That USA Track & Field didn’t have a plan in place to settle a tie was bad enough.
But it made the situation much worse by introducing the possibility of using a coin flip to decide the final spot in the women’s 100 meters for the London Olympics.
A day after Allyson Felix and Jeneba Tarmoh finished in a dead heat for third in 11.068 seconds, the USATF announced Sunday that it had created a tiebreaking procedure in which the two women could choose among one of them declining the spot, a runoff or a coin flip. That’s ridiculous for a sport that has had enough problems maintaining credibility over the years.
One of the beauties about track and field is its ability to determine a definitive victor, not only against competitors but against the clock, measuring tape and history. That needs to continue — and probably will; it’s hard to imagine Felix and Tarmoh allowing something so arbitrary to make the decision.
It’s also hard to make heads or tails of why the USATF would suggest anything else.
– Scott Silverstein
