I was struck by the hodge-podge of procedures that different sposts are using for their selection processes. As far as I can tell, Navrotalova was put on the team simply because she was selected by Billie Jean King, the team captain.
In ladies gymnastics, they kept making the point that these so-called "Olympic trials" are just a dog and pony show. As the commentators explained, the only thing they decided was that the top two finishers (so far, the two Courtneys) would be guarenteed an invitation to the training camp next month where the real selection takes place, apparently by just the opinion of the American Olympic coach and her staff.
As I understand it, this change in procedures was instituted in the wake of a poor performance by the American team in 2000, and the purpose of the selection procedure is to give the coaching staff the opportunity to seed the team with specialists in particular apparatuses, rather than just go with the top all-arounds.
Commentator Tim Daggert went even farther. One of the girls received a poor mark (9.1) on her vault, and the commentators speculated that the judging panel mistakenly believed that she either vaulted short or too much to the side. Television replays showed that this wasn't the case, so Daggert praised the new selection system form taking the decission-making power out of the hands of the judges, who might make a mistake, and allowing the coaching staff to override the judges marks.
Quite a bt different from figure skating. Except under very unusual circumstances, the top three at U.S. Nationals go to the Olympics, period.
Mathman
