The Cruelty and Honesty of the US Trials

The Trials for the Osaka team, aka, the AT&T Outdoor Championships, were one of the toughest meets in the world. In fact, the team will leave several potential gold medalists, as well as other medalists, at home. While the system is cruel, it is also the only honest way to go, in this writer’s mind.

In July 1992, I was sitting behind the pole vault pit in Tad Gormley Stadium, when Dan O’Brien, the newest thing in the decathlon, no heighted. He was not a good vaulter anyway and had not started at a low height to have at least a clearance. By the time he made his third attempt, Dan was nearly hyperventilating. A German film crew was filming this fiasco as well as NBC. Dan did not clear a height, hence, the best decathlete in the world would not make the U.S. team.
This began about 48 hours of all kinds of weird attempts to get Dan on any Olympic team, but it was to no avail. Dan O’Brien would have to wait four years to have his two days of fame to win the Olympic Decathlon. Was the pole vault event heart breaking? Yes! But, it was also fair.
The U.S. system of trails presupposes that athletes are ready to rumble, ready to compete on this day and nothing else matters. It gives both the veteran and the emerging stars a fair shot at making the top three. The system is brutal, but the rounds, and the finals, in front of screaming fans, give the athlete a feeling of the World or Olympic final. The rest, is up to them.
In the AT&T Outdoor Championships this year, we had a series of surprises: Christian Cantwell in the shot put, Daniel Lincoln in the steeplechase, Sanya Richards in the 400 meters, Shayne Culpepper in the 1,500 meters. I remember many great athletes not making the teams in the past. Sometimes, they made the next team, sometimes, they did not.
As cruel a process as it seems, the process is honest and real. There are fast runners and slow runners, there are good hurdlers and 400 meter runners. To make the USA Track team, one better be one of the best in the world, or they do not stand a chance in most events.

Author

Larry Eder
Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys. Theme song: Greg Allman, " I'm no Angel."
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