Legal battle results in USA Pan Am athlete switch

When USATF, the American track and field governing body, was creating their roster for the Pan American Games, (currently taking place in Toronto) the selection was supposed to be straight-forward: they would work their way down the list of fastest marathoners until they had two that wanted to compete.

When the official roster was released on July 6, American marathoner Craig Leon realized that a runner with a slower time than him had been selected to compete. He called USATF to clear up the error and they admitted that a clerical error must have been made. However, Leon was not immediately offered a spot on the team. It was the opinion of administrators that it was too late to make a switch to the roster.

Unwilling to give up that easily, Leon contacted a lawyer and soon had an arbitration hearing scheduled. After an exchange that lasted longer than it takes for Leon to run a marathon, he had a spot on the team. With less than two weeks to race day, Leon was officially added to the American Pan Am team. It was hardly how he pictured making his first national team.

The men’s marathon will take place on July 25th, while the women’s will take place on July 18th.