B_Doughtie wrote:
lacticturkey wrote:
Is there really a mixed relay division he mentioned , and how does soneone qualify for that?
Yes you qualify by taking an individual race spot (there's no specific rule that says you have to race it; you just simply take the individual slot and thus almost assured to race....but some athlete out there may DNS/DNF the individual race to rest up for the MTR). It's done this way to limit the number of athletes that are in the Games....essentially you must be part of the individual race to be part of MTR. You must be ranked in the following to be eligible for the individual race:
-top 180 of the itu world ranking (formerly itu points list)
OR
-top 140 of the olympic qualification ranking
Then you must qualify through your own federation's guidelines, of which some have tougher AQ (auto qualify) standards than others. Obviously Wurf would go on discretion (picked by the federation). However he simply doesn't have enough races left in the qualification calendar imo to make the eligiblity ranking. He would need to podium in at min 2-3 world cups to make it, and let's be real. If he finishes top 25-30 that would be a HUGE ACCOMPLISHMENT, next weekend; let alone a top 10. He imo has the wrong strengths to be competitive in ITU. As the saying goes "if you could have done it, you would have already done it".
But again, if this is the carrot that gets his juices flowing to actually up his swim game- mission accomplish. But the reality his olympic dream pathway is already all but over. Unless you think he can actually podium, he's basically already mathematically eliminated; irregardless of how good or bad he is on the Aussie team.
He doesn't need to podium in 2-3 world cups necessarily, but he's got very limited real estate in order to get his ranking into the range (he'll need points from 5-6 races at the WC/WTS level, before qualification closes, and those will need to largely be solid results (a few podiums for sure makes it easier, but a combination of top 10 results might be able to do it, if there are some top 10s from a couple of WTS races in there early next year). Throw aside the whole selection piece, and the flaws in his argument (yes, percentage wise, the Bike is the longest component of an MTR, or sprint, or Oly tri or even a 70.3 or IM, but he has to establish that he can actually ride at that level (an MTR bike leg is not like a pro Bike race (maybe a prologue TT in a stage race is the least far from it) and nothing like an ironman) in those distances, after swimming in that type of setting...), even being eligible for selection is the hard part at this point... He's at zero points, so his shot at a top 140 olympic ranking are basically screwed, since he can't score higher than zero for the first qualifying window, because that ended months ago, so that's 5 races worth of points that he's now behind everyone else trying to hit that ranking threshold, so all he can do is earn points for window 2, which is a max of 6 results (whereas many others will have points from 10 races counting towards ranking). His only shot is at getting into the top 180 on world ranking (because he's at less of a disadvantage there in terms of the number of races that count in the rankings), and even that, is an issue, being at zero points, and having 7months to get there (if he races every world cup and WTS race between now and then, there are are about 10 races to play with there, and maybe a good showing at the Oceania champs (conti cup level) because of the increased point values, gives him one more race that could help with moving him up...), the other Conti Cup level races won't have enough points to really help him in terms of cracking the top 180 (but he might need to race some of those anyways just to get enough points to make the start lists...)...
He's a notorious smack talker, and when he does something, he typically goes all in, so I think he figures, worst case he improves his swim, and if he can actually pull off even being eligible for discretionary olympic selection, that's a bonus... Either way, we're talking about it, which is good for him, and it might bring some long course fans to pay some casual attention to a late season world cup races, that they would otherwise ignore... so in that way, it helps the sport...