Richards calls for revamped Oly trials
Posted: Friday March 7, 2008 2:47PM; Updated: Friday March 7, 2008 4:53PM
VALENCIA, Spain (AP) – Sanya Richards doesn’t want her Olympic hopes hanging on what she considers an antiquated selection process in the United States.
“It’s a system that definitely needs to be reviewed and hopefully before I leave the sport it will be,” Richards said Friday at the World Indoor Championships.
Richards said the U.S. could fail to field its best athletes in Beijing in August if the selection process isn’t changed.
Richards, who won gold in the 2004 Athens Olympics in the 1,600 relay, is skipping the indoor season to concentrate on the Beijing Games, having made a full recovery from the health problems that closed out her season.
The trials will be held in Eugene, Ore., from June 27-July 6.
Richards, a three-time U.S. 400 outdoor champion, failed to qualify for the outdoor worlds in Osaka, Japan, last year after finishing fourth at the U.S. nationals due to illness. Instead, she ran the 200 and failed to get a medal, settling for a relay gold with the 1,600-meter team.
That followed a perfect outdoor season in the 400, which Richards capped with a second straight Golden League jackpot prize of $1 million.
“Anything can happen on any given day and, if someone is prepared to represent the country at a high level, I think they should be given an opportunity,” Richards said. “The best system would be to have two places and one wild card that is picked by the coach or a committee of people.”
Former Olympic 100-meter champion Maurice Greene defended the current system.
“That’s the life we live. In the United States we have so many great athletes that when you go out to compete, you have to be ready for the day,” the former 100- and 200-meter world champion told The Associated Press. “We’re not like other countries where they have only one great athlete in each event. We have six great athletes in every event and that’s why our system is what it is.”
Greene sympathized with Richards’ health problems but said he believes the system is fair.
“In '95 I went to the World Championships. In '96 I was hurt all year long. So you want to just let me go (to the Olympics)?” Greene said.
“I feel bad for her, she wasn’t able to go and I know if they had made some changes and adjustments she would have went there and competed great because she’s a great athlete. But that’s just our system.”
Richards isn’t so sure.
“It should be revisited because it’s been in place for so long … No one has challenged it,” the 23-year-old American said. “I got left out and I really think I could have made a difference if I was there.”
To get ready for this year’s trials, Richards will fit her schedule around Europe’s Golden League meets, racing in the 200 mostly since organizers have removed the 400 from the schedule.
A meet in Jamaica in May will be her first test.
“I have all the physical attributes and I’m running really hard so it’s about running my best race on that day and believing in myself,” Richards said. “Hopefully I’ll stun the world again.”
I wonder what she would have said if she made the team and got eliminated in the first round!?!..‘we should do away with qualifying rounds. It’s an antiquated system that hasn’t been challenged’…give me a break :o