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.
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Former Member
Originally posted by Shaky
... That may be difficult for overly-litigious Americans, who sue when their daughters don't make the cheerleading squad, to understand; but the FAIR and SPORTSMANLIKE thing in all this would be for the BEST to compete, through whatever selection process the country wants to use.
...
To send Thorpe, you are making the assumption that he is the BEST. I acknowledge that this would be a fair assumption. But it is possible that he would have been beat that day.
I wonder if Thorpe had not been DQ'ed, and for some reason turned in a bad time. Would the same debate still be happening? Let's say he had a bad swim, but we all know that he is still more capable of winning the gold than the other Aussies, should he be sent to Athens then?
Originally posted by Shaky
... That may be difficult for overly-litigious Americans, who sue when their daughters don't make the cheerleading squad, to understand; but the FAIR and SPORTSMANLIKE thing in all this would be for the BEST to compete, through whatever selection process the country wants to use.
...
To send Thorpe, you are making the assumption that he is the BEST. I acknowledge that this would be a fair assumption. But it is possible that he would have been beat that day.
I wonder if Thorpe had not been DQ'ed, and for some reason turned in a bad time. Would the same debate still be happening? Let's say he had a bad swim, but we all know that he is still more capable of winning the gold than the other Aussies, should he be sent to Athens then?
