Florida's Genevieve LaCaze in battle with Athletics Australia to be named to Olympic team.

Good for Athletics Australia for doing the RIGHT thing and upholding their own policy. Again, a deadline is established for a reason and perhaps Gen should have planned her season accordingly and ran a little faster prior to June 11. If she was just your average runner, not blonde and tan, how many of you would honestly care about this??? Probably not many at all.

Well Jeff risely sure isn't tan or blonde but they I'd the same thing for him at the last Olympics! Peasants!

Utterly absurd if they don't let her go when they don't have anyone else in the spot.

Pretty simple to make a rule that says: if you hit the A standard after we announce our team and we have an open spot, you get it.

No im 100% certain she IS in fact HOT... hotter than any other women on the Australian team.. this would boost their total team hotness up there with the like of Sweden and Denmark!

Agree. The deadline is put in place to stop situations like this. ALL athletes must make the cut prior to the deadline. Breens situation is entirely different. It was not related to making the standard after the deadline. It was based on her potential in the Rio Clause. Lacaze is trying to get in with a qualifier post cut off date. It is quite clear she won't medal and will likely not progress past the heats. I say this with no insult to Lacaze.

Considering the qualifying period commenced may 2011, there is no excuse that she couldn't make the time due to college committment. She competed in the trials, and failed to qualify then.

Consider Victoria Mitchell, 2008 Beijing olympian, she too failed to qualify with the period. Clearly an athlete capable of making the time, what if she was to go and race the A qualifier this week. Do we allow her in to. And then, Brichacek, and Solomon....the line must be drawn.

And perhaps people should lay off Hollingsworth considering he is not even on the selection or appeals board. Therefore he is voicing his opinion the same way everyone else is.

Did you really make this situation racial?

Muhammed is ranked 5th in the world at 87kg and is only fighting there because of selection restrictions, he's a natural 80kg fighter (a weight in which he recently beat Cook).

Cook is also only ranked number one at 80kg because he's whored all the little events that nobody else has really bothered with. That's the reason why he left the set-up, he felt they weren't fighting enough.

Most of the people I've heard, that actually know anything about Taekwondo are not actually too upset with the decision. It's only the media that have caused all the ignoramuses to start howling (like your good self.)

teamaus wrote:

Agree. The deadline is put in place to stop situations like this. ALL athletes must make the cut prior to the deadline. Breens situation is entirely different. It was not related to making the standard after the deadline. It was based on her potential in the Rio Clause. Lacaze is trying to get in with a qualifier post cut off date. It is quite clear she won't medal and will likely not progress past the heats. I say this with no insult to Lacaze.

How is Breen's situation entirely different?

...So your argument is that Breen didn't make the cut-off this year at all? So as long as she DOESN'T make the standard within the time period, she should still be able to go?

By that logic, Gen should go as well, as she DIDN'T MAKE THE CUT-OFF PERIOD WITHIN THE TIME ZONE JUST LIKE BREEN.

But at least she made the standard, unlike Breen.

"Solomon and Breen owe their selections in part of the so-called "Rio clause" which allows the Australian selectors discretion to choose young and promising athletes who may feature at the 2016 Rio de Janiero Games."

Source:

Breen got in through the Rio clause, which is perfect for an athlete like LaCaze who is 22 and has even greater potential for Rio.

Kanye North wrote:

Utterly absurd if they don't let her go when they don't have anyone else in the spot.

Pretty simple to make a rule that says: if you hit the A standard after we announce our team and we have an open spot, you get it.

This is another issue as well....their qualifying period is crazy early.

Athletics Australia just extended qualifying windows to June 22nd. Not only will Genevieve be named to Olympic team but now everyone has six more days to get the A if they don't already have it!!! Wow!!!

http://www.athletics.com.au/home/news/news/2012/june/statement_from_the_president_r

Australia aer ridiculous. Of course she should be going. No one else qualified. You cant put more complications of an already ridiculously hard sport.

Plus shes mega hot.

Hollingsworth is an absolute goose. We have australians that by iaaf and ioc standards have met the criteria to go to the olympic games yet athletics australia refuse to send them.

I know so many people that have quit for those very reasons.

The biggest joke of a decision is not putting Steve Solimon in the individual 400m when he has run 45.5 at the age of 17!. He won nationals in 45.5 this year without even peaking and is only 19. He could potentially be sub 45 at the games.

Athletics australia....

Kybaws wrote:

http://www.greatlakesadvocate.com.au/news/national/national/general/athletics-australia-says-no-to-lacaze/2592524.aspx

Good for Athletics Australia for doing the RIGHT thing and upholding their own policy. Again, a deadline is established for a reason and perhaps Gen should have planned her season accordingly and ran a little faster prior to June 11. If she was just your average runner, not blonde and tan, how many of you would honestly care about this??? Probably not many at all.

Blame it on the UF. They knew this girl had a shot at making the Olympic team but they convinced her to wait until NCAA's to take a shot at the standard.

UF made her triple at SEC's and then talked her out of going for standard at Regionals which was one race and ABSOLUTELY IDEAL conditions with over a week to recover before running NCAA's. Instead they convince her to go after standard at NCAA's where she had to first run the final off only one day rest from the semis. NCAA final is in the middle of Saturday afternoon in blistering heat (track temps over 100 deg) and breezy conditions with no guarantee of a fast pace unless she took it herself which she didn't do until 2 laps to go.

Who was the idiot at Athletics Australia who decided the cut off date for Olympic qualifying times should be so early in the season? Athletics Australia should do everything in its power to send the biggest team possible to the Olympics. Their job should be to support the athletes and market the sport to the public. Instead they ruin the sport by making rules to exclude athletes and generate negative publicity that turns off people from entering the sport. SHAME ON YOU ATHLETICS AUSTRALIA!

What does the world's greatest track and field team, the US team, do? They send the biggest team possible. What does Australia do? The opposite!

When will Athletics Australia learn to support the development of athletes, market the sport, and encourage participation? Instead they prefer to dictate rules of exclusion that achieve the opposite of what they should be doing. Plus, they have been doing this for decades. They need to clean house at Athletics Australia, and replace them with people who understand athlete development and sports marketing.

You guys who were praising Athletics Australia for sticking to its guns and abiding by its "rules" and leaving her off the team....what have you got in place of where hearts, minds, and souls are supposed to be?

I mean, really. What's so blasted precious about a stupid "rule" that keeps a worthy and promising young person off the team while she's not imperiling someone else's place on it? What's wrong with you people?

The Answer My Friend wrote:

You guys who were praising Athletics Australia for sticking to its guns and abiding by its "rules" and leaving her off the team....what have you got in place of where hearts, minds, and souls are supposed to be?

I mean, really. What's so blasted precious about a stupid "rule" that keeps a worthy and promising young person off the team while she's not imperiling someone else's place on it? What's wrong with you people?

I support Genevieve LaCaze to be on the 2012 Australian Olympic Team in the steeplechase.

For AA not to have an "automatic" qualifying deadline and a "discretionary" deadline (likely the maximum allowed by IAAF/IOC) is foolhardy and counterproductive to the point of having commitee selection vs. the U.S.-style. AthCan is often guilty of the same sort of own-foot-shooting.

And she's hot but she's no Coburn or Garcia.

B-Sample wrote:

likely the maximum allowed by IAAF/IOC

No, because the U.S. would have the same deadline, and the U.S. team has not been selected yet.

I see no reason why any country's deadline should be sooner than whatever the official deadline is.

Fortunately, the Australian Olympic Commission corrected this idiocy. They instructed Athletics Australia to extend the qualifying period to ensure the selection of athletics who are running well in the weeks leading up to the Olympics.

Australia has become a rule obsessed, nanny state where people blindly follow rules lacking any logic. Athletics Australia is a prime example. The say she can't be selected because it's a rule. The sheep agree: she can't be selected because it's a rule. Instead, we need to be asking who was the idiot who made the rule, and why are we following such an idiotic rule.

I am glad to see that there are still some free thinkers in the Australian Olympic Commission who corrected this idiocy.