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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I tend to agree with Shaky. I hate it when someone says, "Sorry, that's our policy, there's nothing I can do." It sounds llike the Aussies figured out a way to make this right. If he's my teammate, I'd want him to swim his event. As for playing the "what if" game, he didn't swim the race and cramp up, or finish fourth, or get abducted by aliens for that matter. He fell off the block before the start of the race. I didn't think that the Trials meet was meant to be an end in itself but a means to an end--the selection of the Olympic team. Anyway, Stevens still gets to swim the 1500.
I tend to agree with Shaky. I hate it when someone says, "Sorry, that's our policy, there's nothing I can do." It sounds llike the Aussies figured out a way to make this right. If he's my teammate, I'd want him to swim his event. As for playing the "what if" game, he didn't swim the race and cramp up, or finish fourth, or get abducted by aliens for that matter. He fell off the block before the start of the race. I didn't think that the Trials meet was meant to be an end in itself but a means to an end--the selection of the Olympic team. Anyway, Stevens still gets to swim the 1500.
