I like the idea of USATF prioritizing the DL champion over the reigning WC. If US has both the DL and WC champions and the WC hasn't met the qualification standards, at least the DL winner proved their fitness. Look at the men's shot - Joe Kovacs, this year's DL champ, isn't going because he got 4th at a stacked USAs - with a result of 22.07 meters, a result that is the #8 performance of the year. He's since been on a tear and is ranked #1 in the event, has the #2 best performance for the year, and is #3 on the Road to Tokyo list. Instead, Ryan Crouser is taking his place and he hasn't thrown since the Olympic final last year. Who knows what sort of shape he's in.
So who is the better bet to medal - the #1 ranked athlete with is this year's DL champ with the 2nd best performance of the year, or the reigning world champ who hasn't competed or demonstrated any sort of fitness this year?
I like the idea of USATF prioritizing the DL champion over the reigning WC. If US has both the DL and WC champions and the WC hasn't met the qualification standards, at least the DL winner proved their fitness. Look at the men's shot - Joe Kovacs, this year's DL champ, isn't going because he got 4th at a stacked USAs - with a result of 22.07 meters, a result that is the #8 performance of the year. He's since been on a tear and is ranked #1 in the event, has the #2 best performance for the year, and is #3 on the Road to Tokyo list. Instead, Ryan Crouser is taking his place and he hasn't thrown since the Olympic final last year. Who knows what sort of shape he's in.
So who is the better bet to medal - the #1 ranked athlete with is this year's DL champ with the 2nd best performance of the year, or the reigning world champ who hasn't competed or demonstrated any sort of fitness this year?
It should be neither, of course. To make USA’s matter.
And World Ultimate Champion where applicable for off years. I’d protect the DL final bye at all costs and not do the 4/country limit. Adds exciting stakes and rewards for a reg season champion as it were.
I agree with both of these ideas. I don't agree with the LRC proposal. Glad to see Sebastian Coe has already rejected it.
Also: can the LRC staff please get off Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone's back about not attempting the 400/400h double? We've been through this before. That double is not feasible when the two events overlap in the schedule like they do.
I knew scrapping the bye would be unpopular but the idea I suggested it is because I'm tired of seeing defending world champions scrapping USAs/not taking it seriously. The bye was invented for MJ in 1997 because he was legitimately injured and the IAAF still wanted one of its biggest stars to be at Worlds. If that is how it was used now, I'd be fine with keeping it. But that's not how it is used now. USA one of the few meets with enormous stakes and we're removing one of the stakes with the bye.
In theory it would be great if USATF could say, "we're only sending the top three" but they're not realistically going to do that and then keep Grant Holloway at home if he finishes 5th at USAs. Maybe the best way to do it is to require "honest effort" but that's hard to enforce.
As for SML...you seem to think it's not feasible. I disagree. It's challenging, but doubles are meant to be challenging. In 2024 and 2025, the 400 and 400H have been on six straight days at the Olympics Worlds, alternating each day. That's not as easy as the 5k/10k but definitely not as hard as some of the doubles/triples Hassan has taken on. The prelims aren't going to be tough for Sydney, and she ran the 200/400 on consecutive days at the Brussels DL last year. I'm not going to rip SML for not doubling this year. She's doing the 400 in Tokyo and that's great. But I disagree that the schedule makes it unfeasible.
I like the idea of USATF prioritizing the DL champion over the reigning WC. If US has both the DL and WC champions and the WC hasn't met the qualification standards, at least the DL winner proved their fitness. Look at the men's shot - Joe Kovacs, this year's DL champ, isn't going because he got 4th at a stacked USAs - with a result of 22.07 meters, a result that is the #8 performance of the year. He's since been on a tear and is ranked #1 in the event, has the #2 best performance for the year, and is #3 on the Road to Tokyo list. Instead, Ryan Crouser is taking his place and he hasn't thrown since the Olympic final last year. Who knows what sort of shape he's in.
So who is the better bet to medal - the #1 ranked athlete with is this year's DL champ with the 2nd best performance of the year, or the reigning world champ who hasn't competed or demonstrated any sort of fitness this year?
It should be neither, of course. To make USA’s matter.
Qualifying via top three at USAs is the easier path to going to Worlds, so someone in Kovac's position would absolutely show up and compete. Leaving qualifying to World's solely by winning the DL would be incredibly foolish as it's a much, much harder and riskier process.
It should be neither, of course. To make USA’s matter.
Qualifying via top three at USAs is the easier path to going to Worlds, so someone in Kovac's position would absolutely show up and compete. Leaving qualifying to World's solely by winning the DL would be incredibly foolish as it's a much, much harder and riskier process.
Kovacs did not get top 3 at USA’s. He should not receive a do-over.
I thought it was a good article, and well-written. I probably don't agree with the conclusions, but don't share the negativity some seem to have for what I found to be a well-argued piece.
The real issue is that there is a finite total of how much meets "matter" when it comes to qualification for Worlds. So there's a trade-off: giving the byes to the World Champion and Diamond League Champion make national selection meets matter less. I think the reason that Jon wants to get rid of the former and keep the latter is that giving the bye to the DL Champ creates a big incentive for the biggest stars to run the circuit. Giving the bye to the World Champ doesn't create the same incentive since the big stars always run Worlds anyway.
Instead, the bye for the World Champion serves a different purpose: to make sure the very top athletes can run the biggest meets. If this is the only goal, you could go much further: byes for all global medalists and world leaders of the last three years, plus top 3 in the DL standings. Hard to argue that anyone from these categories would lower the standard of the meet. Of course, then you risk the top athletes getting their medal every year and just training the rest of the time.
The question is: where do we want to land on these trade-offs? My personal feeling is that the best way to do qualification is to prioritize the best athletes getting in (i.e. keeping the World Champion's bye), but then looking for other ways to encourage racing. Comparing to golf and tennis, former champions don't have trouble getting into the biggest tournaments, but they do have to compete regularly to keep their ranking up, get a good seed, etc. Maybe track isn't in the position for a system like this, but it would be the best of both worlds.
Most of the front page is editorial with opinions mingled in with headlines. and half the messageboard is personal opinions of the owners too. Really the site is more like a Rojo blog with comments section than anything else.
Qualifying via top three at USAs is the easier path to going to Worlds, so someone in Kovac's position would absolutely show up and compete. Leaving qualifying to World's solely by winning the DL would be incredibly foolish as it's a much, much harder and riskier process.
Kovacs did not get top 3 at USA’s. He should not receive a do-over.
1.) Ryan Crouser has not competed this year. Is he even in shape to compete? 2.) Kovac's 22.07 4th place finish at USAs is still the 8th best performance in the world this year. It would have won every Diamond League meet this year minus two - one of which he won with 22.48m. He is being punished because he is an American who had personal a B+ day.
I get your point about the "do over" and I'm not saying you're wrong, BUT if you're going to have an auto qualifier and truly want the best in the world competing at the World Champs, taking the year's DL winner over the reigning world champ (from two years ago, as Gault pointed out) is the better choice of the two for the US.
The bye was invented for MJ in 1997 because he was legitimately injured and the IAAF still wanted one of its biggest stars to be at Worlds. I
Given MJ's false pronouncements regarding GST, are we sure that he was legitimately injured in 1997? He might have been saving face by faking the injury just like how he tried to save face and blame GST's demise on Donald Trump's tariffs instead of his mismanagement.
I agree with both of these ideas. I don't agree with the LRC proposal. Glad to see Sebastian Coe has already rejected it.
Also: can the LRC staff please get off Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone's back about not attempting the 400/400h double? We've been through this before. That double is not feasible when the two events overlap in the schedule like they do.
I knew scrapping the bye would be unpopular but the idea I suggested it is as I'm tired of seeing defending world champions scrapping USAs/not taking it seriously. The bye was invented for MJ in 1997 as he was legitimately injured and the IAAF still wanted one of its biggest stars to be at Worlds. If that is how it was used now, I'd be fine with keeping it. But that's not how it is used now. USA one of the few meets with enormous stakes as we're removing one of the stakes with the bye.
In theory it would be great if USATF could say, "we're only sending the top three" but they're not realistically going to do that and then keep Grant Holloway at home if he finishes 5th at USAs. Maybe the best way to do it is to require "honest effort" but that's hard to enforce.
As for SML...you seem to think it's not feasible. I disagree. It's challenging, but doubles are meant to be challenging. In 2024 and 2025, the 400 and 400H have been on six straight days at the Olympics Worlds, alternating each day. That's not as easy as the 5k/10k but definitely not as hard as some of the doubles/triples Hassan has taken on. The prelims aren't going to be tough for Sydney, and she ran the 200/400 on consecutive days at the Brussels DL last year. I'm not going to rip SML for not doubling this year. She's doing the 400 in Tokyo and that's great. But I disagree that the schedule makes it unfeasible.
How about the winner, actually the podium (might as well), from the previous championship gets an auto-standard? You don’t have the stress of planning your season around chasing standards but you gotta show up for at least your national meet.
Kovacs did not get top 3 at USA’s. He should not receive a do-over.
1.) Ryan Crouser has not competed this year. Is he even in shape to compete? 2.) Kovac's 22.07 4th place finish at USAs is still the 8th best performance in the world this year. It would have won every Diamond League meet this year minus two - one of which he won with 22.48m. He is being punished because he is an American who had personal a B+ day.
I get your point about the "do over" and I'm not saying you're wrong, BUT if you're going to have an auto qualifier and truly want the best in the world competing at the World Champs, taking the year's DL winner over the reigning world champ (from two years ago, as Gault pointed out) is the better choice of the two for the US.
I do not think we should have an auto-qualifier. Neither Crouser nor Kovacs finished top 3 at USA’s. Neither Crouser nor Kovacs should represent the country.
How about the winner, actually the podium (might as well), from the previous championship gets an auto-standard? You don’t have the stress of planning your season around chasing standards but you gotta show up for at least your national meet.