Sam Tanner denied entry to the Oslo 1500m - Should DL meets have defined entry criteria?

The answer is that there are definitely a lot of politics at play.

Taking a quick look at the fields:

3 Norwegians - don't think it is a problem if the home countries get some priority to fill lanes but these three are all obviously legit (I guess not really Filip at this point)

7 Additional guys who a Diamond League would and should 100% take over Tanner - Katir, Nuguse, Cheruiyot, Garcia Romo, Hoare, Kerr, Kipsang

A few toss ups - Gourley, Grethen, Habz, Lemi

Only really see 3 guys on the list he should have a legit gripe with - unsure if any of them are pacing.

Well, Gourley destroyed Tanner in the millrose mile, so there's that.

Grethen, Habz and Lemi must have really good agents

Field was verging on too big already. Glad they didn't add another as much as I like Tanner.

Three are three guys slower than the toss ups in the field.

I thought it was fine because the field is so loaded, but in Tanner's Instagram post, he says Stewy offered up his spot for Tanner and was still denied. Really sucks tbh because Tanner absolutely deserves a shot and may be in better shape than Stewy right now. Stewy DNFed the 2 mile and was 16th in 13:23 in a 5k a week before that. Tanner hasn't raced this season but looked great indoors and obviously thought he could mix it up in Oslo.

The entire DL system is ridiculous. There should be clear entry criteria + some discretionary wild cards. It should never come down to backroom dealing between agents and meet organizers, with no defined standards for entry.

Totally get he's upset about not getting into a field of this magnitude, but this is not how exactly how these meets work Sam (fastest PR's, World rankings). At the crux of this is the reality that these meets aren't run by World Athletics they are still run by independent promoters. Yes they are sanctioned by WA as "Diamond League" but that's purely a $$$ sharing situation. Look at ISTAF Berlin - they don't want DL status because they can get still get enough money to hold their own meet without being told what events to put on. Almost all the big meets (Zurich, Brussels, Monaco, Paris) could do the same if they really wanted - I don't know the exact ins and outs of WA/meet details.

Anyways, when you are a 3.31 runner you simply aren't in the "auto start" category of runner anymore and when you aren't it's then becoming a battle of the agents and the "quid pro quos". What do I mean by that? Well a lot of these meets in Europe are actually run by athlete agents or by people heavily involved with agents. There is a ton of "I'll let your guy start here if you let my guy start in your meet" scenarios for one. The other one is athlete management groups that say "okay you have my guy for this race but only if I get a lane/start for my other guys in this, this and this event".

So now think about how many of these races are made up - let's take this 1500m. Well you have the "must start" guys (under 3.30). You'll probably have a few guys getting in by being attached to one of two of those guys in terms of the agent. You have (in this case) at least two home nation starters who otherwise would be borderline (in Nordas and Filip I). Couple of "quid pro quo" guys (for one, Charles Grethen is represented by Marc Corstjens who runs the Brussels DL). The spots fill up quickly and really the meet director cares only about the winning time (in this case what Jakob runs).

It's a tough world and a lot of the times it's not always "fair" but it is what it is. You can always try and get a better (more connected) agent.

I am okay with taking big names with prior success. Stewy isn't running well now, but he has a history. He is probably close to running out of mulligans though.

Beamish is currently better than Tanner , Romo, and probably Hoare. Bad coaching has him running 5Ks and the SC. He won Penn Relays easily over Romo.

Tanner needs to sweet talk Jakob. It’s Jakob’s world and the rest of the athletes simply live in it.

JK, it’s a “rigged system” and all about favors and quid pro quo unless you are a true superstar who can access any race any time. The list of athletes who qualify for this privilege in any event is short.

Ritz seems to be a great coach overall but I couldn’t agree more with this take. Beamish feels like he’s lost and without an event but he is SO DAMN GOOD at the 1500. NCAA title, PR, recent win. I’m not sure why they keep messing with it.

A Moroccan playing for mama France since 2018 after he went there in 2012.

That's what I have learned from Google.

He is there with a "Big forehead" (I dont know you translate this in English) for the simple reason he got the Bronze medal in Istanbul (European championship).

Not totally sure I agree he's better than those guys, but certainly with your overall point. My guess is that they try to spread out athletes to claim as may OAC wins/podiums/etc. as possible. Basically, they don't want guys cannibalizing each other (hence so many internationals), and Ritz probably thinks that Beamish has the least potential in the 1500. Not sure why they'd then go sign two obvious 1500m runners, but what do I know...

A 'large ego' maybe?

While we are saying Tanner shouldn't be an auto start, I'd say Nuguse shouldn't either. He has no high placed finishes in a championship meet since the his third at US Champs in 2021. He's run a few fast times, but he hasn't shown he's even the best american, he's just been able to get into some of these big races and beat his teammates. He's busy racing over in europe losing to jakob and time trialing with ollie and mario but dodging cooper and hobbs.

Just a horrible take. Has beaten Katir, Hoare, Kipsang, Garcia Romo, Gourley, Tanner and more this year alone + a 3:47 mile. Already has a 2nd in his DL debut, easy acceptance

Habz is a 3:31 guy also and has just run 1:43 in Paris. He also ran faster indoor than tanner this winter (3:35).

This is similar to the discussion around Kincaid in the Florence 5k. These guys might have run well in a few US domestic meets, but both Tanner and Kincaid have no global profile. As a result, their agents need to work hard to get them into top level meets. Tanner has run quite quick, but his results in top races are mediocre. Out in the heats in Tokyo, out in the semis in Eugene, 6th at Commonwealths. It's not the resume of someone who meet organisers think of when putting together a top field. Running fast is not enough.

I also agree that these races should have more clearly defined entry standards. The fact that they are run independently from WA is the problem. Someone like Sam having trouble getting into this meet will then have trouble getting into the DL final which the winner gets automatically qualified for World Championships. I'm not saying Sam could win the DL, but if you can't get into the meets because of insider trading, athletes will have zero % chance of pulling an upset.