- Joined
- Jan 11, 2014
Skating is the only sport I know of that will replace a skater due to politics and ignore the supposed Olympic trial's placements.
It's not exactly the same situation, but in gymnastics there is an Olympic trials that is separate from the National competition. And they do not pick the automatic top 5 (or 6, depending on how large the team can be) men and women. The selection committee uses the trials as a demonstration but makes an announcement on the team later. Now, this is mainly done because they are trying to pick the best possible team, and they occasionally need to choose gymnasts who are good at a particular apparatus to make sure the team as a whole is well-rounded on all events, but the fact remains that you can place 3rd or 4th in the trials and not be put on a 5 person team.
Also, I don't really get why people have such a hard time with the idea that placement at Nationals does not automatically = on the Olympic team. It is a national competition, but it is not called the Olympic trials. Other sports have a specific competition called "Olympic trials" that is often separate from Nationals. Figure skating does not have this. Also, the USFSA said before Nationals that the placements would not necessarily be the eventual team members. Granted, most casual viewers would have no idea of this, but if you care enough to be more than a casual viewer this was not a secret.