Is it time to change the Olympic Trials Qualifying procedures?

So Brazier would go over Jock?

Could the person with the fastest seed time just choose to skip OT and hope their mark would give them a bye?

optional, unless registered wrote:

*** Never more than 8 athletes in a final 800m or below.

So what is your grand plan for protests?

The happened all the time, are we just not going to allow them?

Also, Jenkins would go in the 10k

Women's 800 and 10k would be unchanged. Martinez and Williams would be tied for the best times out of remaining 800 women after Wilson and Grace.

Lenny Leonard wrote:

So Brazier would go over Jock?

Could the person with the fastest seed time just choose to skip OT and hope their mark would give them a bye?

The World Champions that get a bye still have to participate and give an honest effort. Would you really risk someone else running faster?

darpham pram wrote:

optional, unless registered wrote:

*** Never more than 8 athletes in a final 800m or below.

So what is your grand plan for protests?

The happened all the time, are we just not going to allow them?

Explain how this would change anything.

So world champions get a bye now too?

Specifically in the case of Brazier, he should feel extremely safe that 3 Americans wouldn't go sub 1:43.55.

What say you about the fact that many of the teams thus far would have no change? Do you really feel strongly that Jenkins is a better representative than Korir?

Lenny Leonard wrote:

Also, Jenkins would go in the 10k

Women's 800 and 10k would be unchanged. Martinez and Williams would be tied for the best times out of remaining 800 women after Wilson and Grace.

Martinez & Williams don't have exactly the same best 800m marks this calendar year (2016)

Lenny Leonard wrote:

So world champions get a bye now too?

Specifically in the case of Brazier, he should feel extremely safe that 3 Americans wouldn't go sub 1:43.55.

What say you about the fact that many of the teams thus far would have no change? Do you really feel strongly that Jenkins is a better representative than Korir?

Talking about the procedure used when qualifying for WC's- not OLYG

optional, unless registered wrote:

darpham pram wrote:

So what is your grand plan for protests?

The happened all the time, are we just not going to allow them?

Explain how this would change anything.

In the Men's 800 finals, there were 9 entrants because 8 qualified normally and then a final person advanced on a protest. Not sure he would have qualified had he not been impeded in the semis but he lost any chance to do so in the semis so they put him through by protest. It would be unfair to have him bump any of the other 8 guys out.

Williams - 1:59.89 at ATL meet

Martinez - 1:58.89 at Harry Jerome

Did I miss something?

Lenny Leonard wrote:

Williams - 1:59.89 at ATL meet

Martinez - 1:58.89 at Harry Jerome

Did I miss something?

Sorry, that should be 1:59.89 as well for Martinez

That's not a terrible idea and it ensures that your fastest person goes to the Olympics and it ensures everyone gets a fair shot.

Here are some issues:

The top calendar year performer may not be as good as last year's top performer or World Championship performer.

In the men's 1500 you are giving Ben True a spot ahead of Centro, Andrews or Manzano, whoever does not make the top 2.

If you elect to go with the qualifying window and Centro and Merber get top two and Jager defers then you are giving Garret Heath a 1500 spot over whoever gets third. Say Manzano gets third, has the standard, is the reigning Silver medalist but Heath gets put on the team over him even without running the 1500 this year. Or Andrews gets third and Heath gets it.

I kind of still like that he top 3 go.

I stopped believing in the validity of the USATF Olympic Trials in 1988 when Jim Spivey was left off the 1500 team after finishing 4th behind the illustrious Jeff Atkinson and Mark Deady. Seriously?

Someone should have gone to Atkinson and Deady and said, "Congrats on going 1 - 3 in a stupid tactical race, but you both know that Spivey would kick your a$$ nine out of ten times. He's going."

Is it really that hard to choose the best runners in each event?

Lenny Leonard wrote:

Lenny Leonard wrote:

Williams - 1:59.89 at ATL meet

Martinez - 1:58.89 at Harry Jerome

Did I miss something?

Sorry, that should be 1:59.89 as well for Martinez

I like the suggestion as times should carry some sort of weight. Maybe tie-breakers are determined by highest finish at the Trials.

Fantastic idea!!!! Let's do the same with the Olympics. Bronze goes to the athlete with the fastest time.

optional, unless registered wrote:

I see the simplicity and fairness of our very simple, Top 3 to the Olympics qualifying procedure. However in reality, this process doesn't typically mean that we are sending our very best athletes to the Olympics. Every event has seen favorites not advance through the rounds, athletes that just have an off-day or bad luck and not make the team.

To take any politics out of the equation, how about something like this:

Olympic Selection Procedure

**Top 2 at the Olympic Trials go to the Olympics, with the condition that they have the Olympic Standard.

***the athlete with the next best time/mark obtained during the calendar year would fill the 3rd spot.

That's pretty similar to what Japan had in place for its Trials this year. Basically, the JAAF set standards based on world rankings that were tougher than the Oly standards and set up the following procedure that was supposed to balance fairness and protecting their best people:

-The top-placing person with the JAAF standard in the top 8 made the team.

-The winner made the team if they had the Olympic standard.

-Anyone else with the JAAF standard in the top 8 was next in line.

-Anyone else with the Olympic standard in the top 3 was next.

There was a bit more to it but that was the basic idea. So for example in the men's 100m Kiryu had the JAAF standard and just had to make the final to make the Olympic team. Cambridge had the Olympic standard and won, so he was on. Yamagata had the Olympic standard and was 2nd, so he made it in via point 4 but would have been passed over if anyone else who made the final had had the JAAF standard. Not sure how that would play out in the U.S. where the level is higher in a lot of events, but it at least takes care of situations like one of your top medal prospects falling in a final.

rover wrote:

Lenny Leonard wrote:

Sorry, that should be 1:59.89 as well for Martinez

I like the suggestion as times should carry some sort of weight. Maybe tie-breakers are determined by highest finish at the Trials.

Well Williams finished higher, so the women's 800 would be exactly the same.

darpham pram wrote:

optional, unless registered wrote:

*** Never more than 8 athletes in a final 800m or below.

So what is your grand plan for protests?

The happened all the time, are we just not going to allow them?

no protests let them beat the carp out of each other as they run down the track.

There is a 49 year old in our running community who does nothing but run. Well, he works, but he had no other interests, no children and is a total jerk.

At a race last summer, he didn't too well and was passed the last 200 meters by a female Kenyan. At the awards banquet, he was pounding the table in frustration, saying how he was going to "train his brains out and pound her in the ground next year."

If he only saw the people laughing at him. What a joke.