in the former
Fort Washington Avenue Armory in
New York City. On April 22, 1879, the
National Association of Amateur Athletes of America (NAAA) was formed. On January 21, 1888, in the city of New York,
rower William B. Curtis and
runner James Edward Sullivan founded what officially became the
Amateur Athletic Union (AAU). The AAU governed the sport of track and field in the United States until 1979, when the
Amateur Sports Act of 1978 decreed that the AAU could no longer hold international franchises for more than one sport. The enactment of the Amateur Sports Act was prompted by lobbying by athletes, particularly runners, who felt that the AAU imposed artificial rules preventing widespread participation in sports. The Athletics Congress (TAC) emerged from the AAU in late 1979; its first annual meeting was conducted in
Las Vegas in conjunction with the annual AAU Convention. A constitutional convention was subsequently held in
Dallas–Fort Worth in 1980. In 1992, TAC changed its name to USA Track & Field (USATF) to increase recognition for the organization and for the sport in the United States. USATF inherited from AAU the 57 regional associations that are responsible for promoting the sport in a particular state or locality. Many of these associations were viewed as unaccountable to their members and some were accused of operating in a racially discriminatory manner. In response, the USATF restructured the regional associations and adopted Regulation 15, which set minimum standards for association performance and called for biannual accreditation of each association under those standards. In May 2008, the
United States Olympic Committee notified USATF that its governance was deficient and threatened to remove its national governing body status unless major reforms were made. In response, at USATF's December 2008 convention, the size of its board of directors was reduced from 31 members, who had represented constituencies within the organization, to 15, and none of the new directors could have an operating role in the organization. Most of the new board members represented sponsoring organizations. On February 18, 2009, the members of the new, reduced board were announced.
Post-reorganization performance After the restructuring of the board and the hiring of Max Siegel as CEO, USATF in 2016 achieved its highest medal count at an Olympics since 1936 (32) and its most-ever medals at a world championships, winning 30 at the 2017 IAAF World Championships. The organization has seen growth of its budget and sponsor ranks, with the annual budget growing from $22 million to nearly $37 million. In 2016, it established an "Athlete Revenue Distribution Model" that provided additional money to elite athletes.
Controversy At the 2014 annual meeting, the member delegates voted 392–70 to re-nominate
Robert Hersh as the USATF's nominee to the
IAAF Council. At the time, Hersh was the sitting senior vice-president of the IAAF Council and, by virtue of that position, a USATF board member. However, the reconstituted Board disregarded the vote of the member delegates and instead voted 11–1 to nominate president
Stephanie Hightower as the nominee to the IAAF Council. The Board's action caused such a controversy that USATF sent an email two days later to all of its members attempting to explain its action. The email said, "This is a different era and a different time. We think Stephanie Hightower provides us with the best chance to move forward as part of that change." Later that summer, at the IAAF Congress, Hightower was elected to the IAAF Council with the most votes of any candidate; all USATF candidates for IAAF positions were elected. In 2018, after serving on the IAAF Council for four years, Hightower came up for reelection. She was defeated by a vote of the delegates in favor of
Willie Banks. In 2016,
Vin Lananna was elected president of USATF. On February 18, 2018, Lananna was place on "temporary administrative leave" pending a federal investigation by the
Federal Bureau of Investigation and the
Internal Revenue Service into possible criminal conflict of interest regarding the awarding of the
2021 World Championships in Athletics to
Eugene, Oregon. Lananna was also the longtime president of TrackTown USA, the hosting organization for the World Championships. Lananna was also an Associate Athletic Director at the
University of Oregon, the host stadium of the event.
Lamine Diack was the IAAF president in April 2015 at the time of the award, and was under house arrest in France on charges of corruption. The 2021 Championships were awarded in an unconventional fashion, without the usual formal bidding process. The selection of the host city was announced on April 16, 2015, in Beijing. Eugene had previously put in a bid for the 2019 World Championships, losing to Qatar. The event was the second held in
North America, after
Edmonton,
Alberta, Canada, in
2001.
The Guardian reported that the lack of bidding triggered concern in European cities that had bid to host the event. They quoted Diack, IAAF president, who justified the lack of bidding with the claim the selection of Eugene to host the event, as saying that it "enables us to take advantage of a unique opportunity to host a financially successful tournament that may never arise again." The lack of bidding for the 2021 event was not unprecedented: the
2007 World Championships were awarded to
Osaka, Japan, without bidding. On July 17, 2018, Lananna also resigned as president of TrackTown USA, but did not leave his position at the university at that time. As of February 18, 2018, the interim USATF president was
Mike Conley. ==Affiliations==