World Champions not making the US Olympic Team

[Slowrunner]

Tyson Gay & Michelle Perry become the 16th & 17th Americans to be defending World Champions and not make the Olympic Team.

Of the 57 defending World Champions since 1984, 17 have not made the US olympic team, 30%. Usually this occurs in deep events for the US, and the US still does well. Of the previous 15 times, the US has won the gold medal 8 times, including three medal sweeps!

1984 - Calvin Smith, 200 - Gold, Silver & Bronze
1988 - Calvin Smith, 200 - Gold & Silver
1988 - Greg Foster, 110H - Gold & Bronze
1992 - Carl Lewis, 100 - Bronze
1992 - Antonio Pettigrew, 400 - Gold & Silver
1992 - Greg Foster, 110H - Silver & Bronze
1992 - Kenny Harrison, TJ - Gold & Silver
1992 - Charles Austin, HJ - Bronze
1992 - Dan O'Brien, Dec - Bronze
1996 - Gwen Torrence, 100 - Gold
2000 - Maurice Greene, 200 - Gold
2000 - Inger Miller, 100 & 200 - Marion's mess...
2004 - John Capel, 200 - Gold, Silver & Bronze
2004 - Jerome Young, 400 - Gold, Silver & Bronze
2008 - Tyson Gay, 200 - ???
2008 - Michelle Perry, 100H - ???

[Marlow]

Which exactly why the defending World CHAMPION should get a bye into the OG, plus the nation's allotted 3 (A's).

[sprintblox]

To give every single world champion a bye into the Olympics (in addition to the usual 3 qualifiers) isn't going to happen, because that would clog up the games more than the IOC would tolerate.

However, there is a workable compromise. Each nation already gets one man and one woman in the whole meet if they have nobody who has made a 'B' standard in anything. In a similar spirit, they could make it such that each nation gets a bye for one female and one male world champion in the whole games. That puts Dan O'Brien in the Olympics for 1992, and Tyson Gay in this year's 200 and Veronica Campbell-Brown in the 100.

For most countries outside the top 10 T&F powerhouses, it won't increase their team size because their world champ is typically one of their only 2 or 3 in the event to make the A standard (if not the only one). So you end up with an increase of not more than 10 or 12 men and women for the whole meet, with the field for each single event increasing by no more than 1.

Of course, the next question is how to choose which world champion gets that bye, in cases where a country has multiple male or multiple female world champions. That should be up to each nation ... whether they want to use a committee or the IAAF scoring tables or some other method is their business. But very few countries would have that "problem".

[Flumpy]

I don't see why a reigning World Champ should get a free pass to the Olympicss just because the USA has a selection process that means they got left off.

If it's such a problem (Which it isn't) you change your system rather than the IOC.

[sprintblox]

It wouldn't be a free pass; the price of admission would be becoming a world champion.

[Gleason]

World Champions not MakingUS Olympic Team

Which exactly why the defending World CHAMPION should get a bye into the OG, plus the nation's allotted 3 (A's).

Good idea, but IAAF & IOC have no incentive to pass this rule. In 2007, Holliday, Dix & D. Hooker blew off Osaka. No one blows off OG.

Rules to increase participation were passed to increase interest in WCh. No need exists to increase interest in OG.

[Mellow Johnny]

Re: World Champions not MakingUS Olympic Team

Rules to increase participation were passed to increase interest in WCh. No need exists to increase interest in OG.

Exactly. In fact, the opposite is true for the OG as the "A" and "B" standards were created to reduce numbers there.