Skip Gilbert, CEO of USA Triathlon, and my article

I wrote Skip Gilbert, the CEO of USA Triathlon, an email and brought his attention to my article on XTRI.com, discussing USAT and the pursuit of Olympic medals. I wanted to share the email exchange because I think it's important to show that as an individual member of USAT, you do have a say and can communicate with the leadership to bring about changes or new ideas, or show support for certain things you feel are important or effective.

Hi Jim,

Good article indeed. Thanks for sharing.

We are always trying to bridge the gap between the elite athletes and our age-group members. Interesting element is that even within our elite funding, some say we focus too much on the Olympics and that we should do more with Ironman and Xterra.

The only point I would raise specific to your article is that while the elite Olympic focus was the top program voted by staff, that was leading up to an Olympic Year. If we took a poll today, I would bet that program would fall close to the bottom. Probably common sense but just wanted to make that point.

Thanks again and I will be sharing this article with our Board, Committee Chairs and other parties within my bi-weekly Board Packet.

Skip

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From: Jim Vance [mailto:jim@jimvanceracing.com]
Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 12:16 PM
To: Skip Gilbert
Subject: Article of interest for you

Skip,

Thought I would bring this article to your attention. I wrote it, and after reading one of the your blogs/articles where you wanted to hear about people's feelings and thoughts on the elite development, I felt it was relevant to you and your pursuits with USAT.

http://www.xtri.com/features_display.aspx?riIDReport=5245&CAT=21&xref=xx

Best of luck.

Sincerely,

Jim Vance