USOC denied David Patrick's Olympic Dream in 1968

Lake Tahoe, app, 6250ft. elevation. Mexico City, app. 7350ft. elevation. Patrick had an opportunity. David Patrick finishing 4th was nothing like U.S. and their allies boycotting 1980 Olympics.

Seems logical to me wrote:

Lake Tahoe, app, 6250ft. elevation. Mexico City, app. 7350ft. elevation. Patrick had an opportunity. David Patrick finishing 4th was nothing like U.S. and their allies boycotting 1980 Olympics.

Then what they should have done was declare a date at Lake Tahoe at the beginning of the year and say that is the trials.

What they did instead was hold a trials, throw out the results and put together a new trials last minute.

Patrick was on the team training to peak for October and instead was thrown into a race in September.

Quite unfair.

Seems logical to me wrote:

Lake Tahoe, app, 6250ft. elevation. Mexico City, app. 7350ft. elevation. Patrick had an opportunity. David Patrick finishing 4th was nothing like U.S. and their allies boycotting 1980 Olympics.

Read the article.

YMMV wrote:

Seems logical to me wrote:

Lake Tahoe, app, 6250ft. elevation. Mexico City, app. 7350ft. elevation. Patrick had an opportunity. David Patrick finishing 4th was nothing like U.S. and their allies boycotting 1980 Olympics.

Read the article.

Because U.S.O.C. made an error not originally holding Olympic Trials at altitude, OP and other posters on here wanted U.S.O.C. to remain stupid and send a team to Mexico City that had no proven altitude skill. Ryun, Liquori and von Ruden figured out what they had to do to make Olympic Team. Yes, I read to article.

I have never heard that the results of the LA meet were basically tossed. The meet at Echo Summit had been scheduled well enough in advance (and it is one really cool story about building that track).

http://www.runblogrun.com/2018/09/road-to-nowhere-the-1968-semi-olympic-trials-by-mike-fanelli.html

It sucks how things were run in those days. While there are issues with team selection, I think all in all it is above board in the non-team sports. Sometimes selection procedures are not written as clearly as they could be or interpreted differently, but all in all it is above board. Every Olympics there are arbitration cases when an athlete believes the procedures have not been implemented properly, but I think the attempts to screw athletes over are incredibly rare.

Seems logical to me wrote:

YMMV wrote:

Read the article.

Because U.S.O.C. made an error not originally holding Olympic Trials at altitude, OP and other posters on here wanted U.S.O.C. to remain stupid and send a team to Mexico City that had no proven altitude skill. Ryun, Liquori and von Ruden figured out what they had to do to make Olympic Team. Yes, I read to article.

So you run a race to exhaustion and break the tape, going to the infield. Suddenly the officials decide they used the wrong finish line, and set up a new tape, which is broken by another runner who was well behind you. Fair? Maybe in your fallacious world of "logic".

At the very least, they could have selected the event winners in LA and picked the other two at Tahoe.

in his History of the Olympic Trials (2008) Richard Hymans said:

"Unlike the 1964 OT, the winners of the SOT [Los Angeles OT] were not granted a place on the Olympic team, but the regular standard of the frst 3 past the post was applied. The SOT served only to eliminate some athletes from the Echo Summit meeting, and was a poorly organized affair. The crowd were dissatisfied after conflicting announcements were made as to whether winners at the SOT were automatic Olympic qualifiers (they weren't), and the possibility of an Olympic boycott by black athletes led to shouting matches between athletes, officials and the press."

it is possibly worth noting that at Los Angeles two heats eliminated 4 men leaving a 10-man final, and all 10 of those men went to Echo Summit, where the plan was, as it had been at Los Angeles, to use the same timetable as at Mexico.

1. Dave Patrick (Villanova) 3:43.6

2. Sam Bair (Kent State) 3:43.7

3. Marty Liquori (Villanova) 3:44.2

4. Dave Wilborn (Oregon) 3:44.5

5. Jerry Richey (Pittsburgh) 3:44.6

6. John Mason (Ft Hays State) 3:44.6

7. Roscoe Divine (Oregon) 3:44.7

8. Tom von Ruden (Oklahoma State) 3:45.4

9. Jim Crawford (Harding) 3:49.1

10. Brian Kivlan (Manhattan) 3:50.0

of the 1500m at Echo Summit Hymans says:

"Two rounds of heats did little other than to eliminate 4 runners in total and show the survivors how fatiguiing 1500m running at altitude could be... Tom von Ruden made a game attempt to beat Liquori but lost out by 3 yards, still well ahead of NCAA champion David Patrick, who started his kick too late... As all 3 Americans made the Olympic final - the only time since 1936 (through 2004) that this has happened, the final selection procedure could not really be criticised in this event."

1. Jim Ryun (Kansas) 3:49.0

2. Marty Liquori (Villanova) 3:49.5

3. Tom von Ruden (Oklahoma State) 3:49.8

4. Dave Patrick (Villanova) 3:52.0

5. Roscoe Divine (Oregon) 3:52.0

6. John Mason (Ft Hays State) 3:57.0

7. Sam Bair (Kent State) 3:58.6

8. Dave Wilborn (Oregon) 4:03.8

cheers.

There is a tendency to look at the altitude effect as the elevation number but I have to believe that Mexico City being closer to the equator makes a significant difference.

Seems logical to me wrote:

YMMV wrote:

Read the article.

Because U.S.O.C. made an error not originally holding Olympic Trials at altitude, OP and other posters on here wanted U.S.O.C. to remain stupid and send a team to Mexico City that had no proven altitude skill. Ryun, Liquori and von Ruden figured out what they had to do to make Olympic Team. Yes, I read to article.

But Patrick also figured out what he had to do to make the Olympic team UNDER THE ORIGINAL RULES and he did it. The same thing happened to Bill Clark in the 10,000.

My understanding is that the decision was, in part, an answer to the question, "How do we get Jim Ryun on this Olympic team?" Ryun was recovering from mono during the first trials and did not run in them. Sucked for Patrick though.

Slew beat me to it. I was about to ask how Patrick could’ve thought it was the real trials if Ryun wasn’t there. I was wondering if he had an inside scoop on the process and was sitting out, or was injured/sick. That sucks.

SlowFatMaster wrote:

My understanding is that the decision was, in part, an answer to the question, "How do we get Jim Ryun on this Olympic team?" Ryun was recovering from mono during the first trials and did not run in them. Sucked for Patrick though.

Others thought this was Bowerman working to get his guys another chance. I recommend

SlowFatMaster wrote:

My understanding is that the decision was, in part, an answer to the question, "How do we get Jim Ryun on this Olympic team?" Ryun was recovering from mono during the first trials and did not run in them. Sucked for Patrick though.

Not true. When I didn't make the trials (first man out) Payton Jordan told me I could pay my way to Lake Tahoe and try again up there at the second trials. So at least by the First Trials, there was already a plan to do Lake Tahoe. Those who qualified plus some others had their way paid to Tahoe, if I remember correctly.

Sam Bair also didn't make it after finishing 2nd the first time around. I am guessing there were others as well.

Let's dredge up Shannon Butler getting screwed by John Chaplin in 1996 while we're at it. https://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=2557843

justthefacts wrote:

SlowFatMaster wrote:

My understanding is that the decision was, in part, an answer to the question, "How do we get Jim Ryun on this Olympic team?" Ryun was recovering from mono during the first trials and did not run in them. Sucked for Patrick though.

Not true. When I didn't make the trials (first man out) Payton Jordan told me I could pay my way to Lake Tahoe and try again up there at the second trials. So at least by the First Trials, there was already a plan to do Lake Tahoe. Those who qualified plus some others had their way paid to Tahoe, if I remember correctly.

Sam Bair also didn't make it after finishing 2nd the first time around. I am guessing there were others as well.

So cool to get someone who was there to weigh in. Thanks Dave!

HRE wrote:

Patrick also figured out what he had to do to make the Olympic team UNDER THE ORIGINAL RULES and he did it. The same thing happened to Bill Clark in the 10,000.

What you are saying was TOTALLY WRONG and not true.

There was never a firm ruling that the winner in LA did not need to qualify at Tahoe.

In fact, the opposite was the case. EVERYONE knew that they had to qualify at the Tahoe meet.

The fact is, Patrick had as much advance notice of the Tahoe trials as everyone else, and he did not qualify.

Here's a story I wrote 9 years ago about the 1968 Dave Patrick saga. I'd be happy to receive any reactions to it.

http://villanovarunning.blogspot.com/2010/01/dave-patrick-and-1968-olympic-trials.html

Thanks!

From the article:

Less than two weeks before the start of the September

trials, the committee voted to throw out the results of the Los Angeles trials. The top three in Lake Tahoe in the 1,500 would now comprise the team that represented the U.S. in the event.[/I

The LA meet was called the Olympic Trials and the arrangement was that first place finishers there would be put into the Olympic team. The other two team members would be determined at the Tahoe trials. Yes, there was a requirement that the first place finishers from LA also compete at Tahoe and "demonstrate fitness." What that exactly meant was never specified. That left some wiggle room and yes, Patrick knew that he had to compete at the Tahoe trial even after winning in LA but until August he did not know that he had to come top three. I suppose it would be possible to define "demonstrating fitness" as a top three Tahoe finish but that's unreasonable. It's hard to imagine that a fourth place finish showed that Patrick was unfit. If that was the case why even have the LA trial? Until the vote to throw out the LA results came everyone believed that the first place finishers from LA were in. So the deal was switched at the last minute and Patrick was royally screwed.