The Anger Blog, A Stupid New Policy in the Olympics
Published on the date shown and kept as written. This is opinion about politics and public life, not clinical guidance.
How is it possible that gymnast Jordyn Wieber, the reigning all-around world champion, failed to qualify for the Olympic finals in that event? There will be 24 qualifiers who will be seeking the gold medal, but Jordyn will not be one of them. When the qualifying competition ended, Jordyn had the fourth best individual score of all competitors, behind only three others: Russia's Viktoria Komova and Jordyn's two United States teammates, Gabby Douglas and Aly Raisman.
The reason the 17-year old Wieber will not be competing is a rule (instituted in 2004) in Olympic gymnastics that limits countries to only two individuals in the all-around and event finals. In this instance, there will be 21 competitors vying for best all around who scored lower than Jordyn during the qualifying round. Does this seem fair? Should this rule be changed?
It certainly would make me angry if I spent years of my life sacrificing my time, energy, and money, only to be deprived of the opportunity to go for the gold medal (or any medal, for that matter) in my special event. This will also have an adverse effect on her ability to capitalize on endorsements, etc. The cost to Miss Wieber of this new Olympic policy is difficult to imagine. It's an even tougher pill to swallow, knowing that other Olympic sports do not limit your country to two participants in the finals. And for good reason: Any one country is likely to be very strong in certain sports or events and mediocre or weak in others. (The Chinese should also be angry that the "two-per-country" rule applies to table tennis as well.)
You know what it reminds me of? The practice in recent years of 'not keeping score' in youth sports, so the kids won't get their feelings hurt or experience negative self-esteem. But hey! This is not kindergarten kickball. It's the Olympics! Isn't it supposed to be all about competition and determining which countries are developing the best athletes? If one nation's team has three athletes who qualify for the finals and others have none, then that's just how it is. I'm sure the former will have to sit out in numerous other sports or events in which they have no one qualifying.
So what exactly is our purpose now in the Olympics? Making sure that none of the teams get their feelings hurt? What this ridiculous rule does do is ensure that the audiences (including the judges!) are not going to be seeing all the top all-around gymnasts. The policy needs to be changed, before, hard as it is to imagine, committees for the other sports decide it's a good idea. If you're as angry as I am, then you'll likely agree.