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

Fam, please stop blaming others for your problems and just get the friggin standard next time.

ttc wrote:

If you get a speeding ticket, don't cry the other car was speeding too.

.

This it right here, focus on your own arguments not someone else's.

After you watch Webb in the trials, everyone saying Webb deserves it is just going to eat their words. He's a choke artist.

Raczko taught him how to time trial and he didn't have the patience to learn how to be a consistent competitor when a pacer is not involved. Webb's just asking to humiliate himself.

He's choked his way to championships and records. He's choked his way to INarguably being a legend.

Why would the post make you wonder?

Impending Choke wrote:

After you watch Webb in the trials, everyone saying Webb deserves it is just going to eat their words. He's a choke artist.

Raczko taught him how to time trial and he didn't have the patience to learn how to be a consistent competitor when a pacer is not involved. Webb's just asking to humiliate himself.

Whether Webb "deserves" it or not matters very little. Webb reached the qualifying standard in an event so he is therefore eligible to compete in the meet.

Whether he should be permitted to switch events or told to run the event he qualified for is a reasonable question. Why the nitwit OP and Fam even bring the guy up is also subject to reasonable question.

I post only under this name nothing else. Any other name is not me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkKXr3eK-ao&feature=plcp

For the jackass who keeps questioning my fitness watch closely. My fitness and workouts improved all the way up to the trials. This was my 1st hurdle workout in a year and half. Hurdling cold.

Enjoy

This article also is gives a clear look at what this whole thing is all about.

http://atlascoached.com/2012/06/23/operation-fam-and-furious/

"Third" hurdle workout as I went over hurdles in a 400 set a day and a half prior and ran over hurdles months before to clear my health to hurdle safely.

*Fam wrote:

This article also is gives a clear look at what this whole thing is all about.

http://atlascoached.com/2012/06/23/operation-fam-and-furious/

Does the article mention that Webb is qualified to enter the meet...albeit in a different event...or is that minor fact going to go unstated because it would present the debate in it's proper form.

Rather...we're going to point to Goucher and Butler...different situations than Webb and try and compare them.

Why don't we leave Webb out of the debate and focus on the one athlete the debate should be concentrating on in Anthony Famiglietti.

He said, "I called you last night but I think I called the wrong number" I must have dialed the last digit incorrectly, a 0 instead of a 3." To which I said. I thought you didn't know who I am".

Read more:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=4642820&page=1#ixzz1ydkhowkK

yea, something certainly stinks here....

If this guy called you last night but couldn't get ahold of you- and then says i think i dialed the wrong number-

why wouldn't this same person redial the right number and try again...is that really asking too much. Saying i think i dialed the wrong number is a pathetic response and certainly sounds like someone who is really not trying to hard to make the notifiaction...and with this much lack of persistence or care should they really be working for the USATF is this capactiy. sounds like the whole system of people in charge and rules need to be amended.

It is about Webb getting to "do it" and Fam not. USATF skipped over 16 other B Standard runners to get Webb into the 5k. The USATF would have had to skip over only 2 to get Fam in. Since Webb has already qualified in one event, why should he need to skip over so many people to get into a second? Fam only wants in for one event, the one he won 4 years ago. Webb is a miler, not a 5k guy, we all know that. Fam is a steepler. It is ridiculous that the USATF would give that special of treatment to one runner, but deny another's appeal that would be easier to justify. And I believe if you were in Fam's position, you would be making the same case as him.

Fam--

Lots of the posters here don't seem to understand that rules are put in place to effect policies, that are supposed to reflect principles--and that when the rules are bent and discretion invoked in anything but the most extraordinary or inequitable situations, then the underlying principles are thrown out the window.

Nobody else joined my individual John Chaplin-induced boycott of USATF last year. I put my money where my mouth is. Did you boycott USATF last year as a result of the Chaplin injustices?

If if were up to me, I would permit the top performers in the past 6 months in each event to enter, in sufficient numbers to fill a predetermined number of fields. I would extend provisional invitations to a small number of athletes in each event based on times (say the 5 fastest who didn't make the cut), with the understanding that if there are any scratches in the first rounds, then they can hop in the race, in order of qualifying time.

I don't think it's equitable to reserve spots, or to use discretion to create spots, based on past international or national results. 4 years is a long time, as you know. The official benefits accruing as a result of the relevant victories should end with the glory of victory, and should not be a province of future privilege.

While I do think that there should be some minor discretion, it should only be used in the most extreme of circumstances--i.e. if an athlete was well on pace to qualify, and was fouled such that they didn't make the standard through no fault of their own...or if an athlete is so clearly jeopardizing their health or safety that they need to be pulled from contention (I have seen this, too, in PV--a guy injured his eye before a competition, and his coach somehow coerced the officials into letting him compete anyway, with disastrous results. I would have pulled him instantly, the way his eye looked).

In short, it's the put up or shut up paradigm. Run the standard, or don't. If you don't like the inequitable treatment, do something about it, actively--either terminate your association with USATF, or become very active politically.

You may have done one or both, I don't know--but I do know that I appreciate your coming on here and talking about it.

I personally was do disgusted by Chaplin's actions, and by USATF's endorsement of those actions, that I withheld my membership for one or two years, because it doesn't mean that much to me. You could have a different personal calculus.

If there's one thing we know about Anthony, it's that he is not going tolet the pace dawdle, sit on someone's shoulder and kick. He is going to take out the pace, and make the race exciting. This racing style, couple with the fact that he needs the standard, is going to add to the race, not take anything away from it.

And whether or not you agree with Webb being added to the 5000m field, the same holds true there for his race, because he has run from the front in the past, sometimes to his detriment.

Why would the USATF settle for just another back-of-the-pack no name when they can accept the petition of a 2-time Olympian who will add to the dram and excitement of the trials experience for the fans and runners?

If anything, it's a poor business decision, which will make for a less compelling race and spectator experience.

That being said, I think Anthony should be allowed entry based on his circumstances of injury and fitness progression, and his past contribution to making the steeple an event that people want to watch for more than the occasional youtube dunk in the water obstacle.

Fam, ignore the haters.

You did the right thing, and it's a shame that with you & Webb and with the women's pole vault, USATF has made a debacle of what should be a celebration of our sport and our athletes.

I know what LetsRun is, so I'm not going to get the vapors over the haterism and autistic logic on this thread. But if there's ever a time to back off the relentless "my coach sucks" "run more miles" "that guy's overrated" stuff that makes up 90% of the threads here, the Olympic trials would be the time.

Top athletes sacrifice so much for our sport, and in return they get arbitrary and biased rulings from the USATF and contempt and dissembling from the officials.

And they turn to forums like this and get a load of non-sense. Guys, shake yourselves. It's the Trials, leave the internet tough guy stuff for just a week. Fam, keep your head up.

Cali Guy wrote:

Top athletes sacrifice so much for our sport, and in return they get arbitrary and biased rulings from the USATF and contempt and dissembling from the officials.

.

There is nothing arbitrary about Fam NOT having a qualifying time. This isn't a local 5k where gosh, darn, everyone who tried REALLY hard gets a ribbon.

The debate here isn't whether or not Fam and Webb should get into the Trials. The simple fact is that neither of them should be accepted into their respective races (with the exception of Webb in the 1500). Fam has not run a Trials A Standard in the steeple (by 5 seconds) and Webb has not run a Trials A Standard in the 5000m (by 16 seconds). Therefore, neither Webb nor Fam should be in either of those races (again, I would like to state that Webb is qualified for the 1500m and should be racing in that, which he is declared to do so).

The debate lies in the USATF's appeals process and how it is applied to athletes. It is obvious that there is something wrong with how it works. Fam and Webb both were not "next-in-line" for getting into the meet. Fam was 2 spots out of the accepted list timewise and Webb was 16 spots out. If the runners ahead of them had their appeals denied, there is no way Webb or Fam should get in. It is simple: Webb should not be in the 5000m and Fam's denial is valid. However, Webb IS in the 5000m. Why was he accepted when 15 (Dunbar was recently added to the list) runners with faster 5000m times were not? As soon as the first runner on the bubble was denied, everyone behind him should have been too, because if his time was not fast enough, then those behind him do not have fast enough times either.

What happened is that the USATF didn't accept entries fairly. They looked at the list and denied appeals by 15 runners faster than Webb in the 5000m, and then told Webb his time was good enough to allow him into the trials. They essentially told the 15 runners ahead of Webb that, although they ran faster, the USATF thinks Webb is better than them.

This isn't about who should be accepted, it is about how the USATF runs things. It is CLEAR that there is something wrong in how they make decisions and apply their rules and we should be outraged at THEM, not Fam or Webb. I am positive that Webb had nothing to do with this and is equally as confused to why he got in and 15 runners faster then him didn't, but why in the world would he argue it and potentially lose his acceptance? We need to make the USATF hear us and know that they cannot get away with these things. This sport will stay second class in the eyes of this country if we allow our only governing body to get away with things that prevent us from having an even playing field in American Track and Field.

I hate the break it to you the fact that Webb is running doesn't make one iota of difference to the average joe or what "class" our sport ranks. It's not like your average NASCAR fan is sitting around thinking "gee I would watch track but that dern USATF seems pretty random about who gets in the trials"...Get Real.

I would also argue that the governing bodies of the major sports are 100X more arbitrary then the USATF.

It's not some grand conspiracy and it's not hard to figure out. Webb is an American Record Holder and I think that entitles him.

Fam, I certainly enjoyed watching your aggressive front running at Nashville meet. Cameron Bean is one of my former HS runners and has flown out to Eugene, hoping to get in. Here's wishing you both the best !

So it seems that you and others do not get it so lets break down some of the more sensible arguments in a hope that some of you might get what Fam and others are TRULY upset about. Not that I have much faith in your ability to comprehend this.

-Alan Webb is relevant because he is an athlete without the credentials at 5000 meters that was allowed into the race. The argument that he was already in the meet in the 1500 is not a reasonable one to make. The 1500 is not the 5000.

-Fam stated that he is not a believer in the appeal system and he recognizes that because he did not run the time for the steeplechase, he should not be in the steeplechase. However, there is an appeal process in place so anyone that has the "B Standard" and $250, could and should use it.

-Alan Webb does not have the 5000 meter qualifying time, therefore he should not be in the 5000.

-The issue is that this is a shady system and wrong. This is what Fam and other athletes and track & field enthusiasts have been saying for quite a while now.

-One of the beautiful things about our sport is that the clock does not lie and that outcomes are objective. TIMES DO NOT LIE.

-Fam isn't arguing that because he didn't run in a good meet all year he should be allowed to race. His argument is that if you are going to let one guy that has done really good things in the past but is 16 seconds off of this years Olympic Trials standard for 5000 meters compete anyway, then why would the faceless appeals committee not allow another athlete in a different event that has achieved comparable things in the past and is only 1 second off of the Olympic Trials standard compete?

-Posters are focusing on the WHAT and the WHO questions too much when the important question is WHY.

-This is not a "let Fam into the trials" argument by me, or by Fam, or by any of the other posters that seem to understand. This is a fight against corruption in the political aspect of our sport. This is about men making subjective decisions behind closed doors on issues that need to be objective in order for the principles of track & field to retain its integrity.

Don't let your bias for one athlete or another cloud the real issue at hand. Part of the reason we are having such a hard time making reforms in the sport is because as fans, we too often focus on the wrong questions and instead of using logical thought process to gather up and criticize the EVIL EMPIRE that is USATF as a unified voice, we allow our ignorance to the REAL issues to let us anonymously insult each other and our athletes over completely irrelevant things.

I know that many of you may not be reading this due to its length, but LONG LIVE FAM AND EVERYONE ELSE WHO HAS THE BALLS TO SPEAK UP ABOUT THE INEQUALITY, INJUSTICE, AND CORRUPTION IN OUR SPORT.

My name is Maxx Antush of Everett Community College and I am sick and tired of the bureaucrats over at USATF crippling track & field with their corruption and subjectivity.