No, lost all respect for Tarmoh

Wow! I have the exact opposite take on it. I can't believe Felix wouldn't give up her 100 spot after winning the 200. I'll be cheering against Felix everytime she runs now.

She blew a chance to be all she could be. And more.

Why would Felix want to give up anything?

I agree. Felix didn't challenge anything or anyone. She is simply abiding by the rules USATF established. So don't blame Felix. Get off her back.

Read the interview with Tarmoh. She comes off as a thoughtful, mature, sincere person. The world needs people like her, and so does sport.

Fat Boy wrote:

Wow! I have the exact opposite take on it. I can't believe Felix wouldn't give up her 100 spot after winning the 200. I'll be cheering against Felix everytime she runs now.

Olympics is not about athletes, it's about the country. So the athlete with the better chances should run. Obviously, one of them chickens out about a run off, so how would she fare against the best in the world?

I think it's embarrassing that she'd rather give up her spot than compete for it. That is, as another poster said, just blatant cowardice. What does she have to lose by running? Does she have no faith in herself? Clearly doesn't deserve to go to the Olympics. Having said that, I think she won and did get effed over. But to just give up the spot because she feel wronged? Hard to believe.

This is why Felix is a World Champion, and will be Olympic champion and Tarmoh will be a relay leg. At least Tarmoh spared anyone a risk of injury.

Did you consider they have the same coach and train together? Both are still competing in the Olympics. This may be more of a "respect your elders" kind of thing.

Per Ato Boldon via twitter:

If you did a 100/200 double at the US Oly Trials at age 22 I welcome your input. Everyone else, radio silence please. On to the Olympics

End tweet

I'm willing to grant Tarmoh some slack because she is basically a kid but much of that interview is BS.

She's had more than a week to make the decision and claims she only had "5 minutes" - No you choose to devote only 5 minutes to perhaps the most important decision of your life

Felix ran just as many rounds as her. Is she trying to claim some pity because she ran 6?

She got third and that didn't change. The runoff was for the spot. Furthermore she didn't "give up an Olympic spot", she only declined a chance at one.

What is she going to do in London? Is she going to throw another fit if she isn't in the finals of the 4 X 100?

Not sure if God carse about a spot on the Olympic Team

Finally, Boldon's tweet is bush league.

She should give up her relay spot too.

Coward.

atheist wrote:

I lost all respect when she said this:

"this is what God wants me to do, I can’t be made. If they are mad at me or upset at me for that, I can’t really say anything about it. If God is for me, who can be against me?"

Can you say delusional?

Many people base decisions on prayer/reflection--often, very thoughtful, intelligent people.

To me, there's a kind of humility in her choice. She's young and likely needs time to grow, and this is something she recognizes in herself. That's not a bad thing.

What was Ato Boldon's tweet?

Whether intentional or not, Tarmoh has passive-aggressively put pressure on Felix to drop her 100 spot sometime between now and London. She is taking the "pitiful me" victimized approach, and Felix is going to feel that every day they train together.

It's a "girl thang"

Life is not fair. Sometimes we are wronged by people in high places. But even if the finish judge did make a bad call, it is poor sportsmanship -- and a poor way to live life -- to stop doing what you do and start placing blame.

USATF gave her an avenue to do what she does and take what she wants. Unplanned, inconvenient, maybe unfair, but that is LIFE. Accept it, use it. Tarmoh could have used the opportunity to rise above the controversy and endear herself to the American fans.

Imagine someone or a team refusing to go into overtime because the refs were not perfect.

I gather the real tragedy is that Tarmoh does not have the wise guidance surrounding her.

Tamroh is pathetic. What a freakin' quitter. She will regret her decision for the rest of her life!!!

It's disgusting what she did. Anyone that would flush a chance to make an olympic team doesn't deserve to go. Heck if I were female, I'd take her spot in the run-off in a heartbeat and I'd be lucky to break 14. That's because there is a .00001% chance I could make the Oly team. And the 99.9999% chance of extreme embarrassment, but worth the chance.

Granted she did it because she had a slim chance of beating Felix, but even with a 15% chance if she cared at all about the Olympic dream she would have done it. True loser.

What a way to bring more attention to the sport, instead of people clicking the channel with interest (could have had a short piece on each athlete, show the world what really goes on in an elite athletes life/training) all they are doing now is talking about what the f was up and why was it so hard to run a 100 meters, I could run a 100 meters blah blah blah. Track and Field gets the short end of the stick again, this time its because most of it is in our own eye.