#bc if you won’t take people who are lich rally qualified. then somebody’s gonna get desperate enough eventually

[bright-and-burning]

what the actual fuck is uk athletics on. like what do you mean “setting tough standards helps improve performance levels” my brother in christ you are refusing to take athletes who have qualified for the olympics to the olympics. and there are a NUMBER of examples this year of people who did qualify (including a woman whose best throw this season would have placed her 6th at the last olympics) but weren’t selected. what kind of logic is it that having teammates that don’t make it out of early rounds is going to bring performance down? how do you know that being selected for the olympics isn’t going to inspire crazy PRs, like molly seidel getting bronze at the 2020 olympics in her third ever marathon? you know what country always takes the absolute maximum number of athletes in track and field, even when that means people are going to get eliminated in round 1? team usa. you know what country has the most medals in track and field? team usa.

there’s a lot of complaints abt how the us olympic trials works whenever a big name goes out in a shocking or tragic way but jesus christ at least we avoid all this bullshit. if you make it, you make it; top three at the trials and you’ve qualified, congrats, you’re an olympian. none of this qualifying but arbitrarily not getting selected nonsense.