What is it?
At the USATF Annual Meeting, all voting delegates will cast their ballot for USATF’s nominee for the IAAF Council. The two nominees are Stephanie Hightower and Willie Banks.
Who are the delegates?
Each of the 57 Associations who are in good standing are assigned a number of delegates based somewhat on their size. These delegates are supposed to represent a mix of coaches, athletes and administrators that represent the various constituency groups within our sport.
Athletes Advisory also has a significant number of votes, they represent active and recently retired elite athletes in our sport.
A small number of votes also come from the Board of Directors, Past Presidents, etc.
What does it mean that this person is the IAAF Council Nominee?
The person who wins this election will be out forward as our nominee to the IAAF Council. The IAAF Congress will meet next summer and vote on the Council members. Each country gets one vote.
Our bylaws, and IAAF regulations, state that our representative on the IAAF Council must be a voting member of our USATF Board of Directors. If the nominee is not elected to the Council, they would not gain a seat on our board, but both candidates should have no problem being elected to the Council.
If Willie wins the election, Stephanie would continue to be a voting member of our Board until her term on the Council ends. Willie would not be able to vote as a Board member until he is elected to the Council.
Does the vote matter? Can’t the Board just overturn this decision?
The bylaws have changed since the last election. To overturn the results of the vote, the Board would need good cause, which was not a requirement last time, and any disputes would have to be settled by CAS, which is very expensive.
I am not aware of good cause for either candidate to be rejected.
NACAC?
Both candidates have stated they do not intend to run for NACAC President. Willie is in the elections guide for that role because he was under the belief he had to submit for both. Because they have both declared they will not seek that role, I will spare you a long discussion about NACAC.
Who are the candidates?
Both candidates were elite athletes around the 1980s. They have both served USATF in many roles.
Stephanie Hightower
Stephanie is currently serving as our IAAF Council representative. Bob Hersh won the election four years ago, but the Board controversially overturned that decision, and chose Stephanie instead, which the bylaws at that time allowed them to do.
In her first term on the Council, she pushed for increased female representation within the IAAF. She took a hard stance against the Russian Federation because of their anti-doping issues, and has expressed concerns about other Federations who are not fulfilling their anti-doping obligations.
She worked to increase the number of committees, councils, etc within the IAAF that had USATF representation.
Willie Banks
Willie has extensive experience in international sports. He has worked with many members of the IAAF Council, and I believe would be able to hit the ground running as a new Council member.
Willie has extensive experience on the USATF Board of Directors, where he has a very solid track record of representing his constituents and communicating with them.
Willie has also worked hard to promote equality for women in the sport of track and field, playing a key role in getting the delegates of USA Track & Field to vote in favor of adding the women’s triple jump in the 1990s.
My first memory of Willie Banks is at the 2011 Annual Meeting. We had a floor fight during closing session and the delegates voted in a way that many on the Board disagreed with.
The Board of Directors always meets following the closing session. Stephanie proposed that the Board change the bylaws to be what the Board wanted, and not what the delegates just voted on. Bob Hersh and Becky Oakes expressed concerns, but Willie was by far the most vocal and animated in opposing this idea. He asked the Board if they had been paying attention to what just happened in closing session. Eventually this plan did not move forward. Willie stood up for the rights of the members of USATF.
I appreciate the work that Stephanie has done within the IAAF to increase female representation. But during her time on the IAAF, no progress was made toward finding a place in the sport for the women’s decathlon. The IAAF claims that they have reached parity with the men’s events, but female decathletes and race walkers dispute this.
The women’s 50k race walkers had to get lawyers involved to get their event added to the World Championships, and even at that, the IAAF did everything they could to ensure it would look like a failure. The IAAF failed to push the women’s 50k race walk to the Olympic program, instead adding a co-ed 4×400 relay, and then patting themselves on the back for being so forward thinking.
In 2019, the IAAF bylaws will require that one of the vice president positions go to a female. And there are several women on the IAAF Council who have served longer than Stephanie and are very qualified for this position.
Endorsement:
My endorsement goes to Willie Banks. I think he is the best candidate to represent USATF internationally and serve on our Board of Directors. I think he has a clear vision to move the sport forward, and would be a tremendous asset to USATF as we prepare to host the 2021 World Championships and 2028 Olympics.
