Olympic qualification details
March 6th, 2008 Posted in ConnieIn recent years several Olympic sports have reduced the numbers of athletes competing and require a world ranking in order to participate. Some sports like swimming and track and field still have US Olympic trials whereby the top 2 or 3 in each event at the trials qualify. Cycling however now has a very complicated system of points and rankings. How is the team selected? More importantly, how does Taylor qualify??
There are in fact no US trials, he is currently on the US Olympic ‘long’ team based on his placings and times in recent World Cups.The individual pursuit entrants in Beijing will be as follows: the World Champion, World Cup OVERALL winner (he tied for first! lost on decision), World “B” winner, and top 5 in World Rankings, plus one member from each of the top 8 Team Pursuit teams.In Taylor’s case, he suffers because the US does not field a team pursuit so he has to rely on the rankings at this point where he is currently ranked in the top 5 in the Worlds — and the only points available are those from the upcoming World Championships in Manchester. If Taylor has a good ride (meaning in the top 8), he should accrue enough points to qualify to ride the Olympic Pursuit on August 15th! 16 athletes only will ride the event that day.Taylor also lost valuable points when we learned the he did not earn 100 points for winning Nationals as previously thought, but only 10. Ten! Because no US rider rode the pursuit in the 2007 Worlds, he qualifies for only 1/10th of the points that a top ranked country qualifies for. this is as inane as it gets and does little to encourage ‘emergent’ riders. Argh.In any case, he’s standing 3rd overall in points. It’s going to be close.
Photo courtesy of Robert Beck — LA Velodrome March 2008 — 
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