Dates and allegations are based on filings in the litigation between Jim Estes, USATF and Mike Conley. Court filings can be downloaded from the MyCase Indiana website.
January 2017 – Mike Conley begins serving as the High Performance representative on USATF’s Board of Directors
2018 – Jim Estes accepts a consulting role with the Chattanooga LOC to bid on the 2020 Olympic Marathon Team Trials.
January 2021 – Estes begins serving as the LDR rep on USATF’s Board of Directors. The Board elects Conley to be their Chair.
May 2022 – Estes agrees to repeat the same consulting role with the Chattanooga LOC to bid on the 2024 Olympic Marathon Team Trials.
May 24, 2022 – Estes appropriately submits a conflict of interest form disclosing his relationship with Chattanooga. Estes alleges this COI “was never reviewed by any required party at USATF.”
July 29, 2022 – Estes submits an updated COI form due to his acceptance of a job with USA Badminton. This COI also includes the previously mentioned Chattanooga role.
July 31 – August 2, 2022 – USATF staff and USOPC staff correspond about Estes’ COI form, but the correspondence was focused on the USA Badminton job.
August 1, 2022 – Renee Washington (USATF COO) emailed Richard Manson (USATF Ethics Chair) and Norm Wain (USATF head legal counsel) about Estes’ COI form.
August 2, 2022 – Washington emails Conley, copying Wain, informing him of Estes’ COIs and that it is his role to manage these COIs at the Board level. The email recommends that Estes recuse himself from a wide range of topics and questions whether or not Estes should still be serving on the board.
August 3, 2022 – Manson emails Conley agreeing with Washington’s recommendations.
Estes alleges that USATF’s Code of Ethics says that he should have received a “reasonable opportunity to be heard on the matter” before the Ethics Committee made a recommendation.
August 6, 2022 – Conley calls Estes and informs him of the discussions happening and forwards him the August 2 email from Washington.
August 7, 2022 – A teleconference was held between Estes, Conley, Washington and Wain to discuss Estes’ conflicts of interest. Estes’ filings state that he was not advised that his conflicts were unmanageable or that his Chattanooga conflict could result in their bid being disqualified. Conley’s filings indicate he was unaware that the bidding process for the Marathon Trials had even started.
September 26, 2022 – Estes is present at a site visit for the Chattanooga bid. A USATF staffer notices his presence and relays their concerns to Washington and Siegel.
September 27, 2022 – Estes is asked to leave the site selection activities and immediately does. Estes texts Conley to schedule a call and notify him of what happened.
September 27, 2022 – Conley asks Estes to be a seconder for his nomination to run for the World Athletics Council position.
Conley still had two years left on his board seat, he was not close to term limiting off the board. Conley ultimately withdrew from consideration for this position, but the two candidates who did run had 17 and 11 seconders each.
September 27, 2022 – USATF notifies USOPC of Estes’ involvement with Chattanooga and his presence at the site selection visit. USOPC opens an investigation shortly after.
October 9, 2022 – USATF’s Board of Directors discusses the Olympic Marathon Team Trials. Estes recuses himself from that portion of the meeting.
“The USATF national office maintained ultimate and independent authority and approval of the bid selection for the 2024 U.S. Olympic Marathon Team Trials.”
October 18, 2022 – A meeting was held between the Orlando LOC, USATF staff and USOPC at Orlando’s request.
October 18, 2022 – Conley was not part of that meeting, but was informed of it shortly after and informed Estes of the USOPC investigation.
October 25, 2022 – USATF decides to disqualify the Chattanooga bid due to Estes’ involvement.
October 31, 2022 – Conley and Estes continue to be in communication via text message regarding the Estes situation. USATF alleges that Conley was inappropriately feeding information to Estes without USATF staff or USOPC knowledge, Conley denies that the communications were inappropriate.
November 15, 2022 – USOPC interviews Estes as part of their investigation into the Chattanooga bid.
November 15, 2022 – Conley and Estes continued to be in communication.
December 12, 2022 – USOPC sends its preliminary findings to Conley, Siegel, Washington and Manson. USATF alleges that USOPC advised Conley to share this with the Board and Ethics Committee and that Conley did not do so.
December 13, 2022 – Conley notifies the USOPC that he will be sharing the preliminary findings with the USATF Board task force that was created to deal with this issue. The findings were shared with the task force and significant inaccuracies were identified.
December 13, 2022 – Conley shares the preliminary findings with Estes. Estes also identified inaccuracies in the findings.
January 31, 2023 – USOPC issues their final report to Conley, Siegel and Washington which included a number of findings, required reforms and recommendations. The letter instructs Conley to send the report to the Board.
Read the full USOPC report here
Early February, 2023 – Conley sends the USOPC report to the Board task force and to Estes. Concerns about further inaccuracies in the report are noted.
March 17, 2023 – Manson emails Conley the Ethics Committee recommendations, which were the same as those sent August 2, 2022. Conley forwards this email to Estes.
March 23, 2023 – Estes (through legal counsel) submits a demand that the Ethics Committee retract the recommendations sent to Conley and follow the Code of Ethics.
April 6, 2023 – The Ethics Committee refuses to retract their recommendations.
May 23, 2023 – Conley asks the LDR division to review the Ethics Committee recommendations regarding Estes’ COIs.
June 12, 2023 – The LDR division informs Conley that they have voted that Estes should continue to remain on the board as the LDR representative.
September 1, 2023 – Estes files a defamation lawsuit against USATF, Siegel and Washington.
January 9, 2024 – USATF files counterclaims against Estes alleging that he breached his fiduciary duty and that his claims are frivolous.
February 4, 2024 – Estes resigns from the USATF Board of Directors.
April 13, 2024 – The court dismisses the defamation claims against Siegel and Washington, but the defamation claim against USATF survives the motion to dismiss.
October 15, 2024 – Counsel for USATF interviews Conley and asks him to preserve any relevant documents.
December 19, 2024 – Conley presides over his final meeting as the USATF Board Chair, he is no longer a member of USATF’s Board of Directors after this as his term expired.
February 26, 2025 – USATF issues a formal Document Request Letter to Conley, which includes requesting full access to his email accounts.
March 9, 2025 – Conley replies indicating that he is collecting the requested information.
April 11, 2025 – USATF still has not received any documents from Conley and emails him. They do not receive a response. Conley does not recall receiving this email and indicates in court filings that he was expecting a subpoena.
April 18, 2025 – Counsel for USATF sends Conley a Final Demand Letter requiring him to comply by April 21 but does not receive a response. Conley has indicated he interpreted this letter as a request to preserve documents.
June 18, 2025 – USATF files a third party complaint against Conley alleging that he breached his fiduciary duty.