From the CEO Rich Cruse/ITU
WHAT DOES USAT DO FOR YOU? By Rob Urbach
ome of you may have very little idea as to what we do besides send you this magazine and a membership card and occasionally penalize you on race day and collect your membership fee (which is among the lowest for all National Governing Bodies of sport). In the simplest terms, we strive to create a better life for all our communities that engage in our sport; whether you are an elite, first-timer, coach, race director, official, volunteer, sponsor or simply an enthusiast. This May, we held a very successful Olympic qualifier in San Diego that saw Hunter Kemper make his fourth Olympics and Manny Huerta qualify in dramatic fashion. In addition, Laura Bennett punched her ticket to join Sarah Groff and Gwen Jorgensen in London.
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There has been some historical controversy with regard to our investment in the Olympic program. It is important to note that most NGBs spend a much greater share of their resources on the Olympics then we do. Secondly, our National Team expenditures as a percentage of the overall budget have largely declined over the past 10 years to less than 15 percent of the overall budget. We are driven by our mission and three primary objectives: creating resources, generating value for our constituencies and performance, which is broadly defined to encompass not only the performance on race days but also our programs and services. The revenue we generate, namely through membership fees, sponsorship and U.S. Olympic Committee funding enable us to create resources for numerous constituency groups. We operate 82 programs and have over 250 active volunteers, many of whom serve on one of our 21 committees. We have 10 Regions, and each has up to 12 regional representatives. These dedicated folks serve as the arms and legs of USA Triathlon. We sanction over 4,000 events in all 50 states and some in U.S. territories, too. We work to ensure these events are first and foremost safe, but to also provide very affordable and cost-
22 USA TRIATHLON SUMMER 2012
effective risk management programs. In order to enable our race directors to spend more time putting on a great event, we recently engineered an overhaul of our sanctioning system that consumed over a thousand hours of programming time. Race directors can log-in to
usatriathlon.org to find a streamlined sanctioning process and an information tool for better managing their business. Next up? We are building an entirely new membership portal
in an effort to provide even more value to members, and we are continuing to work on improving our rankings system. We strive to be thought leaders and spend considerable resources to ensure that our coaching, race director and official certification courses are increasingly valuable and anticipatory regarding industry trends. We are also working on new certification programs for timers and medical personnel. Moreover, we just produced a comprehensive training book (page 108). We love our members and try to show this love with our sponsor discounts, and Athlete of the Year, Member of the Month, Multisport Awards and Century Club programs. Visit usatriathlon. org/memberrecognition to learn more. Our recent Hall of Fame ceremony in San Diego was an amazing event that honored Scott Tinley, Mark Allen, Scott Molina, Bob Babbitt, Sally Edwards and Ethel Autorino.
As I write this I am recovering from racing Ironman 70.3 EagleMan in Cambridge, Md. Nothing better than to engage toe-to-toe with fellow members on the course and in transition. Race director Rob “Vigo” Vigorito and his crew from TriColumbia are among the best of the best; top-notch course design, execution, aid stations and a great quantity and quality of volunteers that make for a superb race experience. For me, the “War at the Shore,” was epic with Ironman CEO Andrew Messick and I battling to the line. Whether you are racing, coaching, training, officiating or race directing, on behalf of USA Triathlon, we hope our offerings can help you reach your potential in the sport.
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