How Breaux Greer Made the Olympic Team

Maybe it was because my brain was waterlogged from two very moist laps at Fresh Pond, but when Jonathan Wyner mentioned that he had been reading about American Javelin Record Holder Breaux Greer being named to the Olympic Team, well I didn't quite get it at first.

Breaux Greer? He's a very colorful guy, but... he didn't even make the finals of the Javelin competition at the Olympic Trials. How could he be on the Olympic team?

That sent me scurrying to the USATF web site to try to understand the Olympic Team selection process, and how it interacts with the IAAF rules.

Here is what I found out:

1. The IAAF and IOC establish qualifying standards for all Olympic Track and Field events: an "A" standard (better) and a "B" standard. The "A" and "B" standards are used to control the number of competitors a country can enter in a given event.

A country can enter up to three competitors in an event, providing all have met the "A" standard. However, a country can only enter ONE competitor if that competitor has not achieved the "A" standard.

To be considered for these standards, performances must be achieved in in competitions that adhere to the IAAF rules and fall within a specific time frame.

For the Javelin Throw, the "A" standard for the 2008 Olympics is 81.80m and the "B" standard is 77.80m.

2. The USOC establishes a selection process for the U.S. team. The goals of this process are to field the strongest team with the maximum number of athletes allows by IOC and IAAF rules. Note that ALL athletes nominated to the U.S. Olympic team must have met the Olympic "B" standard.

3. The USOC selection process for all individual events (excludes relays) also requires that athletes compete in their event at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials. In an ideal world, all the competitors in an event at the trials will have met the Olympic "A" standard. Then, selecting athletes for the Olympic team is easy: take the top three ranked competitors and you're done. However, if not all athletes in the finals have met the "A" standard, complications ensue.

4. If the top finisher at the trials has the "A" standard, then the top three finishers with the "A" standard are selected. For example, if the second- and fourth-place finishers have only the "B" standard, but the first, third, and fifth have the "A" standard, the first third and fifth finishers are selected.

5. If the top finisher at the trials has only the "B" standard, then the selection depends on how many other athletes in the competition have the "A" standard. If TWO OR MORE competitors have the "A" standard, then the top two (or three) competitors with the "A" standard are selected. For example, if the first place finisher has the "B" standard, but the next three have the "A" standard, guess who gets left out? The top finisher! If the top finisher has the "B" standard and NO competitor or only ONE competitor has the "A" standard, then ONLY the top finisher is selected.

Ok, so what happened in the Javelin in the 2008 Olympic Trials? Well Beaux Greer competed and finished 17th, so he met the participation criterion.

In the finals, the results were:

1 Bobby Smith 76.06m 249-06
2 Mike Hazle 75.76m 248-07
3 Brian Chaput 75.63m 248-01

However, among all the competitors, only Leigh Smith (not Bobby!), Hazle, and Greer had met the Olympic "A" standard. This meant that the first and third finishers, Bobby Smith and Brian Chaput, were left off the team, and Leigh Smith, Hazle, and Greer were selected.

So there you have it.

But even that convoluted selection process is simple compared to how the relay teams are chosen. don't even get me started on that one.