Petition to World Athletics to add back into the Paris Olympic marathon the athletes bumped out by the universality places

Thanks for the link. I'll sign it.

A downvote? Now, that's funny.

Wow. The blind leading the stupid. Thanks guys.

The only meaningful petition would be the one to force them to go to race in fast courses and not be too slow. After all, 70 guys are still inside the Olympic marathon after the universality spots have been awarded, so no problem: run faster and you get your spot.

Oh wow, a change.org petition- this is serious!

I’ll allow Lenny in.

I see that some people don't understand the importance of having these athletes, let me explain. It's important that athletes benefit from world rankings system, that Word Athletics introduced. Also the introduction of this system made qualification times tougher, so that 50% of the field qualify via rankings (Read the publication of world athletics).

We need a petition to let Ashley Uhl-Leavitt into the Paris Olympic Marathon. She completed all of her "challenges" and earned her spot through the lottery.

LET ASHLEY RUN!

2:08/2:09 marathoners shouldn't be missing out on their Olympic dream because of charity cases. If World Athletics/the IOC want to make sure even the countries that suck can send someone, then that's a nice gesture. But it shouldn't come at the expense of actual elite athletes. They should be giving these universality athletes "wildcard" spots that are added onto the field as extras, not taking away from the original spots.

And she “qualified” for it.

Bekele is racing. That’s all that matters

the 2:08 marathoners are charity cases.

They are not even close to the best in the world and are already effectively universality cases, based on arbitrary rules to limit athletes per nation and maximise diversity.

208/209 is around 300th in the world

typical american taking charity yourself and then complaining about charity to others

IOC is so corrupt it's a wonder we put up with any of it. I prefer the world championships because I see the Olympics as the mickey mouse version. Unfortunately, the world doesn't agree, so the competition is still excellent. Maybe some of the brand is having the 0-4-8-12-etc kind of years. They feel more important. "Olympic years". Also happen to be leap years. And USA presidential election years.

WTF is a universality place? Every person should be there because they placed top 3 in a qualifying race. No one should be sent by committee.

your comment makes no sense.

on the one hand you say 'wtf is a universality place', and on the other you say 'placed top 3 in a qualifying race'

why top 3? why not top 4, or 8, or 1? why not just have the best in the world, no matter where they come from?

3 is an arbitrary number to maximise diversity and get 'universal' coverage.

without the rule to exclude hundreds of the actual best marathoners in the world, the US olympic trials mean nothing because none of you are good enough to compete

i support the rule of 3 athletes per nation, but im sick of US morans saying things like 'wtf is a universality place'.

It's not just US morons. The current system for qualifying for the Olympic marathon is unnecessarily convoluted.

I'm asking because I have no idea what the heck you're talking about. People qualify for the marathon by being one of the best three in each country. I don't know what that other term means.

I think it's the places where the country has no other athletes that qualify for the Olympics, so they are allowed one or two athletes. You see them running 17 seconds in the 100m etc.

(who don't have the qualification standard) - but if they are displacing people that's wrong IMO.

what's wrong with displacement?

all the american men are displacing much more talented than them

mantz is 208th on the list, young is 204th. the women aren't that much better.

that's just life, if you want an olympics with representation you have to let less talented athletes displace more talented ones