The US must rethink its selection process for global championships

No. Cooper was one of the best stories coming out of the US Champs.

That kid was an absolute BUST! Stick to athletes who know what they're doing!

People's judgements is always biased. Athletes winning their spot is not.

Long game. Better for him to get there ASAP. Allows for more focus next time when hes even more ready. Hoey pros need to remember how badly he faded in races toward the end of the season. He'll figure it out but he has to earn it like the others.

That experience may be crucial for 2028.

The only thing they need to change is the date. Make it 3 weeks prior to the Worlds or Olympics. The trials were 2 months ago! That's way too far away.

BuT hE GoT eXpErIeNcE is nothing more than post-loss COPIUM! Nobody would have been happy with this result at the beginning of the championships. Medal or gtfo!

You can't hold a peak for 3 weeks. At least with a two month gap you can try and hit a double peak afterwards.

Unless your name is Sydney, you HAVE TO peak for USAs.

There is something to be said for this. With US distance running not being on the same level a few years ago as it is now, it was much easier to make teams. But now even gold medal contender athletes need to be at their peaks to even make the team. Galen Rupp and Centro never had to peak for the US trials, but now clearly Grant Fisher, Nico Young, Brazier, Hoey, Yared, etc all do. The only athlete who doesn't seem to have peaked for the US trials was Hocker (he looks to be in excellent physical shape even if his tactics need work).

The current system is the most fair way to do it and it wont be change, but yes the US seems to be in a much different situation now than when this system was created and we're seeing some of the negatives of it.

That would be worse. Two months is better because you can put another big training block in between. Usually it's like a month, and if it's just a few weeks it's even harder to keep a peak. SML is kind of an outlier in that she always does best in championship finals. That's in part because she basically has no competition at USAs and doesn't even have to peak much at all.

On the men's side it's way more competitive and imo that's why there's been so many duds this year on that side. That and the season just being super long with GST and these late champs.

Nothing is going to get the results you want every time. I'll bet that you wouldn't have written this after the 1-3-5 in Paris last year. And you're just guessing if you're suggesting that Hoey would have done better than any of the guys we sent. Sometimes you do it right and it still doesn't get you what you want.

Worlds in September is a joke. The only athletes that did well were the ones who could just walk through trials.

It’s almost like the OP cited the 1-3-5 in Paris as an example of the system working well

The current system has its drawbacks, but having a discretionary slot on the team is not a solution.

The nations deep enough to warrant some sort selection process for World Champs/Olympics, and who don't use an objective qualification system like the US, often have corrupt and underhanded methods of selecting athletes. It becomes about money, power and popularity, and great athletes in the midst of strong seasons can get passed over.

I would argue we would be less successful by maintaining 1 (or more) competition slots to be decided by committee.

So top 2 and a discretionary spot? 1500m team is the same, no way they give it to Nuguse or Kessler over Hocker. 800m team is the same. No way they give it to Hoey over Hoppel (ran 1:42 to beat Hoey, and 1:41 at the Olympics last year). 5k and 10k teams are also definitely not changing, clearly the best guys made the team.

There is a way better fix: All countries should just hold their championships like 2 weeks before Worlds. I don't know why World Athletics doesn't allow for this. It would let people chase standards all season, and let all the top athletes peak hard for trials and championships.

The US needs to pick fewer losers like Hocker.

Agreed. The World Champs should follow the NCAA season (so a few weeks after NCAA). It should also be only held in the USA. World XC is next in the USA, and should be here permanently, World U20 is next in the USA, and should be made permanent. The next World Senior should be taken away from the host and put in the USA. The next Olympics are in LA, but should be moved to a less woke city in America, and there it should stay, permanently. Since the USA is the only non-corrupt country in the world, everything should always be here.

We need to get Coe on board (by whatever means necessary - perhaps ICE needs to make a visit to him), through Nike and get Trump to make this happen. Countries that are woke and/or non-Christian, need to be banned permanently from participation as well. Bring back Russia as they have been unfairly targeted (they are no worse than Kenya or Jamaica or any other African country). Why are these meets in Asia? No one wants to go there, Europe at least I get, and this affects our athletes as well - 13 hour time-change from EST, that is ridiculous. Any country that doesn't have a "no immigration" policy, should also be banned, as immigration is a bad thing. Trans, LBGTQ.., DEI, etc. should also be banned if allowed to exist in any other country.

I don't want someone who ran fast in May (or even the previous summer) ago but is now nursing an injury to get the go-ahead in front of someone who is fast later in the summer.

And I don't want politics getting involved with giving someone a spot. Too often people who were good a year ago or longer ago would likely get the spot over someone who is running better right now. If Norway would have a more competitive distance running scene they would have sent people ready to go instead of just sending Jakob even though he's not in good shape from his injury.

If you can't be top 3 Americans at the US championships in the beginning of August why should I think you'd definitely be top 3 in September?

Also, if you go by a descending order you're going to cater to time trial runners and not racers. But the world championships are championship races, often tactical. So 100/200/400 ya you're not going to be tactical. But in the 800/1500/5000/10000/marathon you want your best racers, not just whoever ran some fast race in perfect conditions somewhere with a pacer.

There was a discussion about this a little while back.