Breaking: An Absolute Travesty! USATF WILL NOT honor top 3 finish at US Olympic Trials unless you have the standard!!!

Rupp fan wrote:

reely? wrote:[quote]Has anyone said those words at USATF or is this your interpretation?

This is not the time to be lazy. This is not the time to troll. Read the article carefully.

..........

She appears to be saying .......

I'm neither lazy nor trolling. What "appears" to be happening here is an interpretation of USATFs email which may or may not be accurate.

In theory Chelimo would have found a race to run to get the standard prior to the trials.

You can’t run the 2016 trials with 2020 rules.

Alan

Its egun wrote:

Thank you to The LRC folks for bringing all of this to us.

The rulings water down the most exciting track meet in the world, the US Olympic Trials.

Yes, maybe just maybe this will lead to more and higher quality distance races on the track in the US.

Back in the day the Penn Relays 5 and 10’s were stacked with every top American looking for a fast time.

Hopefully it will inject these meets with more top guys and women.

While we’re at it;

What is stopping someone from organizing a Monza fast type of loop marathon in the US for our top runners to hit 2:11?

Get a pace line going within the rules.

Time to step up.

This. Now that the DL has dropped the 5 and 10 it’s going to be up to other meet organizers to organize a distance race series of some sort with the purpose of running fast times. You could have an a circuit in the US and/or one in Europe. Just STFU and race. It’s not the end of the world.

Alan

That’s our problem. We rarely race and now, led by Rojo, people are crying about the tough standards.

If you’re good enough then get out there and race and run fast.

Like another poster said, these ‘barely under 2:20 on a downhill course are not elite and should get a haircut and a job.’

Agree. I’ll take the US marathoners from the 80’s over anyone today. Those guys raced and raced often.

Our top guys today think they’re African or pampered...neither of which deserves them a pass to the games.

This is a good post. I’m not at all convinced that rojo et al. aren’t just jumping to alarmist conclusions. There is nothing in the USATF lady’s email that makes me certain that they won’t honor world ranking qualifiers. She simply didn’t say anything like that, explicitly or even implicitly.

For the U.S., the three highest-placing finishers at the 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials, and who have the 2020 Olympic Games qualifying standard, will select themselves for the U.S. Team. For World Championships, the U.S. selection process is the same but with the IAAF marks.

Over the years, the standards for all national and international championships increased in difficulty for all competitors, and athletes have risen to the challenge time and time again. We look forward to working with our athletes, nations around the world and all other parties to have the IAAF consider what we all feel is in the best interest of the sport and its athletes.

Yeah, this isn't ambiguous to me. The statement "doesn't mention" the World Rankings because this policy makes the Rankings irrelevant to USATF athletes.

Curious.... wrote:

I’ve wondered before, is there some political rift in USATF between sprinters/jumpers/hurdles and the mid distance/distance crowd? In other public disputes, it seemed like there was a split in leadership and membership. And now with Lanana in an ugly divorce with USATF leadership..,

Just curious...

Sadly I've heard there are both event disputes and racial disputes.

Why does the IAAF care who we send if we are sending 3?

I do not want to go to the Olympic Trials and watch 4 people compete for 3 Olympic spots. It's boring as hell.

I do not want Americans now going to New York and avoiding the lead pack at all costs so they can cost home in 10th in 2:14:30.

These administrators are a joke. The IAAF introduces a whole new system to make the world pay attention to world rankings and USATF decides to ignore the rankings?

Good job by Gault getting a statement from USATF on this.

Before publishing, it would have been good to follow up and ask her to clarify exactly what she meant by "qualifying standard."

Phone calls rather than email interviews are usually better at removing ambiguities like this.

rojo wrote:

Talk about the biggest Friday evening news dump ever.

We have some huge breaking news to report. In my mind this is the most depressing development for US distance fans since we started the website.

http://www.letsrun.com/splash-page/dark-day-olympic-trials/

and

http://www.letsrun.com/news/2019/03/our-worst-fears-realized-usatf-will-not-honor-top-three-finish-at-the-us-olympic-trials-unless-you-have-the-standard/

This is one of the darkest days in history for US distance fans. We emailed USATF to make sure they would be honoring the IAAF world rankings so those top 3 at the Olympic Trials could go to the Olympics – they told us they would not. That means Olympic silver medallist Paul Chelimo wouldn’t have made the 2016 team, nor would Jared Ward and five others including Bernard Lagat who won the most thrilling race was the Trials. Some US Olympic Trials races may now be totally meaningless.

I get it but the reality is anyone who has a big breakthrough and finishes in the top 3 at the US trials even in a tactical distance race will 99% of the time have the capability to hit the standards in a time trial soon after.

I don’t see it as a change to the process. It’s just about the cutoffs being more stringent. In the old paradigm you still had to meet the standard to go to the games, just now the standard is 2:11:30 and not whatever it was

Natosha Rogers placed second in the 2012 10k us championship (effectively the equivalent of the OTQ) bit did not have the standard, and did not go.

Aren’t some of you just upset about the trials race? While yes, it’s exciting, but so what if we continue to be mediocre on the world stage (except non-running Rupp).

I’ve got just about the same chance as competing in Tokyo and ‘Joe Slow’ who qualifies with a 2:19:59 at some downhill course.

Time for our guys to step it up. Play time is over. Enough with the participation medals.

rojo wrote:

Talk about the biggest Friday evening news dump ever.

We have some huge breaking news to report. In my mind this is the most depressing development for US distance fans since we started the website.

http://www.letsrun.com/splash-page/dark-day-olympic-trials/

and

http://www.letsrun.com/news/2019/03/our-worst-fears-realized-usatf-will-not-honor-top-three-finish-at-the-us-olympic-trials-unless-you-have-the-standard/

This is one of the darkest days in history for US distance fans. We emailed USATF to make sure they would be honoring the IAAF world rankings so those top 3 at the Olympic Trials could go to the Olympics – they told us they would not. That means Olympic silver medallist Paul Chelimo wouldn’t have made the 2016 team, nor would Jared Ward and five others including Bernard Lagat who won the most thrilling race was the Trials. Some US Olympic Trials races may now be totally meaningless.

stop with the hyperbole. the rule changes are better and barely effect US runners. dont make a mountain out of an ant hill

I have a technical question about qualifying for the marathon:

According to the IAAF the top-10 finishers at Abbott World Marathon Majors will be credited with meeting the qualifying standard. How exactly will this apply to the women's races? An elite field is allowed to start some time before the men and the remaining women. Do only the top ten finishers from this elite field count or can a runner from the general field take a place? If it is based on true gun time then the women in the general field will have a 20 minute (or so) disadvantage. However, if it is based on chip time then a runner from the general field could earn a spot.

Case in point: Jessica Chichester who started with the general field in the 2018 Boston Marathon but ended up with the 5th fastest chip time, 2:45:23. Would she be considered a qualifier under the new rules?

I think the lack of fast 5000m and 10000m races will be a much bigger problem.

How about a Letsrun Distance Series of track meets?

Alan

Those that are saying to suck it up and just get the standard are missing the point. USATF is not honoring the ranking system. That’s the problem.

The standards have been set at ridiculously high level to protect the marquee athlete that may not have the high ranking due to unforeseen events.

USATF simply just needs to do what is right and allow for the qualification process to happen in the way the IAAF intends. Anyone who makes the Olympic team by hitting the IAAF standard (time or ranking) is by no means “mediocre” or anything but World Class.

Lemme see if I get this right..

You need to have the standard before the trials, or achieve it in the trials?

So if you have four marathoners who have met the standard, all will have to run the trials, and they will have to race, because only three of them get in. So you can't lay back and run slow hoping to get into the Olympics on time, with a poor trials. That seems like a good thing.

If three guys have the standard, they could watch and wait during the race and if no one else looks to go under the time, they don't have to finish in the top three. A gamble.

Yes Alan wrote:

That’s our problem. We rarely race and now, led by Rojo, people are crying about the tough standards.

If you’re good enough then get out there and race and run fast.

Like another poster said, these ‘barely under 2:20 on a downhill course are not elite and should get a haircut and a job.’

Agree. I’ll take the US marathoners from the 80’s over anyone today. Those guys raced and raced often.

Our top guys today think they’re African or pampered...neither of which deserves them a pass to the games.

They should have made it 2:15 and 2:33. Get rid of the pretenders and bucket listers. It was WAY too easy. A total joke. 200+ qualifiers already?

Do they really need an event for bucket listers and people to brag about how they made the Olympic "trials"? To pad their resume? That's what it became. Something for sub-elites to brag about on instagram and use for job prospects.

Now they over-corrected the standards, and 99.5% of these people have no chance of the Olympics? Why call it the trials? It's a farce. If they made it 2:15 and 2:33, you'd get rid of the washed up D3 instagram runners running down-hillers with a tail wind.

So what?

There are plenty of countries that don't even off top 3 when they do meet Olympic standards.

Happened to me.

Suck it up and run faster. If you want to be an Olympian stop focusing on the entry qualifications. Start focusing on actually being competitive.

No one is owed anything.