If it’s “clearly directed” at the US (without actually applying to the US alone), the only country that ABUSES this luxury every cycle, why wouldn’t it be considered fair? It’s not as if this rule change is unreasonable, from a logical standpoint.
I find nothing wrong with it. I always found it insulting in high school and college to have the B team qualify for state/national finals, then replace all 4 of those kids with the A team for the finals of the event. The B team earned it. The B team is the team that qualified. Nobody on the A team earned it by participating. Unless there is an injury, illness, emergency, etc - Those that qualify into the final should be required to run the final. I'm stoke for Quincey, but he didn't earn a gold medal. He ran the prelims then sat on the sidelines during the medaling event because he wasn't good enough to get them there.
It didn't look good for Quincy to be sitting in the stands in casual clothes with his parents while the final of the Olympic 4x4 was being run. They should have relay team members who aren't in the final together in a special designated area wearing their official team tracksuit. That way, it looks like they're part of the team rather than ordinary spectators.
That said, there seems to be a contradiction with what you're saying. You're saying A teamers didn't earn a spot in the final, yet they're the only ones who earned the medal by running in the final. That doesn't make sense to me.
Everyone who ran at some point in the competition contributed to the team's overall performance. The B teamers qualified for the final and helped to save the legs of the A teamers so they could run their best. The A teamers brought it home. Both are deserving of the medal.
Look at this year. The USA men's B team had to run twice to advance to the final because of what happened in their heat. If all four of them were forced to run for a third time in the final, that would have put them at a massive disadvantage. Thankfully, the team was able to make substitutions for the final, which gave them their best chance. But just because they weren't in the final, the efforts of those B runners who ran twice to get the team to the final shouldn't be unrecognized.
That being said, I guess you could say that the US has more people in the finals of the individual events who are tired.
Personally, I guess I’m fine with the rule change. I want to know who has the best 4 x 400, not who has the most depth. But then if that’s the case, should you mandate no changes?
It’s kind of complicated.
Population of the USA 340 million
Population of Norway 5.6 million
So allowing switch was a bit unfair.
I’m ok with it
I came here to say the same thing. Also, the big countries are way bigger. The US is #3 (a distant #3 after India and China), but is twice as big as #8, Bangladesh. They're also 4x larger than #19, #20 and #21, Germany, the UK and France. They're 60x larger than Norway, Ireland, NZ, Denmark, and Finland. Hell, Indiana alone has more people than Norway.
If it’s “clearly directed” at the US (without actually applying to the US alone), the only country that ABUSES this luxury every cycle, why wouldn’t it be considered fair? It’s not as if this rule change is unreasonable, from a logical standpoint.
It's funny though, it might actually help them get the stick around if they don't change out as many people.
It's fine as long as they do the schedule properly. For the last two Olympics, the W400m finals is on the same day as the W4x400m prelim. This makes no sense at all.
That being said, I guess you could say that the US has more people in the finals of the individual events who are tired.
Personally, I guess I’m fine with the rule change. I want to know who has the best 4 x 400, not who has the most depth. But then if that’s the case, should you mandate no changes?
It’s kind of complicated.
Population of the USA 340 million
Population of Norway 5.6 million
So allowing switch was a bit unfair.
I’m ok with it
Some of you....
According to WA and the USATF the USA entered 124 T&F athletes in the Paris Olympics
According to WA: Norway entered 25 T&F athletes in the Paris Olympics
As a percentage of their population: Norway entered more athletes in the Paris Olympics than the USA.
That's a better comparison than looking at overall population.
Penalizing the USA because it has depth in a particular event is stupid.
That being said, I guess you could say that the US has more people in the finals of the individual events who are tired.
Personally, I guess I’m fine with the rule change. I want to know who has the best 4 x 400, not who has the most depth. But then if that’s the case, should you mandate no changes?
It’s kind of complicated.
Population of the USA 340 million
Population of Norway 5.6 million
So allowing switch was a bit unfair.
I’m ok with it
if population alone was a determining factor of success, then India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nigeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Philippines, Japan, Mexico, Vietnam and Brazil would be way more competitive and producing way more medals than they are.
This change will only help the US. We won't have bums, who's coaches somehow get them on a B team, selling our qualification.
I hate the rule change however, every team is allowed to exchange as many runners as they like and none of them do it. I don't think we deserve to be punished because everyone else stinks...
This post was edited 28 seconds after it was posted.
DEPTH SHOULD BE REWAREDED, I Believe World XC started with 9 Runners per Country with Top 6 Scoring not it's 6 Runners with Top 4, I would have Preffered it be 15 Runners per Country with Top 10 Scoring, If almost all High Schools and Colleges have 7 Runners per School with Top 5 Scoring, It is Absurd Countries with millions can only come up with 6.
What Was The Population of EAST Germany When Germany Competed as and was politically 2 Countries I do know West germany had Most of the Populatation like maybe 65 Million, lets say East Germany Had 10-15 Million (if anyone knows the REAL NUMBERS Please feel free to correct my Estimates, But The Point is East Germany Had Great Relay Teams especially in the Woman and Depth as well, They seemed to have more Depth than The USA That had about 250-270 Million Yet East Germany at least in the Woman SEEMED To have more Depth. Why Not Have A 10 Mile Relay With Each Country having 40 Runners each running a 400, or a 20 mile mixed relay 40 Men and 40 Women Each runninng a 400, To Find out Which Country has the Most Depth (USA CURRENTLY) but other Countries would have to step it up to try and compete with and maybe even surpass the USA, In The Womans 4 x 400 There were teams that had 0 or 1 or MAYBE 2 runners who would even have a chance to make the USA example Netherlands had 2 runners Femke Bol and Klaver so 2 good 400 runners (Even Though Bol is Considered a 400 Hurdler said to be switching to the 800 next year, Still she is good in the open 400) but after that their next 2 runners fall off a cliff, Netherlands should NOT be Rewarded for Lack of Depth Instead They should work on getting 10-12 runners at the level of Klaver or better yet like Bol. But most countries dont value Depth even though Depth should be Valued, Just like The USA in the Marathon The USA should not be content with 1 or 2 good runners, better to have the USA instead of having Connor Mantz being the only American in the ALLTIME top 100 list in the Marathon and Half Marathon Better to be battling Kenya and Ethiopia for most Runners in the top 100.
If USA has smart coaching it shouldn't matter. Anything less than than 5/5 should not be acceptable. Not sure if mx4x1 is officially on the schedule or not.
Is this a different group of responders than those who support all the foriegn NCAA XC athletes who say Americans need to just get better and stop whining about Kenyans? If so, right back at ya!
Maybe all foreign collegiate athletes can just get their development programs somewhere else too instead of here? I know, money talks. Carl Lewis could be hired by Qatar?
IF they have to engineer a "level playing field" because of population differences then I say send them packing and we just develop a better system here with more incentives with our own money. Maybe we can get back to some 29 foot+ long jumpers or 8ft high jumpers or our 8th 400 runner is around 42.5? Then what are they going to do, develop a 3 class system like some average state high school association?
Put your frickin best out there and go at it. Or get better!!! Boy they love it when Femke Bol wins when SML isn't in the race. What a bunch of pansies. Are we keeping score now? Good luck. Let's do a USA vs the world and put our best resources into it and see what happens.
I think it will be good for the 4x1 but bad for the 4x4. some guys might have to choose between individual and relay. and the us athletes seem a little more self centered than others when it comes to this
if population alone was a determining factor of success, then India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nigeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Philippines, Japan, Mexico, Vietnam and Brazil would be way more competitive and producing way more medals than they are.
I actually don't see any reason to have any substitutions except for illness/injury. A team's a team. It's the 4x400 relay, for example, not the 6x400 relay -- 4 finalists plus two B members. A national team could have 6 possible team members but the team that shows up for the first round is the team that has to run all rounds, barring illness/injury. This could actually be good for U.S. relay teams because we tend to put together pickup relay teams based on how fast athletes run, not how well they pass the stick. This philosophy has led to numerous embarrassing DQ mishaps with dropped sticks, passing out of the zone, etc.