WAG Open letter to Tom Forster regarding team selection

[Deleted member 26718]

I'd like to give Tom Forster another chance, and for the sake of our athletes and medal chances in the future, hope that he might actually listen to reason on this issue. Here are some reasons why I believe prioritizing (or even solely basing your decision on) the most recent AA ranking is a very bad idea. Feel free to add reasons I didn't think of.

- medals are earned via AA, team, and events; AA ranking will simply not translate well to event or team medals
- ignores team and event imbalances (such as too many athletes having floor and vault as their best event)
- forces most athletes to try to peak at trials, instead of where they should peak (Olympics/Worlds)
- temporarily injured athletes won't make it, even if they'd be fine by Olympics/Worlds
- event specialists have no chance, except by the lengthy multi-year Apparatus World Cup = less event medals
- one big mistake at trials knocks them out; this devalues Nationals and their performance throughout the season
- will lead to more injuries since no one is "safe" - more dangerous elements will have to be attempted at trials
- together this could lead to even more injuries from athletes also pushing for too much difficulty on their weak events
- if this "selection method" had been applied in previous Olympic years, the U.S. would certainly have earned less medals

Selecting a team should involve thought and deliberation, and will never please everyone. For each athlete chosen, one is not chosen. Just because Marta could act like an ogre doesn't mean every single thing she did was wrong.

 

[JBS]

- together this could lead to even more injuries from athletes also pushing for too much difficulty on their weak events

Pushing for more difficulty on strong events can lead to injury too.

 

[Tweb]

I'd like to give Tom Forster another chance, and for the sake of our athletes and medal chances in the future, hope that he might actually listen to reason on this issue. Here are some reasons why I believe prioritizing (or even solely basing your decision on) the most recent AA ranking is a very bad idea. Feel free to add reasons I didn't think of.

- medals are earned via AA, team, and events; AA ranking will simply not translate well to event or team medals
- ignores team and event imbalances (such as too many athletes having floor and vault as their best event)
- forces most athletes to try to peak at trials, instead of where they should peak (Olympics/Worlds)
- temporarily injured athletes won't make it, even if they'd be fine by Olympics/Worlds
- event specialists have no chance, except by the lengthy multi-year Apparatus World Cup = less event medals
- one big mistake at trials knocks them out; this devalues Nationals and their performance throughout the season
- will lead to more injuries since no one is "safe" - more dangerous elements will have to be attempted at trials
- together this could lead to even more injuries from athletes also pushing for too much difficulty on their weak events
- if this "selection method" had been applied in previous Olympic years, the U.S. would certainly have earned less medals

Selecting a team should involve thought and deliberation, and will never please everyone. For each athlete chosen, one is not chosen. Just because Marta could act like an ogre doesn't mean every single thing she did was wrong.

I agree with you, except for giving Tom another chance. Everyone is so concerned with fairness but they also want the team to win medals, sometimes those objectives can't be perfectly balanced. I say we give Aimee Boorman a chance as coordinator.

 

[JBS]

I guess we'll see how the team does.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

One big mistake at trials knocks out many people at trials In many sports.

Track and swimming immediately come to mid.

And seriously if Simone had made a “big” mistake do you think she would of been out? The selection committe would of used their discretion and put her on….

Same with peaking…….. again the objective is to qualify. To qualify you need to win, thinking track and swimming again