The US has had a history of leaving off good athletes who had bad days.
The '92 team left off '91 World Champions Carl Lewis and Dan Obrien and O'Brien went on to break the WR that year.
Jim Spivey, '87 WC medalist was left off the '88 team when he placed 4th but went on to set a US born 1500 record that year.
In 2008 Webb would have been selected if we didn't have a Trials but it turned out that he wasn't so fit that year and he was raced off the team.
The US Trials is really a prelim round.
If you mess up in the prelim, you don't get to the next round.
2007 World Champ Lagat made the 2008 US team but did not make it past the Olympic semis. They weren't just going to put him in the finals because he was reigning World Champ. He had to make it through the rounds.
You need to race yourself to a Championship.
And you can't get there on past achievements because it is a new year. Last year was last year.
Any athlete that is world class deserves the chance to race their way to the Olympics.
There are half a dozen Kenyans that ran 2:05 last year along with all of the sub 2:10 guys who are not even given a chance to compete for the Olympic team.
That's just wrong.