Anthony Famiglietti Has Told Me He Is Not In the Trials, He Says Alan Webb Was Told He Was in Last Week

You are such a big inspiration, Fam. I have always been a huge fan of yours for how you constantly give each race your very best effort. It's been awesome to watch you compete with such intensity over the years and I wish you the best with this appeal process.

I'm glad you're raising concerns about the favoritism and "behind the scenes" dealings that take place. There have been changes that need to take place within the USATF for a while now, and you are the catalyst for change. Thank you for standing up and addressing the issue instead of complaining about it in an interview weeks later.

Please continue to run reckless. I bought one of the original "run reckless" t-shirts as soon as they came out, and it is still my favorite shirt because of what it implies. I wanted to have you sign it at the Sea Ray Relays one year but I ended up injured and never got to compete at the relays due to meet scheduling the next year.

Continue defying odds and kicking ass, trials or no trials.

Fam had his chance. he ran a 8:5x last week. game over. bye bye fam

Fam is the fvcking man and always has been. World class hard ass who trains like a beats. Harder than any of you cocksvckers could even dream of training.

Fam has a good point and you dubasses just sit here and take it up the ass and say thank you.

Fam has lived the dream. You bitches live in your moms' basements. Fam scrubs the floor with malmo.

Kudos to you Fam, for fighting the good fight, and challenging this Corporate controlled BS-fest. When you start screwing with the rules because of a name, a mile record holder sponsored by Nike, its all fair game. Fam is 100% within his rights to challenge the fairness of this crap.

Webb is a major natural talent, but the worst racer I've ever seen at his level, and is going nowhere for Nike and 5k glory.

Reminds me of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX5jNnDMfxA

And this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdCkrHa-pfY

Sorry, but I don't see trials fitness in those times. You have lots to be proud of- but if I flunk a test, I don't ask for a passing grade anyway. Same principle.

TLW wrote:

...If Webb is in, he (Fam) should be in...

Something I learned when I was 18 years old, that you guys haven't:

If I don't take care of my own business, don't point at another who didn't either, and cry unfairness. If you get a speeding ticket, don't cry the other car was speeding too.

I don't think Webb should've gotten the 5K bid. But he took care of his business and was already in the trials, either way. Fam had no qualifier. I hope he gets in, but if not, the fault is exactly 100% his.

mikerob21 wrote:

Everyone saying Webb has already qualified in the 1500 so he isn't taking a spot from anyone...well last I checked he is taking a spot from someone, someone more deserving in the 5k. So what if he qualified in 15, that's not the 5k. I like Webb but he is so hit or miss, we never know which Webb we are getting. With Fam, we know we are getting the best everytime. He's beyond consistent and if Webb deserves this, then Fam does as well. Hopefully the USATF gets their heads out of their asses quick enough to realize the mistake they have made.

Like his recent 14:31 or his 8:52?

Fam has lots to be proud of, but he is not Webb. Webb's beaten Lagat more than once, including for the national championship. He's beaten Ritz at 10K. He's won big GP races, set records, been ranked #1 in the world and finished top 10, while inspiring a generation of runners. People will know of him 100 years from now.

duh..

web cashed in his brownie points.

1:43

3:46

13:10

27:30

+ the 1500 q.

maybe fam should be there too, he's got some brownie points.

i don't see this as a - one or the other case.

but a one and/or the other case.

i.e. webb is not taking anything off fam's table.

in the interests of winning medals, true, it is a long shot that web gets it together, but if he does, i hazard a guess that las vegas punters would peg web with a much greater chance at a medal (than fam).

this is kind of fascinating to me because i remember going to the national conventions back in the day and voting on some of these issues (not to mention sitting in the back of some the less exciting meetings with a world record holding hurdler and a couple of brown bags hiding st. ides premium malt liquor, but i digress). does that still happen now?

a couple of quick points: one, we're not talking exclusively about an international meet, so why do international qualifications and resumes matter? as flanagan, rogers and rupp showed tonight, this is STILL a national championships, not just a qualifier. two, if i understand fam's argument, it's more about the lack of transparency, fairness, and plain good manners, not just about his deserving to run, and therefore a cause worth fighting for in my opinion.

i suppose, and this is off the top of my head, that any qualifying/championship process is trying to blend at least these five things: fairness, equality, objectivity, pragmatism, and effectiveness. fairness allows at least for altitude conversions for qualifying; equality is the "a" standard; objectivity is choosing the top three (in general) for the team; pragmatism says it would be unrealistic to run the final 7 different times (like the nba/nhl/mlb) to see whom the best REALLY might be; and effectiveness--are we really getting the best qualifiers for both the trials and the olympic team?--is an ever-changing recipe of the above. while choosing the top three places for the team may be the most objective, in fact it may not be the most fair or most effective (e.g. someone falls in front of the best hurdler, or even if your best shot at a medal gets sick at an inopportune time). march madness, strangely enough, is not very fair, equal, objective, and probably not even very effective in choosing a national champion, but it sure is fun, and reasonably pragmatic given the constraints of a collegiate season. it seems to me, the larger the numbers, the more you have to weigh towards equality and objectivity--it becomes too difficult to be fair to everyone, and pragmatism is a slippery word at best (in the interest of pragmatism, i probably could have chosen, with a high degree of effectiveness and some objectivity, our national team on the men's side for the 10k tonight without needing to run the race, but that would not have been very equal and even less fair). certainly usatf has shown an ability to use some of the flexibility allowed in the name of fairness to treat some athletes “more equally” than others, such as the current situation, and abused pragmatism with the fiasco last year with leaving 800m “b” qualifiers out of empty lanes. bottom line in my opinion: in the name of equality and objectivity, go back to just an “a” standard. it’s reasonably pragmatic and fair, and definitely equal and objective, thereby eliminating politics, usatf incompetence, shoe companies and agents from the equation, and reasonably effective (outside of dan o’brien, can anyone think of a legitimate medal contender that somehow failed to make the team under the old “a” standard system?).

that’s my long story and i’m sticking to it…

FACTS

Webb got the trials qualifier.

Fam didn't. And no way Fam can hit 8:25 at the trials, which he'd have to in order to hang with the big boys (new kids on the block).

Apples and oranges, so quit comparing!!!

Let me clarify: The FACT that Webb achieved the trials qualifier makes his case DIFFERENT from Fams.

Chew on that for a few minutes. And, for crap's sake, quit whining about Webb only running 13:48 this year. Anyone who watched that race, and the sub 340 1500m just before, KNOWS Webb is near 13:20 shape. And that was then. Given the rate of his improvement, we don't really know what he is capable of but believe it is worth giving him the benefit of the doubt.

Oh, and FAM, quit posting under so many monikers.

You were good years ago, and had fun marketing yourself and tees.

Hang up the spikes and move on with your life. You are close to trials shape, but not close enough. And even if you got to the trials you'd be in no position to flirt with sub 8:25 which is what it is going to take this year. You stated yourself you are the master of consistency - that being said, why should anyone believe you are capable of anything faster than 8:38 at this point?

Best of luck.

Ivy League educations are once again under fire as the OP has posted a misleading title or the OP is incapable of reading a performance list and applying that list to entry standards.

Why anyone with any track knowledge would need to be told that Alan Webb was in the meet should escape anyone with working knowledge of the sport.

Alan Webb had already qualified for the OT and therefore was "in". Fam had not qualified for the OT and therefore was not "in". No one should have had to tell Weldon Johnson this small factoid.

What actually happened in reality is Alan Webb asked to switch events and that event he did not have a qualifier for. Now...does it really matter that Webb switches events? I guess that's subject to debate but the entire premise of the subject of the thread and about 90% of the pissing and moaning in the thread seems to be misguided a tad.

See that's what is bugging many of us, I applaud Fam for trying to get in, but why does he and wejo need to drag Webb in this mess?

So I qualified for the shot put, but I want to throw the disc, or maybe run the 100...I made the trials so why does it matter if I want to switch events? Great points B.W., every event is the same so if you qualify for one you make them all.

Shot put wrote:

So I qualified for the shot put, but I want to throw the disc, or maybe run the 100...I made the trials so why does it matter if I want to switch events? Great points B.W., every event is the same so if you qualify for one you make them all.

1. That still wouldn't change the fact that you were "in"

2. If you had some demonstrable evidence that you either have or had the ability to potentially compete well in that other event then maybe it should be considered.

As I said in my post, that issue is certainly debateable.

Posts like this make me wonder if the percentage of people with autism spectrum disorder is much higher than I've realized, or if they're just disproportionately represented on LetsRun.

Why didn't Fam just hit the standard? He's whining because some other dude got his way and he didn't? Just hit the god dam standard!!! If you don't, don't cry about it like a little bich.

The title of this thread sounds elementary, no?

WEBB GOT THE TRIALS STANDARD, FAM DIDN'T. NOTHING TO DEBATE!

It is sad FAM wants to fizzle out being a whiny pants. He should have just got the freaking standard.