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Terrible idea… remember when athletics Canada did this with the A+ standards ?
Recently they have adopted the opposite policy, sending as many athletes that are eligible, and I don’t have the right time to crunch the number but im willing to bet Canadian running is in a much better place than in the 90s and will continue to improve.
Athletics Canada had generally moved past their ridiculous policy for the Rio Olympics. Not gonna crunch the numbers either, but at the time small names made their first Olympic teams that year - Gen Lalonde, Gabriela Stafford, Andrea Seccafien, Natasha Wodak. The best finish of the bunch was Lalonde who squeezed into the steeple final and came 16th
Fast forward to the present and between them all that is the 1500, mile, 3k steeple, 5000, 10000, half marathon, and marathon national records. Being an Olympian is a huge springboard for sponsorships and making athletics a viable full time career which lends itself to running faster and I think all four went some sort of pro off the back of Rio. Good chance several of those records don't happen without selection policies that send "no hopers."
British Swimming have already been doing this for years.
Unfortunately it's not merely British swimming. The Japanese are now the most notorious for doing this in swimming. Their standards are so strict it's become a mocking point comparison on SwimSwam. Many of their standards are well under the national records.
Rikako Ikee was impacted last year. She was a superstar junior and would undoubtedly be one of the best in the world right now. But she was shockingly stricken with leukemia while still a teenager. Ikee courageously battled the disease and made it back to competitive swimming, but not close to her prior level. She is fast enough for the World Aquatics standards bu not fast enough for the Japanese swimming federation. They leave her home from world championships. I'm sure she would have been left home from Tokyo other than that was on home soil. She swam some relay legs.
this policy will do nothing but kill the sport. there are levels to everything, and they are destroying a HUGE level that people aspire to.
think of all the people who aspire for that olympic trials marathon qualifying times. and the people below them who they inspire and on and on. If the only level to aspire to is the very best in the world, the sport will not be better off.
i think their idea is that it sets the bar higher and those people who are satisfied to just make the team will reach higher levels. there is logic to this, but i just think it kills the sport, and you will lose more than you gain
If this policy would kill your sport your sport is pretty meaningless anyway.
Real sports survive despite not sending any athletes to the Olympics. Do you think soccer and Argentina would all of a sudden become irrelevant if they decided not to send an Olympic team?
Any sport that considers the Olympics their peak competition is a hobby not a sport.
Molly Seidel was 2nd at the Oly Trials in a time 13 minutes off the world record held by Brigid Kosgei. In Tokyo she got bronze ten seconds behind Kosgei. Would BA have sent such a "no-hoper"?
The other problem with the Olympics is, that the IOC is a totally corrupt organization which likes to get a lot of bribes and does nothing for the host country. Maybe it's time to get rid of the whole thing and start something new.
Of all the British teams in this season's UEFA Champions League, only Manchester City have a shot of winning. Why did they send Tottenham, Chelsea, Liverpool, Celtic and Rangers?
Admittedly, Rangers probably should have stayed at home...
Focusing on those who can win medals and giving them the funding is fine for a cash-strapped entity like UK Athletics. But not sending full teams? That's ridiculous.
The Olympics are more than about wins and losses. You should send everyone that you can. If $ are an issue, I've got a simple solution - let the athletes (or their sponsors) pay their own way.
I've never believed that not sending the guy lucky to make the 10k team has any impact whatsoever on a star like Mo Farah.
In fact in Rio in 2016, Mo Farah was 1st, Andy Vernon 25th and and Ross Millington 31st for Team GBR. There were only 32 finishers. Vernong and Millington being there didn't hurt Farah's morale (fun fact, for the record Millington did beat Mo Ahmed who was DFL).
In 2012, Christ Thompson got next to last int he 10,000 that Farah won.
Very short sighted which is disappointing. They seem to have completely overlooked the fact that young athletes early in their career who are on the up but not necessarily quite at the level of been a medal contender at the Olympics/World Champs benefit vastly by still going and competing. They learn so much from that experience and often come back for the next championship and medal. Take for example Nick Willis. Competed at the 2004 Olympics at age 21 and got eliminated in the semis. Came back 4 years later in 2008 and got the silver and then the bronze in 2016.
This post was edited 4 minutes after it was posted.
Whenever federations do this, it backfires. Athletics Australia did this throughout the 90s and naughties and you saw a sharp decline in participation and elite performances, particularly among distance runners.
It wasn't until the 2010s, when they relaxed their standards that you saw the depth return.
Sending full teams is absolutely vital to the development of athletes. They need that stepping stone - from national class, to making their first international team. It's very rare for an athlete to jump straight from running at their local interclub meet, to medalling at the world championships.
It's also important for the growth of the sport - in that, the more athletes you have on championship starting lines - the more it trickles down to the grassroots. To engage kids and young runners in the sport, they need to see athletes from their hometowns (or therabouts) competing at the highest level.
Another capitulation. Sad decline of formerly "Great" Britain. Nothing in that country is getting better.
Given you pretend to be Kenyan, why not worry about that tragic sporting nation?
Good at one small part of one sport, and even then their success in mainly due to cheating. Just sad given how big the country is.
African have only their legs and lungs that work right, everything else is complete disorder and chaos. Unfortunately this the fate of continent that was completely remodeled by European colonialism.
As a viewer, I'm only interested in the good athletes anyhow. Suffering through heats to eliminate these full-teamers is duller than drying paint
The UK isn't going to send anybody anyway who is a "lane filler." Generally, they are competitive across the board. All the UK would be doing is leaving deserving athletes at home. Anybody, from any country, who has qualified and has met the standards, should be allowed to compete.
The UK (resident here) is/has been stuck in a cost-cutting death spiral, run as it is by a bunch of vandals/crooks who genuinely have me looking up the definition of 'terrorist organisation' from time to time, such is their commitment to bringing the country to its knees.
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