The Cruelest and Fairest Way

Athing Mu is the defending Olympic champion in the women's 800.  She was considered one of the medal favorites for Paris.  Except she's didn't make the team.  In one of the most dramatic and unexpected moments of the Olympic Trials, Mu fell 200 meters into the final and ended up finishing last.  As a result, she's not going to Paris (at least not in the 800).

Neither will Laulaga Tausaga-Collins, the 2023 World champion in the women's discus.  Ditto for Brooke Andersen, the 2022 women's hammer throw World champion, and Janaee Kassanavoid, who medaled at the World Championships in the hammer throw in both 2022 and 2023.  They all had the potential to win medals in Paris.  Instead, they'll be watching the Olympics from home.  So is the cutthroat nature of the U.S. Olympic Trials.

It's become almost a rite of passage that, every Olympic cycle, the U.S. selection system is criticized/questioned by fans and journalists from around the world.  And that, of course, comes with their suggestions for how to do it "better."  What they don't understand, however, is that while different selection methods may work for other countries, the American system that seems cruel at times is actually the fairest way to do it.  The top three at Trials make the team.  You can't get more straightforward than that.  There's nothing arbitrary about it.

Other countries have various other selection methods.  Many of them utilize some sort of selection committee that picks the team based on a variety of factors.  Which leads to plenty of controversy regarding who is and isn't selected (there was a lawsuit regarding the Australian marathon team that was only dropped because the athlete couldn't afford the legal fees).  In the U.S., there's no controversy over who does or doesn't make the team.  Those who made it earned their spots.  The others didn't.

While I'm making it sound very cut-and-dry, the top three at Trials don't necessarily go to the Olympics.  It's the top three who have the Olympic standard or world ranking.  So, even if you finished in the top three, if you don't have the standard or your world ranking isn't high enough, you're not going.  It's also entirely possible that the fourth- or fifth-place finisher will go instead of somebody in the top three because they have the standard or a high enough world ranking.  (The third-place finisher still has preference in team selection.)

In other countries, having the standard or world ranking is a big factor in Olympic team selection.  You're limited to three athletes per event, and most countries don't have more than three with the standard in a given event, which makes it very easy.  You have the standard, you're on the team.  That's not the case in the U.S.  Far from it.

There are so many Americans that have the Olympic standard in certain events that it would be impossible to pick three any other way.  The British take the top two at their Trials, plus a third selection made by a committee.  But how would you even do that in the U.S.?  If anything, you're opening it up to more controversy!  Because what would the criteria be for that third selection?  Especially when you (potentially) have multiple people with the standard to choose from?  A strict top three takes all of that out of the mix.

After the women's 800 final, Mu filed a protest, arguing that she was clipped by another runner (she wasn't).  The protest was (rightfully) denied.  I'm not sure what she and her team were trying to accomplish with the protest anyway.  What did they want?  The race to be re-run?  Mu to just be given a place on the team, at the expense of one of the three women who earned her spot (all three of them have the standard and are going to Paris)?  How is either of those solutions fair?

Likewise, I saw some suggestions that Mu be allowed to run a solo time trial.  I'm assuming the premise was that if she ran fast enough, she'd displace one of the three Olympians.  Again, how is that fair?  What did third-place finisher Juliette Whittaker do to warrant having her Olympic spot taken away?  It's not her fault Athing Mu fell!

The idea that Athing Mu, a potential medalist, didn't make the team is unfathomable to them.  That's the nature of the U.S. Olympic Trials, though.  It's the hardest team in the world to make for a reason.  There are some events where the final at Olympic Trials is more competitive than the Olympic final will be.  If you don't show up on the day and finish top three, you're not on the team.  It sucks, but that's how it is.  It's the same for everybody.

This isn't the first time that this has happened, either.  In 2016, Keni Harrison didn't make the team in the women's 100 hurdles.  Two weeks later, she set the world record.  In 1992, there was that whole Dan & Dave marketing campaign built around decathletes Dan O'Brien and Dave Johnson.  O'Brien famously no-heighted in the pole vault at Trials, meaning only Dave went to Barcelona (where he won bronze).  Dan eventually did win Olympic gold...four years later in Atlanta.

That's another beautiful element of the U.S. system.  Yes, it's cruel and brutal and cutthroat and sometimes unfair.  But it can also be incredibly motivating.  We've seen plenty of athletes this week who didn't make the team in 2021 and used that disappointment to fuel them this Olympic cycle.  Finishing fourth (or whatever place) is what drove them to make sure it wouldn't happen again this time, and it paid off with a trip to Paris.

At the U.S. Olympic Trials, nothing is guaranteed.  It doesn't matter who you are.  You need to show up and get the job done.  If you don't, you're not on the team.  That's true for every single athlete in Eugene, from the global superstars like Noah Lyles and Sha'Carri Richardson to the 16-year-old high school students.  It's a level playing field.  They all have an equal chance of making it, but only three can.  That's the entire point!

So, does it suck that Athing Mu won't be in the Olympic women's 800?  Yes.  Did the U.S. potentially lose a medal as a result?  Yes.  But that isn't proof that the Olympic Trials system is broken.  Just the opposite, in fact.  It's proof that it works.