He missed the 5.60m height. Unlike basically every other country, why don't we select a team - at least have ONE wild card like Britain and Kerr.
He missed the 5.60m height. Unlike basically every other country, why don't we select a team - at least have ONE wild card like Britain and Kerr.
just select the team wrote:
He missed the 5.60m height. Unlike basically every other country, why don't we select a team - at least have ONE wild card like Britain and Kerr.
I'm sorry you blew it Mr. Lightfoot, but you knew the rules of the game going in. Tough cookies, sucka!
Didn't Lightfoot choke last year as well? Maybe he's just not that good anymore.
I understand the point of your comment. But Mondo is so consistent that he wont bowed out at trials.
It's been a decade and this board is still salty about the exceptional American competing for Sweden lol.
Look to Australia to see what a shambles 'selection committees' can be. Trials meets are still the best way to go.
just select the team wrote:
He missed the 5.60m height. Unlike basically every other country, why don't we select a team - at least have ONE wild card like Britain and Kerr.
He hasn't made the team since 2021. What makes you think that if he was selected via wildcard he wouldn't also underperform at the championship?
Instances like this, and particularly Dan O'Brien in the 1992 trials, make a case for some kind of selection in extreme circumstances. Our third pole vault guy in Paris won't come anywhere near the medals. Lightfoot might have. Our third decathlon guy in Barcelona was way out of it, got DQ'd in the 110 hurdles, and didn't even contest the pole vault.
But at the end of the day, competition is the fairest way to select. God knows, in modern day insane America, selectors would abuse their power and choose for "diversity" over ability.
The U.S. Trials only went to the sudden death format of qualification in 1972...the same year it went to Eugene. Coincidence? Prior to that, it was a selection process based upon multiple qualifying competitions.
KC Lightfoot has the same problem Billy Olson had - he's slight of build, thus subject more easily to being negatively affected by crosswinds. Eugene is notorious for weird winds. Lightfoot's bests come indoors and the tailwinds of the plains.
jacksprat wrote:
Look to Australia to see what a shambles 'selection committees' can be. Trials meets are still the best way to go.
They're only better in countries with a lot of talent, like the US. For a country like Sweden it's not needed and only serves as another competition you have to peak for with little benefit. The second best pole vaulter in the country can barely clear 5.40.
And not having to go through trials is only one reason for why Mondo chose to compete for us, it was also about how he got more support from the Swedish federation, we hired his parents to be his coaches and that he could start competing internationally earlier
I would like to see something like how the Japanese do their marathon trials.
So top 2 at trials go, and but somebody who just had a bad day has the ability to bump the 3rd spot. But it should be based on a fixed criteria that’s decided ahead of time. Like if they are in the top 10 of world rankings or top ten best mark of the year or something.
Kobbs Hessler wrote:
Instances like this, and particularly Dan O'Brien in the 1992 trials, make a case for some kind of selection in extreme circumstances. Our third pole vault guy in Paris won't come anywhere near the medals. Lightfoot might have. Our third decathlon guy in Barcelona was way out of it, got DQ'd in the 110 hurdles, and didn't even contest the pole vault.
But at the end of the day, competition is the fairest way to select. God knows, in modern day insane America, selectors would abuse their power and choose for "diversity" over ability.
OMG - even a hypothetical scenario has gone woke and broke!!!!
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