Amby Burfoot says: do away with the Olympic Marathon Trials

I never wanted to have that discussion in the first place. Not my fight.

You said you did, but you mostly just wanted to tell Amby to "shut the f*ck up" and you still haven't apologized

yeah that's something an adult would have written

Yeah, selection process and fairness questions aside, it's pretty ridiculous to propose getting rid of the most entertaning Americans only race in existence and it's only once every 4 years as it is. Let's just go ahead and pull the plug on a sport that's already on life support.

Of course he never came on your radar. He has class; you don't. He won the Boston Marathon; you...never really won anything

Amby hasn't apologized for his gratuitous assault on our completely fair selection process.

Move forward.

We made it to three pages and nobody said, "If I can change, youse can change?"

If anyone thinks that the proposed selection process above wouldn’t be as corrupt as everything else in this country, they are sadly mistaken (and not paying attention).

For the 2004 OMT, Meb, a 2000 Olympian, had the third fastest qualifying time by over 1 minute, 30 seconds.

So Amby, I would posit the very reason for the existence of this message board is so that people like you can generate discussion. So the fact that you were given a heckler’s veto by a moderator and told to go away is reprehensible.
I am not clear on what the answer is to the Olympic selection issue though. I do think that selecting an elite who couldn’t prove it on a certain day does snack of elitism. I do think subjectivity is lessened by having a race where the selections are made by the results in the race, and not potentially something less objective. I also would be concerned about someone not being sure of his status and trying to race too many marathons to ensure selection. But you generated discussion, and that is the point of this site, or at least that is what I thought.

agreed 100%

I love that Okeefe and Lindwurm just performed and let their legs tell this horrible opinion to go and shove it!

Agreed.

So Mantz & Young were the 2 with the standard & go 1-2. Korir is an Olympian who has run 2:07. Feel like there are a ton of guys you could have argued for 3rd. Korir bested them today & makes the team.

On the women's side, maybe you could say Sisson was off or maybe Fiona O'Keeffe is the real deal. Either way they both make the team & O'Keeffee doesn't go to the Olympics with the presented criteria. Say what you want to say about Lindwurm. She wouldn't be top-3 on paper. You want to send D'Amato or Hall instead? Both great runners but both have shown that they don't always perform well in the heat.

Erasing the Trials erases an American winning a meaningful marathon. It erases sponsorship exposure at the event & afterwards. It erases local qualifiers getting stories in their hometown newspapers. Nothing I watched today makes me think the process is broken. I don't want USATF kicking Lindwurm off the team because D'Amato is a good time trialer (I like D'Amato, just using her as the example).

Under my 2+1 system, the top two would be on the team, joined by someone who has also earned a spot through performances over the previous 12 (or 18) months, based on metrics that are known to all (absolutely no room for "decision making" by people we can't trust).

I like my system better.

It would generally yield a stronger team.

: )

The jury's still out until mid-August regarding those selected in today's races. Unless the two you reference both finish in the top 30 in Paris, Amby's thesis wasn't refuted today.

Just have Max Siegel pick the teams. Highest bribe wins!!!