Certified Elite Athletes (CEA) Group
February 5, 2009
Founded February 5, 2009
by Bob Anderson (Founder of Runner's World Magazine 1966, Runner and Racer since 1962)
Whether it’s a world class record or a personal best, every athlete loves recognition for their achievement. This program has been set up to bring additional attention to superb performances within any age group and by either sex. To begin the process, all athletes need to set up a free Lets Get Fit America (LGFA) profile to be acknowledged.
By recognizing the achievements of others the Certified Elite Athletes (CEA) group provides goals and incentives for all people to reach higher and achieve more. Once confirmed, you’ll join in the spirit of this group to share training techniques, identify the motivation-makers from motivation-takers, and provide important information and ideas to help others achieve the CEA classification.
You might be thinking that you won’t be able to make the cut. But wait a minute, why not? Maybe you need to lose some weight or train harder to make it. If it doesn't happen, there is still knowledge and gratification in the journey. We also know that many people are not interested in competing in sporting events. Don't worry, you can still be part of our bigger movement which is Lets Get Fit America!
How can you be part of the Certified Elite Athletes (CEA) group? The idea is that our CEA Standard will be equivalent between sports. As an example, for road running, track and field and race walking we are using the age graded performance standards established for the World Masters Athletes (WMA) and developed by Howard Grubb. The Age-Grading Calculator (click to view Calculator) covers all track and field events, road running and walks. These activities are easier to compare since at the end everyone has a time or measured result. The CEA Standard has been established at a 70% level which basically means that your performance is just 30% off what the world record would be for your age.
If you are participating in one of these sports, to get certified, we need you to post on your LGFA profile your ten all-time performances that would be equal to a 70% age graded performance. Only performances in official competitions will be considered. If you are into track and field, road running or walks the WMA Age-Grading Calculator will make it easy for you to determine if you have already qualified. As an example, A 17-year-old female would need to run a 6:07.1 mile, a 40-year-old male would need to run a 40:35 10k road race, a 25-year-old male would need to run 13.99 for 100 meters, an 18 year-old male would need to high jump 1.69m, a 50-year-old female would need to run 3:48:25 for the marathon.
Don't worry if you don't remember all the details of past qualified performances but we need at least the event, year, your age at the time and your performance. If you are currently injured, or not racing, you can still become part of this Elite group. Maybe you will get back into competing or at least come up with a program to help you get and stay fit.
Once you are confirmed we want you to keep us up-to-date on your qualified best ten performances in 2009. We will put together member rankings based on the information you give us throughout the year.
We are establishing standards for other sports and they will be presented soon.
First thing is set up a Lets Get Fit America! profile. Once you have done that, hit submit and then login to your account. Click on edit your profile. You will see a chart to enter your performances. Once you are confirmed, your profile will be marked and your top ten performances noted. Click on my profile to see how it will be presented once confirmed. We realize that you may not remember all your best performances but as long as you list ten that qualify you are in. This list will be scrutinized by various sanctioning organizations and we rely on you to give us accurate information.
I know that many athletes have hundreds of performances that would qualify them for this group while others may just have a few. If you have a lot, just gives us a sampling of your ten performances most memorable to you covering a variety of events.
We will need your real name, location, and date of birth along with your ten qualified performances to confirm your spot in our group.
CEA Standards are being established for other sports and will be published soon once they are confirmed. If you can help us establish these standards for other sports email me at: bob@ujena.com As an example, for golf we are looking at establishing a base handicap and raise it best on your age.
Go ahead and setup a profile and let us know that you want us to look at your performances in a sport other than track and field, road running and race walking.
Get us your performances so we can confirm you for our Certified Elite Athletes group!
Bob Anderson
(Certified Elite Athletes Founder and First Member)
Lets Get Fit America! Official Group
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Certified Elite Athletes (CEA) Standards
Get CEA Confirmed today!
Here are the CEA (Certified Elite Athletes) Standards you need to achieve to be part of our group. We know that many of you participates in several different sports. In most cases we would like you to be confirmed into our Certified Elite Athletes group by submitting your qualifying performances within one sport. This sport should be your favorite and in most cases the one you are participating in presently.
As you can see we have only included CEA Standards for a few sports. We will be adding more sports as we get information. Our goal is to keep the standards equivalent between difference sports. If your sport is not listed here, still get us your performances that you feel would qualify you. We welcome your feedback. Contact Bob Anderson at bob@ujena.com and put Certified Elite Athletes in your subject line.
The Standard for Road Running is going to be based on Howard Grubb WMA Age-Grading Calculator. All ages and events are covered. All popular events like the 5k, 10k, Half Marathon, Marathon, 50k etc. can be plugged into this calculator and your age-graded performance displayed. To be confirmed into our Certified Elite Athletes group you will need to provide us with ten of your performances that were 70% or better.
A good way to see what you need to do is to put 70 into the "Age-performance %" slot, then put in your age, your sex and then select your distance from the "Road" drop-down window. As an example, I selected age 61, male, 10kmRoad and saw that I need to run 48:07 to meet the standard. If I was a 40-year-old female I would need to run 44:53 to meet our CEA standard.
Post your ten qualified performances on your profile. You can do this when you are setting up a profile or at anytime afterwards by loggin in and click on "edit profile."
Click here for the calculator.
All track and field events are covered and you can see if you reach our 70% CEA Standard but putting in your performance in the WMA Age-Grading Calculator. As an example, a 40-year-old female CEA standard would be 15.7. An 18-year-old male would need to long jump 5.96 meters (19.5 feet). Or a 25-year-old male would need to run a mile on the track in 5:18 or better.
Only one performance per day per event at a track meet can be counted.
Post your ten qualified performances at 70% or better on your profile. These performances can be recent or from the past. As you reach our CEA Standard during the year, post your top ten.
The CEA Standard for Race Walking is ten Age-Graded performances at a 70% or better level using the WMA Age-Grade Calculator. As an example, a 76-year-old male would need to walk 5k in 38:44 or better. A 25 year-old-old female would need to walk 10k in 58:30.
Post ten all-time performances on your profile that meet our CEA Standard to be confirmed. Be sure to include the date of the race, distance, location, and your age. And during the year post up to ten performances that meet our CEA Standard.
