Olympic Wild Cards - For Discussion
January 18th, 2008
Facebook is a great way to communicate with a large targeted audience. As a Laser lover, I am a member of the group “Laser Radial Chicks“. It’s good to keep in the know with what’s happening, and to meet other girls who enjoy sailing.
Every now and there all members of the group get a mass message sent. This one in particular grabbed my attention…
In the Radial there are 26 places at the Olympic Games. At the 2008 World Championships we had 50 Nations represented with 19 qualifying. In the 2008 World Championships 6 Countries qualify.
When any Country who qualified in the above way doesn’t send a sailor, this place then becomes a “Wild Card” that goes to a Nation that are not represented in any of the other classes.
This Wild Card system is only in place in the men’s & women’s windsurfing events and the single-handed men’s and women’s events. Out of these four classes we (Laser Radials) have the fewest places especially compared with the number of Nations racing.
So.. do YOU think this is right??.. Or do you think that the spare places should go to the next Country in the results of the 2008 World Championships who has yet to qualify??
http://www2.sailing.org/olympics2008/quali_details.pdf
PLEASE respond on this, I need to have numbers for & against Wild Cards in order to stand any chance of getting this system changed in time for Beijing!..
I am inviting the sender of this message to come onto LSD and explain to us in more detail of what the situation actually is.
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