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USA OPEN HIGH-ALTITUDE CROSS COUNTRY CAMPS

The USA Open Cross Country Camps will NOT be held in 2007. 

In late summer 2006, a proposal was submitted to the USATF/USOC through the USATF High Performance Division (Brooks Johnson, chair; Sue Humphrey, our representative to the Division) to hold USA Open Track and Field Camps in conjunction with USATF Jr Elite Camps at the U.S. Olympic Training Center, Chula Vista, California in summer 2007.  These camps would have been held at no cost to the USATF or USOC, only requiring access to the USOTC facilities.  Despite regular inquiries, no formal response was ever received.   Finally we've had to forego plans for the 2007 T&F camps.

If approved, significantly upgraded (over 2004 & 2005) USA Open Track & Field Camps would have been held with upgraded USATF Jr Elite Men's & Women's Camps (e.g., free to qualifying athletes and their coaches, combined women's and men's camps, the most qualified clinicians among elite USA men's and women's coaches, even greater emphasis on scientific analysis, etc.).

If the T&F camps had been approved, we were also planning to host similar USA Open and Jr Elite Cross Country Camps in the mountain of Colorado.  These camps would have been similar to the USATF High Altitude XC camps held since 1991, but upgraded to include Jr Elite distance athletes (free to athletes and their coaches qualifying through 2006 HS XC competitions), and an expanded curriculum and staff.

After 26 years of operating highly successful Jr Elite camps and more recently the Open camps, and with almost unanimous support from athletes, coaches, and other USATF volunteer officials, we're disappointed that the USATF High Performance Division would not approve the camps, or at least respond to our proposal.  We'll try again with the Jr Elite and Open camps in 2008.  If not approved by the Division in 2008, we'll plan to run the camps outside of the USATF/USOC in 2009.