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fred
7/16/2003
16:11:49
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 Subject: USAT Oly Trials
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Just read about the 2004 triathlon trials at https://www.runnertriathletenews.com/news/usat_olytrials2004. This doesn't make sense.
Why do we need three races to figure out who makes the team? How about one race: first three past the post go to Athens. Seems pretty clear. If you finish in the top three, you go. If I finish 4th or lower, I stay home.
Does it really take three races to decide that?
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kent
7/17/2003
10:05:07
| RE: USAT Oly Trials
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Message:
What happens if I'm the "Michael Jordan" of tris, but I have bad luck and pick up a nail on the bike course, lose 5 minues changing a flat, and finish 4th (by 10 seconds). Yeah, those are the breaks, but spreading it out over multiple races helps factor out the element of outside factors controlling my fate. Most other events can be contested in a "one time" format because equipment plays much less of a role in deciding the outcome.
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fred
7/17/2003
11:16:05
| RE: USAT Oly Trials
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Ask any number of marathoners what happens if you have a bad day at the Trials. They may not have to change a flat, but the result is the same.
The fact is that every athlete at the Trials has the same chance of having a bad day (or a good day). If I have a bad day at the Trials and finish 4th, while you finish 3rd -- then you should go. You beat me fair and square.
What's next? Should the Olympics be best of three, too? They don't have 3 Super Bowls each year, do they? Let the National League take a couple of more cracks at the American League -- heck, home field advantage is at stake.
Like Fox said, "This time it counts!"
Making the Olympic Trials a single-day, top-three-take-all-event is the only way to make it count.
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susan
7/17/2003
12:18:59
| RE: USAT Oly Trials
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Message:
What if you trip over your shoelaces because they came untied? Or get knocked down at a water station (hey, it's happened before...)?
Would runners get another chance if those things happened to them at their Trials? No.
They get to wait another four years.
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sebastian
7/18/2003
08:36:22
| RE: USAT Oly Trials
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Message:
I think it makes perfect sense to use a qualifying series.
We want to send the best to the olympics, not some freak accident. I suspect that if we would have done it this way the last time, Victor Plata and not Ryan Bolton would have gone to Sidney which was the way it should have been anyway.
As far as the marathon trials go, we're doing a great job of sending the best we have, that is why we can't break the top 20 right?
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sarah
7/18/2003
09:23:29
| RE: USAT Oly Trials
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Message:
What if Michael Jordan flats at two of the races? Do we make it best 3 of 5?
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sebastian
7/18/2003
13:20:26
| RE: USAT Oly Trials
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Message:
???"What if Michael Jordan flats at two of the races? Do we make it best 3 of 5?"???
Kids that brings us up to our next point... DONT SMOKE CRACK.
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Wally
7/18/2003
15:20:42
| RE: USAT Oly Trials
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Message:
Between this string of messages and the one on double dipping for awards, it is clear that the quality of posts on this board have deteriorated to the point that it's not worth reading. The topic initiator starts with a good question and people quickly take it to ridiculous... what a shame!
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oncearunner
7/21/2003
13:13:58
| RE: USAT Oly Trials
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Message:
Yeah Wally you tell them! These guys around here are a buch of keyboard hacks not runners or triathlete's! Thats why they talk all this trash about shoe laces and FAT TIRE's which reminds me I need to go back to my 12 once work out!
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