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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Originally posted by swimmer
At what point is a swimmer good enough that rules become technicalities? or are all rules technicalities that swimmers shouldn't worry about?
Once again I state that there are no rules but just guidelines. In anycase the answer is found in good old fashioned human common sense. The choice here is less painful than everyone wants to believe, and all the fuss in the forum is probably due to the fact that Thorpe's inclusion in the 400 means would mean a gold less in the heap that the US swimming team anyway will win in Athens.
By common sense I mean the fact that the damaged party (Stevens) will be competing anyway in Athens and, secondly, the fact that Thorpe is objectively dominant in this event (I don't believe any underdog will win this race if he is in it, anyone willing to bet something on this one?) and lastly the fact that Thorpe has given to Australian sports more than any other Aussie in decades (all the mediatic uproar around his exclusion proves it). If one of these facts weren't true then things would probably be different.
It is not the end of civilization and there will be no thugs going around beating up old ladies.... (sounds like a scene from Mel Brooks' "Blazing Saddles"...)
Originally posted by swimmer
At what point is a swimmer good enough that rules become technicalities? or are all rules technicalities that swimmers shouldn't worry about?
Once again I state that there are no rules but just guidelines. In anycase the answer is found in good old fashioned human common sense. The choice here is less painful than everyone wants to believe, and all the fuss in the forum is probably due to the fact that Thorpe's inclusion in the 400 means would mean a gold less in the heap that the US swimming team anyway will win in Athens.
By common sense I mean the fact that the damaged party (Stevens) will be competing anyway in Athens and, secondly, the fact that Thorpe is objectively dominant in this event (I don't believe any underdog will win this race if he is in it, anyone willing to bet something on this one?) and lastly the fact that Thorpe has given to Australian sports more than any other Aussie in decades (all the mediatic uproar around his exclusion proves it). If one of these facts weren't true then things would probably be different.
It is not the end of civilization and there will be no thugs going around beating up old ladies.... (sounds like a scene from Mel Brooks' "Blazing Saddles"...)
