Citius has the dumbest idea ever - get rid of the US Olympic Trials and hand the Olympic spots to the top 3 ranked athletes

I’d personally want to go the other way.

I hate how you can finish Top 3 at trials and not go. I think if your country “unlocks” a certain number of spots, the top 3 at trials should go regardless. Why else have trials? Yeah, it’d suck for the guys who unlocked the slots to get pipped at the line in a trials race, but that’s racin!

Don’t read their stuff for at least a month

Not to mention you would be eliminating the second most compelling showcase for US track and field athletes after the Olympics.

It's kind of annoying to me how long and involved the pro sports playoff systems are now, especially in the NBA, but they do it because it's good TV and draws in viewers. The US trials do the same thing on a smaller scale for track and field. Why would you ever want to get rid of that?

Thats the second dumbest idea ever. Amby Bufoot already has the dumbest idea locked up.

What a crazy idea, I think a lot of countries are doing it that way.

The trials are our only insulation from shoe companies and corruption.

Other countries have been known to only take Nike athletes championships for example.

Imagine agents, shoe companies, TV contracts, USATF picking their favorites!

A month? I haven't read Runners World in over 40 years. No interest in Oprah or Chelsea Clinton's training.

Yep, that is how it should be done.

This...one meet....says it all, isn't how that should be done.

What if it's the wrong time of month for her, he is nursing an injury.

Which countries another? lot?

Ok, please share Malmo. What was Burfoot's idea?

I hope they're playing devil's advocate. We will get a crack at seeing how it plays out when World Rankings is king at World Ultimate Champs. Even there, they have carve-outs for World and Olympic Champions.

For distance running, the discussion is even sillier because rankings are based almost solely on time while global championships are unpaced. The Trials system is great and really the only flaw is that they don't have allocation like a poster said.

That is fine Malmo but there is just as much nonsense posted here.

I think the main point is to address the issues that come up with time standards, rankings and nation trials that ends up with an athlete that wins a spot with a brilliant performance but does not have the Oly standard/rankings, etc.

But the problem with rankings only system is that T&F really doesn't lend itself well to rankings. Golf and tennis are sports where rankings are generally pretty accurate because the athletes are playing a lot and are matching up in relatively large events. In T&F, athletes have a very limited competition schedule and rarely see more than a handful of their competitors at each event. Then, agents are very skilled at picking competitions to maximize prize money and rankings and avoiding

Burfoot’s idea was not particularly stupid. Malmo didn’t like it.

Then the spot goes to the top ranked/qualified athlete. Isn't there a time qualification for worlds and Olympics as well as the rankings? It's simple - an unranked athlete has to run the time standard at the trials or chase the standard at London or somewhere.

Again...why not allocate spots? It's very simple. You unlock a spot for your country. If they want to impose an absolute minimum standard to ensure you don't have an injured/out-of-form guy unlocking a 3:45 1500m runner in Finland or something, they can do a softer B standard for allocation. 3:37 outdoors vs. the 3:33 let's say.

Either way, the same number is going so why complicate things by making athletes chase spots. We didn't need to see Sean Dolan unlock his spot at World Indoors. He beat Isaiah Harris and anyone with a brain knew he'd acquit himself well.

Full disclosure. I've had a few kind people who have sent me their past collections of running magazines over the years. Track and Field News, The Runner. Runners World. As generous as they were to me, I still haven't opened up a Runners World. No interest.

https://marathonhandbook.com/opinion-fix-us-olympic-marathon-trials/

LetsRun note: His idea was to have a committee vote and pick the team.

His idea was poison. It was epically stupid and contrary to the essence of the spirit of the sport.