The defending 800m Olympic champion won’t defend her title after a stumble in a single race. Her absence is a needless wound for Team USA
The track and field events at this summer’s Olympics don’t start until August, but Team USA are already losing medals in June.and followed up with a world championship the next year at the age of 20, isn’t going to Paris. Neither are Brooke Andersen, the 2022 world champion in the women’s hammer throw, or Laulauga Tausaga-Collins, the 2023 world champion in the women’s discus.
All of which means the track and field community in the US has to ask itself: Is the current format – in which athletes’ place on the Olympic team is decided solely by performance at the trials – really the best way to choose a team?built around world decathlon champion Dan O’Brien and 1990 Goodwill Games champion Dave Johnson came to a screeching halt when O’Brienat the US Olympic trials.
Consider Ireland. For a country with a little more than five million people, Ireland does quite well in athletics. The women’s and mixed 4x400m relay teams are legitimate medal contenders. Yet even in the 400m, in which Ireland is obviously strong, only three athletes are currently ranked high enough to take an Olympic berth. Holding trials for the individual 400m would therefore be meaningless.
What’s the solution? The world championship model hints at a way to make sure athletes like Mu aren’t left out. Worldreserves spaces for defending champions and for Diamond League season winners, and a country that has a defending champion can bring a fourth person to the championships.
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Prize money for Paris Olympic gold medalists is discriminatory, European Olympic Committees saysWorld Athletics and the International Boxing Association will offer prize money to their own medallists who win gold at the Paris Olympics this year.
Read more »
Australian men's Olympic water polo squad to include 10 debutants in ParisAustralia's mens water polo team will feature 10 new faces at July's Olympic games in Paris, including a new father.
Read more »
Aussie superstar’s bid for Olympic history rocked by 0.01sec heartbreakAussie superstar’s bid for Olympic history rocked by 0.01sec heartbreak
Read more »
Why 0.01 of a second may wreck Cate Campbell’s Olympic hopesThe four-time Games gold medallist failed to qualify for the 100m freestyle final.
Read more »
Why 0.01 of a second may wreck Cate Campbell’s Olympic hopesThe four-time Games gold medallist failed to qualify for the 100m freestyle final.
Read more »
Why 0.01 of a second may wreck Cate Campbell’s Olympic hopesThe four-time Games gold medallist failed to qualify for the 100m freestyle final.
Read more »