So all relevant athletes have been aware of this "record" and substitution business for quite some time. We have all spent thousands of our own dollars to travel to random races to cultivate and strengthen our records in anticipation of this process. Here's the funny thing though: your record only comes into play if you MAKE THE INITIAL START LIST! Why is this important? Well, Ethan Brown (who I might point out is an extremely talented athlete, an even better person, and my good friend) is essentially the #1 athlete in the world on the ITU wait list to get into San Diego. This means that in a matter of hours when a random person withdraws from the race (and this will happen) Ethan will roll onto the start list. Ethan has a lower record than I, but will not be a sub candidate as he was not on the original start list. Stated differently, an athlete who performed well enough to make the initial start list (me) can be subbed for while an athlete who rolls onto the start list hours later but did not perform well enough to make it into the race initially AND has a WORSE record than me (Ethan) is protected and does not have to worry about being subbed out. Had Ethan had 15 more ITU points (maybe he would have finished a spot or two higher in Mooloolaba or in a random South American points race) he would have been on the initial start list and would have been the athlete with the lowest record making him the substitution candidate, but, since his results were not quite good enough to get him onto the start list initially, HE IS PROTECTED and doesn't have to worry about being subbed for!!! In summary, a worse performance is being rewarded. I am being penalized for making the start list over my teammates/competitors. USAT should have the common sense to wait until 12 days out from the race when the FINAL FINAL start list is set and then make its substitutions given the athletes who are on the start list then when athletes have rolled in off the wait list. Still, they are not adopting this process (well, yet). Their reasoning? "We want to provide notice to the athlete who will be subbed." ????????????? Okay, so let me get this straight... you want to be fair to me by providing me with notice that I might be taken off the start list? The athletes who are about to roll on don't even have "notice" that they'll be in the race so how are they negatively affected if you tell them when they roll on that they will be subbed for? In the words of Hunter Kemper, the beneficiary of this whole process, this is "ridiculous." I have some other words to describe this process, but I'll keep it classy.

Stay tuned to see how this all plays out. I have worked hard to get to this place and I am not going to just give in to this fundamentally unfair and flawed process.

maybe the ITU will just invite the necessary americans everything will b fine.

However, as a professional I would also take the time to clearly understand the entire qualifying process. \\

That is exactly what our folks did here, tried to understand the process, but in the end it appears that not one athlete knew what was going on, so the blame has to fall on USAT. Even now at the last minute we are getting an understanding of the process, it is flawed in so many ways that there is no excuse for it. You bring up that old tired excuse that athletes should know the course, that is a copout. Race directors should mark courses so that a moron just showing up on race day could figure it out. It is totally unreasonable to expect an athlete to memorize a 100+ turns on some courses, often going the wrong way on streets, and very often changed just before an event for some last minute call. The same goes here, the rules should have been palin and simple, which they were not. Even our resident expert MR ITU was befuddled, and he studies this stuff like no one else..

Not sure why you are trying to make excuses for USAT as it is clear they fucked up in a major way. To trade out Mark for Hunter is one thing, but to not then put him at the top of the waiting list ahead of athletes he should be ahead of to replace any no shows is complete insanity. And this whole you did not eamil us from athletes that they 100% know are pointing for this one event and the olympics, athletes they pay and support to do just such, athletes thay talk to about it all the time, that is beyond comprehension how they could just now ignore them...

You are a coach, tell me how you would feel if any of your athletes were one of these. Just tell them that you are the fuck up because you did not know that the last minute rules would be so beyond any logical persons thinking? That is what you seem to imply you would do..

Bottom line, it's all in the details at this level of racing.

Agreed...when medals are decided by mere seconds, it is indeed a matter of details.

BUT, it really shouldn't come down to details for who is on the starting line for a qualifying race when the the talent pool is compressed (many athletes closely matched in ability). USA Swimming and USA Track and Field cast a wide net in allowing entrants into their Trials and whomever goes the fastest at Trials gets the spots. Simple. Obviously its a little different with those being American-only events, but a qualifier is still a qualifier.

There are certainly drawbacks to that approach, but if a race is being used a qualifier then it shouldn't require this much complexity just to figure out who's in the field.

If it's going to be this convoluted, they should dispense with the charade of "qualifying" and just have a committee pick three athletes to send to the Games.

Seems to be lots of problems with the American selection policy, not with the ITU rules on setting the start list.

but i think the real issue here is that there is a guy that made the start list but that is not going to race (at this stage) because of something is going really wrong here and is defo not best practise.