Yesterday we looked into the Australian selection policy for the 2024 Olympic Games.
Upon first glance, there is nothing too outlandish contained within. As with several other countries, emphasis has been placed on the Paris Test Event this August. A top-8 finish at the WTCS Final in Pontevedra could also earn an athlete automatic qualification; again, this is not dissimilar to other countries like Germany.
Australia, however, has a delicate history when it comes to selection policies.
At a number of major championships over the past two decades, there have been high profile fall-outs.
One of the biggest instances came in 2000 ahead of the home Olympic Games in Sydney. Two time world champion Emma Carney was omitted from the team for Sydney amid dubious circumstances.
The Carney case stemmed from two primary issues. The first was that the selection policy drawn up by Triathlon Australia was worded ambiguously and invited confusion. The second issue was that one of the key qualification races was cut short after an official made an error.
The combination of these factors saw other athletes preferred to Carney, even though she understood that she had fulfilled the criteria to earn selection.
While Carney appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and enjoyed success during the litigation, Triathlon Australia’s decision stood. Allegations of commercial bias also came to the fore as Carney was sponsored by one bank while Triathlon Australia was sponsored by another.
Today, the landscape is a little different as the 2024 selection policy has been carefully worded (while still allowing for selectorial discretion). Moreover, the professionalisation of triathlon over the past twenty years means that errors by officials are fewer and further between. (Although they are not infallible as this recent case shows).
However, ahead of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, it seemed few of the lessons from Sydney had been heeded.
Three Australian coaches made accusations that Triathlon Australia wanted certain athletes to win races ahead of the Games in order to boost their rankings. In doing so, Triathlon Australia would have been able to fix the world rankings to ensure they received maximum spots in Tokyo.
As it happened, Australia did in fact qualify a full quota of three men and three women to Tokyo. They were the only country to do so.
In light of Tokyo, Carney called for a review into Triathlon Australia. Triathlon Australia subsequently suspended Carney’s membership.
The talk of race fixing was not the only controversy Triathlon Australia faced in Tokyo. WTCS medallist Natalie Van Coevorden was unexpectedly left at home.
Having opted to train overseas during the pandemic in 2020 rather than remain in Australia, Van Coevorden spoke out about how that was used against her when the Tokyo team was selected. She felt unduly punished for choosing to go outside the national team system.
Selection was also at the heart of another controversy at the London Olympics in 2012. In that case, the Olympic champion from 2008, Emma Snowsill, was left off of the team and could not defend her title. She was unsuccessful with her appeal against the discretionary selection that counted against her.
Nor have Triathlon Australia’s selection issues been confined to the realm of the Olympic Games.
In 2014, Snowsill spoke out about the murkiness of the selection policy deployed at the Commonwealth Games that year.
While Emma Moffatt and Aaron Royle locked up nomination automatically in 2014, the remaining two male and two female slots were left to the discretion of Triathlon Australia. As no clear parameters were provided for how Triathlon Australia would make the selection, confusion was the order of the day.
With the Paris Olympics on the horizon, then, Triathlon Australia will likely pray for a major championships to pass without contention.
They have cleared the first hurdle by creating a fairly robust selection policy. Future hurdles remain, though, including not being accused of fixing races.
