This season has been hard on us all, and currently the athletes who have had the toughest journeys are being penalized for it. Because our truncated season included only one local per discipline, athletes who had the misfortune to miss a competition due to injury or illness are not eligible for provincials in that discipline, no matter how much athletic promise they show. This is particularly troubling seeing as provincials is the pathway to CEC Nationals and international competition.

The OCF is aware of the issue, but indicates that they will not change their decision. One reason they stated is that they'd like to keep a maximum of 20 athletes per category for the sake of logistics. This doesn't make much sense considering many categories have fewer than 20 athletes total (Jr girls only has 4 lead and 7 boulder athletes, for example).

Please sign this petition to force the board to act on this issue. Possible solutions include adding an injury/illness exemption policy. Our draft policy:

"APPLICATION PROCESS

To apply for an injury/illness exemption, the athlete, parent of the athlete, or coach of the athlete, must provide the following to the OCF Head Coach:
- Proof of injury/illness resulting in an inability to train regularly through a signed letter from a medical professional
OR
- Proof of positive covid test administered by medical professional

And one of the following:
- OCF sanctioned competition result from a previous season placing the athlete in the top 15 of their category in the discipline for which they are applying for an exemption (BEST)
OR
- Competition result from the past year in the discipline for which they are applying for an exemption that demonstrates a level of skill that could place them top 10 in their division

SELECTION PROCESS

All required information must be submitted to the OCF Head Coach. Applications will be reviewed by our selection committee (including Head coach & 1-2 other objective industry professionals) and a decision will be made and communicated to the athlete and/or coach no later than 2 weeks prior to the competition.

The number of exemptions granted will be capped in order to maintain a reasonable number of competitors at the competition (currently with 20 per category the max number of competitors is 200)."

Mathematics on category size:

20 athletes per category x 5 age categories x 2 gender categories = 200 athletes total

Please email liz.maffett @ gmail.com for more information.