Nick Symmonds won the 800-meters at the U.S. Trials and is giving up his spot on the U.S. Track & Field team headed to the world championships in Beijing after he refused sign the required statement of conditions.
The conditions contained within the statement include the requirement that each athlete must wear the team-sponsored Nike uniforms at official team functions. Symmonds is sponsored by Brooks. Symmonds explained his reasons for not signing the USATF documents to ESPN, which were disputed by USATF chief of public officer Jill Geer.
“[Symmonds] is doing this because he thinks runners who make the national team deserve a salary.