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

The reason why I'm confident in our intepretation is because the statement said they're picking the Olympic team the same way they pick the World Championships team -- and they pick the Worlds team by taking the top three athletes at the Trials/USAs who have the standards, even if someone would be in position to get a bid from the IAAF (based on their position on the global descending order list) when it goes to fill the fields. Why would they include that line if they weren't doing the same thing for the Olympics?

That said, because several LRC readers seem concerned that we may have misinterpreted USATF's statement, I have emailed Susan Hazzard for clarification so we can settle this matter. I will update you when I hear back.

The US just needs to start playing hardball with these guys.

How would Trump approach this negotiation?

First, the US financial support of the Olympics is now up for negotiation.

Second, Boston, New York, and Chicago marathons agree that all cash prizes be limited to US citizens.

Etc.

Think of what leverage the US has

You'll see how fast they change their tune...

thank you

Actually I'm concerned the USATF has misinterpreted the whole automatic time list, global points list and the OG field size target continuum to come to the decision to limit the USA OG Team to only athletes that

have the automatic time/distance/ multi-event score and compete at OG Trials events.

We will have to only let time qualifiers into Olympic Track Trials which I agree will suck but it would make track trials still a thing.

I don't know what the heck can be done about the Marathon. I don't think that should have been lumped in with it. It might mean the end of the US Olympic Trials Marathon.

Why is the Olympics the main event for Track and Field in the US? Is it the main event for Basketball? Hockey? Soccer? Tennis?

Wasn’t a professional track circuit tried in the US back in the old amateur days?

Just take your spikes and go home.

Alan

smd wrote:

Ehso wrote:

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.

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.

Yeah, I'm kind of amazed that LRC sounded the alarm bells without clarifying this point first. To me, "qualifying standard" implies time standard OR world ranking standard. Susan's email was vague - there's no way you could clearly establish intent, one way or the other.

Runningart2004 wrote:

Why is the Olympics the main event for Track and Field in the US? Is it the main event for Basketball? Hockey? Soccer? Tennis?

Wasn’t a professional track circuit tried in the US back in the old amateur days?

Just take your spikes and go home.

Alan

The global media pays big bucks to broadcast the multi-ringed circus called the OG and they relegate any other contest to be an Olympic Preliminary.

Translation Please wrote:

Can someone please translate? The brojos have never been known for their writing skills, but as someone who is not that familiar with how qualifying works, this garbage writing is horribly confusing and makes zero sense.

Whatever their teeny tiny brains are spewing out isn't a real language that can be translated. The brosjo are obviously products of the bribery/cheating admissions scandal.

Thanks. I appreciate the work you guys are doing on this, and hopefully it leads to clarity on this whole process.

I have also considered any of the finish order at other events athletes to be part and parcel of the auto time list.

As "Who's Fault" pointed out in his last sentence people stating that the OG should be the top XX fastest people in the world are missing the point of the Olympics. The Olympics are amazing because they bring so many people from different countries together in friendly competition of sport. Having only two countries that dominate an event have entries is NOT the point. Quite honestly I would rather see some random country(Ethiopia 100m ^^) be proud and working towards having a sprint program rather than watch a rematch of the US championship finals at the OG.

Olympic Motto:

"The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well."

As a former athlete who ran an OG qualifier on time I could have automatically competed for my grandparents country but wanted to proudly represent MY home. Was I annoyed that there were people from other countries who hadn't run as fast. Sure. But the point was to send 3-representatives from each country to compete against one another, and i wasn't top 3 at the US trials. I know this is blaspheme but...The old standards are also very fast. If say the Philippines has someone running 13:25 they should get to represent in the Olympics.

I am all for moving the World Champs to be only the top fastest times. Our Filipino runner wouldn't deserve to be at Worlds because he wasn't fast enough. Neither would I have deserved to for that matter. It would also increase the viewership of T&F. Olympic year you watch an inspiring array of talented athletes represent their country and the next year you watch the fastest in the World regardless of country compete at World Champs. Sounds like a win across the board for me.

Love coming to your site but this is my first time posting. I wanted to point out a few things.

1. The QUALIFICATION SYSTEM was published in July of last year. I spent some time trying to get some eyeballs on it because I couldn't understand why there was not public outrage then. The press release said: "Entry standards will be approved and published later this year, but will be set for the sole purpose of qualifying athletes with exceptional performances unable to qualify through the IAAF world rankings pathway." That was almost a year ago. It was implied then, the qualifying standards would be hard, and seemingly secondary.

2. In the press release, it was said that said Qualifying Standards wouldn't be available until Nov 2019. It's actually early. Releasing the standards that close, especially with major changes to the existing structure? Bells should've been ringing in July 2018.

3. Universality, number of athletes per event and other parameters are still in play, so it's not expected that there will be less people competing in the Games.

I agree that the implications for USA in certain areas would be tougher and trickier. I won't make any assessments to the policies of USATF (as a non-American former athlete) or your commentary except to say that a lot of the angst comes from interpretation of what Ms. Hazzard said. As an example - your opening line of "Ever since the IAAF announced its new qualifying system for the 2020 Olympic Games on Sunday" - the qualifying system was announced a long time ago. The qualifying standards were recently shared. I'd like to suggest that the problem is the (mis)interpretation and (mis)understanding of those terms.

Run for American Samoa if you don’t like the system.

exrunner wrote:

Iget 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.

Except they're not allowed to hit the standards soon after. If they don't have it before the trials, someone else gets their spot.

crumpetsausage wrote:

So what?

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

Happened to me.

Just because other countries are stupid doesn't mean we should be. In 2012 Henrik Ingebrigtsen barely got in the Olympics with a 3:37. Most European countries wouldn't have let him go to the Olympics. Instead he went, finished 5th in a new national record and likely inspired his brothers to pursue running.

rojo wrote:

In my mind this is the most depressing development for US distance fans since we started the website.

Look, she wouldn't have added in the 2nd paragraph about US athletes rising to the occasion if it wasn't what we think it is, but he has followed back up for 100% confirmation.

Plus I just got off the phone with a very prominent person in our sport who said they thought they saw this coming months ago. They said they were irate about it at the time as it guts what the Olympic Trials is all about even though it this new system won't hurt them personally, probably will help them.

It's not hyperbole.

My anonymous source, "The fact that USATF is not protecting our top 3 is a crime. Its a travesty."

Unfortunately, only the BroJos and a few hundred runners, coaches and fans honestly care about qualifying standards and diamond league events, in the US at least.

Ask your average hobby jogger about 10 000 meter standards and they’ll likely be surprised that people run 10 k on the track.

The disdain with which LRC elite runners hold the mass of participation sport runners is met, in return, with absolute ambivalence towards issues like standards and diamond league events.