Jamaica's Olympic team should select itself »

Jamaica's Olympic team should select itself

Veronica Campbell-Brown has been looking impressive over both the 100 and 200-metre events since her fourth-place finish in the shorter sprint and victory in the half-lap event at the National Championships last month.

So good has been her form, especially over 100 metres, that people have begun to clamour for her to be part of the team representing Jamaica in the individual flat-out 'no guts, no glory event'.

While my respect for Campbell-Brown and her ability to do well on the international stage know no bounds, I do not agree.

Some years ago, Merlene Ottey, the most decorated female athlete in history, faced a Jamaican contingent, at an Olympic Games, who didn't want her there.

So embarrassed was Jamaica's champion that she never ran for our country again, though she has continued to defy the status quo on retirement and continued representing Slovenia.

Policy change

That situation came up because of the power the committee that picks Jamaica's Olympic teams is able to wield.

Whether their decision at the time to insert Ottey over an obviously faltering Peter-Gaye Dowdie, despite Ottey finishing out of contention for an individual place in the sprint event was correct or not, the repercussions were long-lasting.

Dowdie has never been the same and there are questions about whether the committee's decision has something to do with that. Ottey certainly has not been the same.

The point I am getting at is there needs to be a policy change when it comes to the picking of Jamaica's track and field teams.

I don't generally tend to follow the United States (US) when it comes to their policies, but in the case of track and field, they have earned my respect in that regards (drug findings not considered).

Replacing athletes

At the US national trials, when the race is over, you are right then and there welcomed to the Olympic team.

There are no 'little meetings' about who should be on the team and there are no question marks.

If you don't do well at the trials, tough luck.

There are also questions about whether or not Kerron Stewart, Shelly-Ann Fraser and Sherone Simpson have fallen off form so badly that at least one of them needs to be replaced.

The three have managed to muster one 10.9-odd seconds race a piece but haven't done much more. None of them have found the form they were blessed with at the national trials, where 10.88 was only good enough for fourth place.

Even with that in mind, I am suggesting that the country would be fully supporting these three young women were there no chance that Campbell-Brown could make the team.

Needs to stop

I am not saying that Campbell-Brown might not do well and may be better than those who made the team ahead of her.

What I am saying is that the potentially infractious practice of assessing the trials after the event needs to stop.

Marion Jones suffered at the hands of US track policy and so has Tyson Gay. Injuring himself at the start of the 200 earlier this year, he is out. Though it is quite possible that Gay represents the US' best chance of beating Usain Bolt in the half-lap event, he wasn't good enough on the day - and that is the end of that.

I don't think the committee should be abandoned altogether, because I am certain there are particular circumstances that would require its input.

However, those should be limited. For instance, if there is an injury prior to the Olympics, the committee should inform the runner next in line to suit up for Jamaica. Or if there is a drug issue, as is the current case in the 100-metre men's team, then the next best person should be asked to come on board.

Until the national trials get to the stage where they are respec-ted as much as the big-event athletes take pride in attending, the kinds of questions going around will come up from time to time and I can't see them being helpful.

Question: How do you tell an athlete who has worked hard to make the national team that her efforts didn't mean anything because she has been relegated to the bench?

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