the correction. I’ve thought about how they might do that and some interesting possibilities surface; which may in turn explain why USATF has not commented yet. I might also add that my stake in this is zero, except the remote possibility of my daughter’s challenge of the record next year and quite frankly that is unlikely.
If they take Loader’s gold medal away then they have unnecessarily burdened the child for life. Yes, the parent’s and coaches have probably at some point came to the reality of what occurred, but I can’t imagine how tough it would be explaining the mistake to the child. You would have to let her keep the medal. In all cases that I can think of, (there may be some I don’t know of) when medals are stripped away there is an accompanying stigma attached to the athlete; one which does not need to be placed on a child.
USATF would have to review the record application before making it official, which means all three event judges would have to sign off on the application, (not 100% sure about that). It is my opinion, no matter how the officials reacted to the crowd, that after some deliberation they would not sign off on a national record application: At least not all of them.
Which then leaves the question how do you correct the results? A very difficult question: One way would be to put Loader and Williams on the same line as tied champions, with Williams’ distance by Williams’ name only, then move the ninth place finisher up to 8th. Another way would be to take Loader completely off of the finish sheet thus moving 9th up to 8th. Or they could leave it the way it is and replace the capitol N with an * for no record and also put the 1. in front of Williams’ name and likewise throughout the results. In all of these cases they would have to get back three medals, silver, bronze and 4th place copper and give out new medals, gold, silver, bronze and 8th copper.
These judges obviously caused some major problems. I don’t know if the judges in this case are paid, or volunteers, but I suspect they are volunteers and by the mere fact we are reading this page we know how expensive all of this is. Hopefully some of us will not be priced out of letting our kids compete in national meets because of alleged incompetence. In Des Moines I witnessed some heckling at a lane judge who turned around and offered to give his spot up to the heckler who probably didn’t realize that the lane judge was out there as a volunteer and on his feet 12 hours a day.
As for me, tolerance to this situation has been hard to come to grips with, I can only imagine how difficult it must be for the parents and coaches of those directly involved in this situation; I applaud your patience. I probably would not have been so patient. I often have to be reminded that although these are very special athletes and worthy of all the notoriety and attention they garner, they are still children. On any occasion when adults fall short of a child’s expectations it is a sad story.
I appreciate todays thoiughtful remarks and comments. I have so many now I can respond to each one .Please know I really appreciate your effort and time taken to express your feelings and thoughts on this matter.
This has been a busy day regarding this situatiion and it doesn’t appear to be close to a resolution any time very soon. i will post later about the most recent developments(if you can call them that)
Thank-you for your continued support of r both Lauren L .Lauren W. and the coaches, parents and athletes involved in the long Jump final.
I believe that in the days to come it may become necessary to develop a petition, or other group efforts to have this situation appreciated for what it is, a potential black eye on the credibilty of USATF Officials specifically those in charge of pit 1 that day and a great disapointment to the kids involved.