“OK, the Oz selectors may be nuts, but I think the ITU is nuts if the previous year’s world champion does not get an automatic slot to the Olympic games. ie. If the Aussie women had 3 “country slot”, they should now get 4 so the Olympics has the reigning World Champ in the field. This is really bad for the sport. Some person, ranked 75th on the ITU points chart from Papua New Guineau (no offence, but not a tri powerhouse) can get in based on how the slots are allocated, but the World Champ does not. Truely sad.”
A few observations:
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Leaving Ms. Jones off the team may be controversial, but not any more so than leaving off someone (Ms. Seear) who just beat the snot out of her in the two races designated as Olympic selection events.
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Not everyone makes the Olympics - and that’s the way it has always been. It’s not what you’ve DONE or how good you WERE - it’s doing it when it counts. The Aussie athletes knew what races counted, and Ms. Seear rose to the occasion. Can you say Dan O’Brien?
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The three American women will almost certainly be ranked one-two-three in the world when the Olympics rolls around . . . but unless they perform in the three U.S. trials races, they won’t be in Athens. It is really the same system as the heats for the 10,000 meter run. Doesn’t matter how dominant someone like Paul Tergat or Paula Radcliffe might have been in the years leading up to the Games - if they don’t make it through the heats, they don’t run in the final. In other words, the ultimate in equal treatment - do it when it counts or go home.
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Who, precisely, are the “reigning” world champs? Right now, it’s Snowsill and Robertson . . . but there is another world championship in 2004 (May 9 in Madeira). By then, 2003 will be nothing more than history. NOTE: Both “reigning” world champs WERE in fact on the starting line in Sydney (Marceau and Hackett), and I’ll give you a dollar to a dozen donuts that the same will be true in Athens.