Amby Burfoot says: do away with the Olympic Marathon Trials

I think the Trials is more fair than anything else proposed. Top-3 demonstrate fitness on the day & deserve to go. It's clear. Every athlete knows what they have to do to make the team. It doesn't erase the previous 18 months of training/racing. That time is spent getting yourself the kind of results that make you a threat to make the team. The examples given don't really make a case for abolishing the system imo. O’Brien wasn't a marathoner. No heighting at the Olympics would not get you a medal, even if he has great credentials. They wouldn't say let's upgrade you to gold because we know how good you are. Samuelson battled through injury & made the team. But if the injury was bad enough she wouldn't have made the team and wouldn't have raced in LA the way she did. We can't just put Seidel on the team because of her bronze. That was in 2021. Fitness changes. It takes time to recover from injury & get fit again. The reality is that a dozen women have a realistic chance of making the team. Seidel could've been 1st or 7th. There's enough talent that you're not thinking the team is going to be weak because you're not sending her.

Leaving it up to USATF is the most laughable thing to consider. It's not the 1920s? Then why does Nike have a monopoly on USATF & why athletes are restricted to certain gear when they make teams & why can't athletes deck themselves out with sponsor logos on their jerseys? We've seen Athletics Kenya miss time & time again with their selections. Most recently, they left one of their best marathoners off of their provisional list (& then corrected it after public outrage but public outrage can't be the fallback). The reality is AK has much more talent than slots. Yes, they can choose to send Kipchoge & Kiptum but if those guys didn't place top-3 at a Trials event, their team would be plenty strong. You could argue that we never send all of the best athletes to the Olympics because the best marathoning countries still only get to send 3 athletes. But I'm not doing that. The Olympics is about everyone sending their 3 best athletes and letting them mix it up on the day. Again, if Kipchoge doesn't win gold is there a rerun? Do we acknowledge that he's the goat & redistribute the medals.

For a sport without a ton of drama, the Trials gives us some of that excitement. We have a ton or 2:08-2:11 men. Good luck picking your top-3. That's why you let them prove it on the day. Christine Clark proved she could handle the conditions better than everyone else. She won by 2 minutes. & clearly times have changed. She was the only woman under 2:35 in that race. She finished 19th at the Olympics in 2:31. It was a different era. She didn't go to Chicago every year to try to run fast. She ran her local marathon & then raised her game on the national/world stage. In 1996, the US went 10th/31st/DNF. I'm sure she would've been seen as one of the best domestic runners if she was invited to run the best races. How do I know? She beat everyone at the Trials.

Wrong. Ambys asinine proposal is offensive and contrary to the essence of competitive athletics. The fair system and those who support it are not stupid and misguided. Amby is.

If he actually cared about doing something positive about selecting our Olympic teams, maybe he could address what happens when an OT member cannot compete due to injury? I'm in favor of the top three at the OT being Olympians, with all the benefits even if an alternate replaces them. Real world example. In 1984 I trained with Dave Gordon, who was 4th in the OT marathon. John Tuttle was 3rd, but was injured and unable to properly represent. Had he given his spot up Gordon would have been an excellent replacement. Tuttle couldn't drop because under the rules he would no longer be "Olympian". He should have been able to drop and retain full status -- uniforms, ceremony participation, etc. You really can't blame him. I think there was a similar situation with the men's 1500m that year as well.

The Olympics is the dream for everyone in our sport. My proposal would be a fair acomodation that even Amby Burford could agree with.

Nothing needs to be fixed that isn't broken. This is one way to enhance the process for the better.

Calling us stupid and misguided was uncalled for.

He did not call ANYBODY stupid or misguided. He wrote an opinion piece about a policy that he thinks is stupid It is intended to be provocative without being personal to anyone. Did you write the policy? No? Of course you didn't.

Your response, in telling him to "STFU" is shameful and pathetic.

I'll repeat, I would ban you for life, on the spot.

agreed 100%

amby is not stupid. you are

We'll have to agree to disagree. I was offended by Bufoots characterization.

For the record, a system such as what Bufoot proposed would have put me on the 1976 Olympic Team, negating the heroic effort and drama when Mike Roche self-selected himself to the team.

That would have been an epic injustice, not seen since Bill Bowerman kept Dave Patrick from his rightful spot on the 1968 team.

Yeah - and they should just give olympic gold medals out to the athletes who overall did the best over the last year, instead of having them compete on a single day. Like, someone could have a knee injury that day.

My guess is that Malmo is kidding around . . . or that he knows that Mr. Burfoot is still pissed that he would have made the 1968 Olympic Team if they had stayed with the prior selection process instead of going to a Trials race.

(1) please spell his name correctly
(2) toughen up. If THAT offends, then, wow, I don't know what to say. don't be such a snowflake

(3) please apologize to Amby "Burfoot" (NOT Bufoot)

I was under the notion that a marathon is a competitive sporting contest. The winners are, well, the winners.

The system is the fairest one possible. Top 3 go. Everyone else goes home. Everyone knows it. Can't get more fair than that.

Having a sport actually determined by competition. Imagine that.

This new proposal would cost the US their last 2 medalist and possibly 2004.

Dismissing Clarks awesome upset victory in 2000 in Columbia(didnt get the dates right and had to be corrected here missing the years by 20) shows you dont understand the excitement of rooting for the underdog and how champions can rise to the occasion.

Lets select fast marathoners who can time trial great but if it comes down to actual racing might not have what it takes. Molly for a perfect example.

Youre probably just a paid USATF or Nike/Big Company crony that wants to dictate their athletes make the Olympics. This would crush the spirit of the hundreds of athletes that are able to call themselves Trials qualifiers.

This seems okay. Like giving the fastest person in the 12 months before the trials an auto. and then they don’t run it and you have a race for top two. But assuming Mantz is top three it doesn’t really change anything. How often has the #1 seed not made the team? Maybe once or twice out of a dozen trials?