Vin Lananna reinstated as USATF President and CEO

Last updated on 12/06/2019

Thanks to a reader for the link. Lananna is the former UO coach who, after UO lost the public bidding for the 2019 Championships to Doha, cut a deal with corrupt IAAF President Lamine Diack for 2021. Links to some previous stories on this are here. Ken Goe has the story on his surprise reinstatement to the USATF job in the Oregonian here.

 … Much of the contention centered around Lananna’s position at the time as president of TrackTown USA. TrackTown USA is the local organizing committee in Eugene responsible for helping USATF stage events such as the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympic Trials for Track and Field at Hayward Field, the 2014 World Junior Championships at Hayward Field and the 2016 World Indoor Championships at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland.

…  “Everybody should be part of this, not just the elite athletes,” he said. “They’re essential, but they’re not the only thing. I want everyone sharing in the excitement about what is potentially in front of us.”

Greifinger said Lananna’s activist agenda “is the reason so many of us supported Vin the first time around. He gets things done. He is a force of nature for the good of the sport.

He does get things done – like a promise from Kitzhaber and then Brown to spend $40M in taxpayer money for these games, and an agreement from UO that “Any regular University of Oregon staff time spent working on the event would not be charged to Track Town USA,” according to UO documents.