Jordyn Wieber, the famous American gymnast, finished fourth in the overall preliminary round behind two Americans and one
Russian.
She has a storied history. She was all-around world
champion in 2011. She was national
champion two years in a row. She is a powerful, skilled gymnast, likely
the best of an American team which might be the best team ever. Yet she
will not be in the finals for the individual championship. Why? While
fourth over-all, she was third on the American team in the individual
preliminaries. And each team can send no more than two representatives
to the individual championship finals.
Now this might be good for
television ratings, this might make some lesser gymnasts happy to go
and perform in the finals, it certainly will make politicians who want
to "spread the wealth around" happy.
But it certainly is opposed
to every tenet of competitive athletics, which values effort, ability
and achievement. And fairness.
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