jsquire wrote:
The policy may have been foolish--although I'd say it's rather rare that someone PRs by 9 seconds in the 800--but the moment you stop following your own rules you open the floodgates.
Maybe, but maybe not. The USATF has made some glaring exceptions -- Gouchergate, anyone? -- and yet there's been no flood following.
(On second thought, maybe Gouchergate was consistent with the basic rule of the USATF: Keep Alberto happy!)
More seriously, the USATF rules allow athletes who don't meet the qualifying standards to appeal for an exception to the standards. Goucher appealed, and the USATF granted his appeal. It appears the rules give the appeals committee a lot of discretion, so it's hard to say that letting him in violated the rules.
Is there are anything in AC's rules that would allow such an appeal? Or is there general language in AC's charter that would allow them to let her on the team in order to better serve their basic purpose? I assume that purpose is to field the strongest possible team.