ITU: Miller Decision Imminent
The ITU’s long awaited decision on whether to intercede in the case of age group world champion Julie Miller is “imminent” according to triathlon’s world governing body. During June of 2016 Slowtwitch contacted the ITU and it replied through its spokesman Erin Greene that, "The verdict on Julie Miller will be decided by the end of July.”
Contacted this week Ms. Greene stuck to her timetable: "This outcome is imminent and will be published soon.”
Ms. Miller won the women’s 40-44 division at the 2014 ITU Triathlon Long Course World Championship in Weihai, China. That result was immediately scrutinized, but no action was taken at the time either by the race organizer or the ITU. Since then, at least 4 races in which Ms. Miller took part have come under scrutiny. Race officials decided that Ms. Miller did not complete the entire run course during both the 2013 and 2015 Ironman Canada events, and her performance at the 2014 Subaru Vancouver Triathlon was negated after the timing company reported widely variant times over the 4 loops of the bike course. On September 3, 2015, Ironman indefinitely suspended Ms. Miller from all its events, and her results at both these Ironman races were negated.
On the 30th of November, 2015, Triathlon Canada banned Ms. Miller from any race sanctioned by its organization for 2 years commencing November 1, 2015. The ban extends to events sanctioned by the provincial federations under Triathlon Canada, and also includes competing for Team Canada in events outside of the country. The ban is for "multiple breaches,” of Triathlon Canada's Code of Conduct according to its executive director Tim Wilson. Triathlon Canada’s Award of Excellence was also rescinded, and her name was removed from all National Championship race results from 2013 forward.
Triathlon Canada wrote at the time it announced its ban that it "has also issued a formal request to the International Triathlon Union (ITU) to investigate the race results at the 2014 Long Distance World Championships in China.”
The ITU’s Sports Director Gergely Markus wrote to Slowtwitch in November, 2015, that Ms. Miller's Weihai race, "will be on the agenda of the next Technical Committee meeting for further investigation.” The upcoming decision will be the result of that Technical Committee process.
