Lesley Richardson, shooter and sprinter at Sacramento.
Sacramento meet organizers sent this note to an athlete inquiring about delayed medals: “We apologize for not having your medal for you after you had won your event. We can only imagine how disappointing that could be. Unfortunately there was miscommunication on whether team medals were being awarded not. We were told that no team medals were going to be awarded and therefore those medals were not added into our final medal count. As the event went on we were told that team medals were indeed supposed to be given out, which you can imagine would be quite a few for every age division for a number of races. As the event was reaching its last few days the medals were running short which we predicted would happen after we found out that team medals were passed out. Given that the medals can not be produced and shipped overnight from China, our only option would be to put the order in and have them mailed out to each athlete, which yes is very costly but the only option.” Meanwhile, the latest batch of Sacramento photos are being posted — by Britain’s
Lesley Richardson.
See them here.
18 Responses
Who would have told the SAC WMA folks that team medals are not awarded? Having participated in 10 WMA outdoor meets and 3 WMA indoor meets – team medals were awarded at all of those meets. To have not awarded team medals would have caused an uproad heard round the world.
Interesting explanation- and I hope that the notion of not
awarding team medals at WMA meets dies a quick death. For many – a team medal is the only hope of earning a medal. Somehow the notion of a first, second, or third place team ribbon – does not strike me as quite the same. And …assuming this is the reason for the shortage – were there “team ribbons” available to hand out? Or was it to be the piece of paper?
This is baloney..nation team medals for the 20K racewalk has been a longstanding tradition for WMA Championships, I have one from the 20K in San Sebastian in 2005, one from Riccione 20K RW 2007 and one from World Masters Indoor 10K RW team 2010 at Kamloops. Excuses, excuses this makes Sacto LOC look really bad!!
Do the organisers not talk to each other? They have done this for years as Tommy pointed out. Most everyone involved in those events knew about the team medals. It was clearly spelled out in their own literature beforehand.
If anyone is watching from future loc’s hopefully they can make some structural changes. It’s a great time and a wonderful event regardless and I still appreciate all who volunteer to allow us to do it.
Too bad there are no companies that make medals in the United States .
It`s a shame
Interesting Bert-the medals in Kamloops were made in Canada.
Well, let’s see. There was a shortage of medals, yes. And they are very embarrassed about it. They have apologized repeatedly, and are taking valiant and costly measures to rectify their mistake.
Shouldn’t we cut them a bit of slack here?
After all, everyone who is entitled to a medal will eventually get a package in the mail. And who knows? The thrill of opening the package and proudly admiring its shiny contents may totally erase any lingering dissatisfaction with the delay.
Totally agree with Ralph on this one.
I feel I can understand some frustration over not getting a medal you won in a timely manner. But I have thought about what did go right at the WMA event this year. Granted, I only participated in the pole vault event, and all went smoothly there.
I do collect the medals I have won but it seems a small issue to me if it isn’t available immediately. This year I was not able to stay around for the (delayed) medal ceremony so I filled out a form to have my medal sent. A few weeks later I wrote and asked when I might expect to receive it and they said “about the end of the month”; August I assumed.
There isn’t much I can do with a medal. It doesn’t get me any local publicity, or a meal at a restaurant, or even a cup of coffee. Some day my medals may end up in a display on my wall. But for now I enjoy remembering the pleasure I had visiting and participating with all the great athletes I saw at this meet. I hope everyone can enjoy that about their time at the 2011 world championships.
Best wishes to all.
Everybody check the bottom of their shoes because something about this excuse stinks!
Ralph Maxwell, gotta give you some good credit on that one!! Yes, it will be exciting.
Agreed Ralph-sort of like waiting for the x-ray spex to arrive from the back of the comics ad…. рџ™‚
Shortly after arriving home from WMA Sacramento, I added a piece to my blog at http://tomsprints.wordpress.com about the medals situation. It made me feel a lot better to write it, and to reflect on what tokens like this can really mean. I think it also presents a significantly different point of view about their worth that has emerged in a few other comments here.
It’s the piece “All the Way from America” btw.
Ah, medals. Here is another viewpoint I posted several years ago.
http://www.ortmanmarchand.com/fsi.html
Good stuff, imo Tom.
As you can see there is a whole continuum of opinions around medals, from very proud of to totally uninterested. I am of the uninterested species. Dislike the medal design, dislike the waiting for the ceremony, dislike national anthems. A record, that is the thing!
Well I received my medal in the mail yesterday. As Ralph said (#7 above) it was fun to receive it and it is one of the nicest looking medals I’ve received! Thanks to the LOC for getting through the problem of medal shortage.
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