If I am reading this right, Swiminfo.com is reporting that Craig Stevens is indeed going to back out of the 400 and leave it up to Australia Swimming to "pick another member of the Olympic Team" to swim that race in Athens. If I am ANY other country, swimmer, the 3rd place finisher at the Trials or an organization interested in ethics, then I am raising a stink on this one!!!! Thorpe DQ'd and the Aussies are going to skirt the rule and get him in anyway. They would be relegated to the status of Ben Johnson, Rosie Ruiz, and the 60+% of MLB who are on steriods! This is FREAKIN' UNBELIEVABLE. I have no respect for any of the aforementioned and if this happens, none for Ian Thorpe and the Australian swim federation (or whatever official name they hide behind) are in that seeming, stinking pile.
Parents
Former Member
The minimum condition to participation in the Olympics is to meet the IOC-mandated time (or country participation limit) and the sufficient condition is to meet that country's sometimes more selective critieria. Some countries let every swimmer that can meet the minimim time go the Olympics. Other countries allow coaches and/or adminstrators select participants based on their own sometimes arbritary criteria if they otherwise qualify. In the UK they have a more restrictive time criteria that has been applied to many other swimmers besides Foster (that is, the UK chooses not to send at least 2 entrants for every event where swimmers meet the qualifying time presumably to optimize use of limited resources).
Australia, like the US, has a system of selecting participants by Olympic Trials. The still hypothetical inclusion of Thorpe in the 400 is very transparent attempt to "change the rules" for expediency. As a someone who loves swimming it will be great to see Thorpe compete in the 400. As someone who admires athletes who adhere to the Olympic "spirit" Thorpes failure to outright "refuse" entry in the 400 is very disappointing and diminishes his standing in the Olympic movement. He will be forever compared unfavorably to Jeff Farrell the 1960 Olympian who had an emergency operation just before Trials, was ranked number 1 in the 100 free and REFUSED USOC offfer to hold a special time trial after the regularly scheduled time trials. Instead Jeff finished 4th in the 100 (touched out by fellow master swimmer Bruce Hunter ex-Harvard swimmer). Farrell did make the team in relays and earned two golds in the 800 free relay and 400 medley relay (there was no 400 free). Despite Thorpe's many swimming accomplishments he will not be remembered as a great Olympian based due to the machinations of the Australian Olympic community on his behalf. Not the stuff of a Olympic profile in courage.
At the end, if all we care about is fast swimming and how many medal our country can win then the Thorpe 400 issue is a non-event. If we still care about the Olympic ideal, am I still naive here, then Thorpe's swimming in the 400 diminishes his standing as a great Olympian.
The minimum condition to participation in the Olympics is to meet the IOC-mandated time (or country participation limit) and the sufficient condition is to meet that country's sometimes more selective critieria. Some countries let every swimmer that can meet the minimim time go the Olympics. Other countries allow coaches and/or adminstrators select participants based on their own sometimes arbritary criteria if they otherwise qualify. In the UK they have a more restrictive time criteria that has been applied to many other swimmers besides Foster (that is, the UK chooses not to send at least 2 entrants for every event where swimmers meet the qualifying time presumably to optimize use of limited resources).
Australia, like the US, has a system of selecting participants by Olympic Trials. The still hypothetical inclusion of Thorpe in the 400 is very transparent attempt to "change the rules" for expediency. As a someone who loves swimming it will be great to see Thorpe compete in the 400. As someone who admires athletes who adhere to the Olympic "spirit" Thorpes failure to outright "refuse" entry in the 400 is very disappointing and diminishes his standing in the Olympic movement. He will be forever compared unfavorably to Jeff Farrell the 1960 Olympian who had an emergency operation just before Trials, was ranked number 1 in the 100 free and REFUSED USOC offfer to hold a special time trial after the regularly scheduled time trials. Instead Jeff finished 4th in the 100 (touched out by fellow master swimmer Bruce Hunter ex-Harvard swimmer). Farrell did make the team in relays and earned two golds in the 800 free relay and 400 medley relay (there was no 400 free). Despite Thorpe's many swimming accomplishments he will not be remembered as a great Olympian based due to the machinations of the Australian Olympic community on his behalf. Not the stuff of a Olympic profile in courage.
At the end, if all we care about is fast swimming and how many medal our country can win then the Thorpe 400 issue is a non-event. If we still care about the Olympic ideal, am I still naive here, then Thorpe's swimming in the 400 diminishes his standing as a great Olympian.
