Breaking - Mens Olympic Steeple - 3rd Spot

Kinda seems like pay-to-play if someone can just give a bunch of money to a random ass meet to manipulate the point scale to benefit one person. I'm happy the kid has a better shot at making the team now, but that might be a loophole that has to be reexamined.

Surely this "money maneuver" has been done before, in some country or another. In any case, the meet reclassification benefits all participants, not just Corrigan.

Agree it seems shady, but he might actually run the standard.

This is what's stupid about our sport. The amount of prize money dictates Olympic qualification? Not level of competitors?

I'm happy he has an easier path because of this, but this is clear proof that world ranking is an extremely flawed system.

Your first point is moot. Corrigan proved twice this weekend that he’s a higher-level competitor right now than Jager. He ran faster than Jager has in two years, AND beat him head to head. So I guess I agree with you–the level of competitors SHOULD dictate Olympic qualification. Not Corrigan’s fault ncaa meets don’t accumulate WA points.

In a weird way, it’s the current qualification system that is causing this issue…if it was simply a top-3, this would all be easy. And if we did it like the marathon (athletes from a country “unlock” spots [for track, maybe we could do this by hitting the Olympic standard OR being in the top-36 in points], and whoever gets top-3 claims those spots), that’d probably work, too.

But I don’t think this is exposing a flawed system, rather it’s the result of the flawed system itself. Corrigan is the better athlete right now, and probably gives us a better shot at a medal (long shot, but still more likely than Jager), so he should go.

You can't take any Brits out of the equation as well. UKA won't select them unless they run 8:18.5, which isn't going to happen.

So to qualify by ranking, he essentially needs to run the Oly standard (which is 8:15). One shot all-or-nothing, seems fair either way.

This is yet another argument for doing away with the world ranking system. It's confusing, opaque, and can be gamed. Just stick with time qualifiers, which are clear and simple..

thanks, this is great. You have explained the situation very clearly. It makes it much easier to understand the stakes of the race, without having to deal with confused commentators, bumbling podcasters or message board arguments. I feel like software that does this type of analysis should be built into the 'road to' website. It would help stage and dramatise the qualification process.

Would it change anything if Jager showed up at this race and beat Corrigan?

Sorry for hijack, but where was Ferlic this year? Injured, switching events? He was in 2020, young. Hoping to see him rise.

Good question. A topic of conversation after Tuesday’s meet over dinner at Agate Alley overlooking the adidas house. And less than 15 minutes later, see him crossing the street walking over to its parking lot. I imagine he’s injured. Fun fact, Lyles and Holloway were just sitting on the steps, hanging out and taking pictures with anybody that asked for one that recognized them from the sidewalk.

Ferlic out with hamstring issue

dam hamstrings. You would think 15 years of conditioning and strengthening and adaptations would pay off, but the hamstring undoes everyone at least once.

This system is insane. The idea that you can get someone to dump money into a meet to make someone able to qualify with a lesser time is basically the definition of corruption. I don’t care one iota if Corrigan or Jager gets the 3rd spot, but $$ at a meet shouldn’t be a factor.

Hahahaha really?? It benefits all participants who are on the bubble, who had a plan to make it to this obscure meet days before the window closed.

A *last-minute* prize money change is obviously unlikely to significantly change the entries and make the event actually worthy of more world ranking points.

it is completely a case of a rich/sponsored athlete who can’t hit standard simply gaming the system.

The trials race should be the final piece of information for selectors, not time trials a week later. That is, USATF should apply world rankings as of trials, not garbage like this. (Send Jager.)

The old A and B standard system worked well.

A lot of the problem is our system- the top 3 blah blah blah.

Kenya had top 2 and the 3rd spot was chosen.

I suppose we could change the rules and pick the team from the finalists at the trials if we want.

I'm fine with this 'manipulation' because it exposes some flaws with world athletics rankings. Corrigan is a young guy who is just now getting fast this year. As a result, he doesn't have two years worth of pretty good performances to get a big average. It's my opinion that championship races get too many bonus points. It's not really possible to pass someone on ranking once you get to the top level until you get a bunch of those extra bonus points. The biggest points for our Americans come from the US championships, and then some lucky people (Jager) might rack up a ton from NACAC from two years ago, or PanAms which are two meets that aren't really that competitive but give huge ranking boosting points. If a guy gets fast THIS year, then his rankings are based almost completely off meets that have little to no bonus points to pad the ranking. I don't think there should be quite so many bonus points. Same can be said for the marathon, someone for example running 2:07 and winning Grandma's Marathon with a course record will have a lower ranking than someone who ran 2:09 for 7th place on a weak international year at Chicago Marathon. There's also a ton of politics involved in getting into the 'big races' that offer a lot of prize money. It's not equal opportunity. African marathoners are probably the most effected by this. WMM races often don't accept a 2:08 East African because they are a dime a dozen, so they run lower level races and win those instead of running better competition and possibly improving that PR. Meanwhile a 2:09 from a slower country will get the spot just because they're more uncommon.