Track star Nick Symmonds has been left off the U.S. team ahead of the IAAF World Championships in Beijing. “I understand that USATF’s sponsor contract for uniforms depends upon athletes wearing the uniform and using the uniform items at competitions, award ceremonies, “official” Team press conferences, and other “official” Team functions, and that I shall not participate in any of these activities with a logo of any competitor of USATF’s sponsor affixed to me in any manner whatsoever”.
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“You just can’t give a monopoly to a company and expect there to be a healthy, viable sport”, Symmonds said via Yahoo Sports. “But it lessens the return on their investment in me”.
Nike and USA Track and Field have a sponsorship deal through 2040. He says he won’t make more than $13,000 this year from USATF. The athlete has refused to sign an contract which would mean wearing exclusively Nike gear for all team functions and competition for the duration of the trip. Anyone going to China later this month on the U.S. team is required to wear Nike gear at team functions.
The conflict, first reported by Sports Business Daily, reflects an ongoing tension in track and field.
“Nike is a proud partner and sponsor of USATF”, the company said Monday in a statement. “Those specifications may vary from sport to sport, but all sports and teams have them. For example, you don’t see [NBA player] Steph Curry wearing his Under Armour gear at National Basketball Association functions because the National Basketball Association, until recently, was with Adidas”.
If Symmonds was feeling pressure from today’s looming deadline – his last chance to accept USATF’s terms or risk being left off the world championship team – it didn’t show.
The Statement of Conditions is part of USATF’s governance documents, and its requirements are common in professional, Olympic and National Team sports, both domestically and internationally.
Here is a letter from @USATF I received several weeks ago congratulating me on being selected to TeamUSA. “That’s just too much”. The agreement further specifies that team members “will, upon reasonable request by USATF, request that a third party cease exploiting such a photograph, video, or image”. “I deserve the right to know what an official team function is”, Symmonds said.
“I did not sign a statement of conditions before Poland”, Symmonds told SI.com “I wore Brooks gear out there and was bullied by USATF every day”. Clayton Murphy, a junior at the University of Akron who won a gold medal in July at the Pan American Games, placed fourth at the U.S. outdoor championships in 1:45.59. “I’m going to have to figure out what I am going to do because I am not going to sit there and watch that 800 meter final from my couch, knowing that I can go out there and win a medal, knowing that I am passing up on potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in earnings… that stinks”.
Symmonds is a national team veteran who ran for Nike before switching to Brooks past year. I spent two years training for (the world championships)… For example, he did not compete in the Diamond League track meets in Europe in order to stay at home in Seattle and train. But by putting his own world championship spot at risk, Symmonds is at least forcing USATF to make a choice between fielding its best team and sticking to its contract.
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The USATF document in question, known as a statement of conditions, is included in the federation’s bylaws. But without a last-minute intervention, he won’t be allowed to compete because of his refusal to sign a contract requiring him to wear only Nike or non-branded apparel during the event.
