OT: US women's sprinter spurns runoff, concedes spot on team

i was hoping for the coin flip...

I agree this seems very childish to me. I can understand her frustration being named the third place finisher, doing a victory lap, celebrating, etc. she also found out via reporters which was probably very uncomfortable and awkward. That said, how can she argue with the finish? She was tied for third. Just run the race again and figure it out. Apparently she is "overwhelmed" by emotions and doesn't think it's fair. Well, life's not always fair. Run it and beat Felix and prove it. I have some sympathy for her, but I'd have more if age would just race for the tiebreaker. This is so silly.

Duncan Meyer thinks poorly of her.

Reminds me of a spoiled child spurning a fair compromise after not getting her way completely.  Like she wants to get a reaction from people.

I think the appropriate response is apathy towards her.

The coach of the US Olympic Track team said she didn't have a committable offer to join the team anyway. 

well im a big allyson felix fan (we're both PK's). plus I just love everything about her, so im glad she's getting to run.

Not trying to thread jack, also Olympics related, but not sure if thread worthy.  Michigan is sending 16 athletes to the Olympics this year.

http://michigan.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1381422

Nobody will remember her in a week, anyway. 

A) How bad does NBC Sports hate this runner right now?

B) She obviously is preparing legal action over this fiasco.  If she wasn't, and wasn't confident in her ability to win the run off, why not take the coin flip and take the 50-50 shot?

Methinks she intends to take somebody - anybody - to court for this.

People are dumb.

Her childishness and stubbornness really seems to be aimed at the other woman who will be awarded the third spot.  She is causing the third-place winner to not feel good about the way she won--to not feel like a "winner" at all... hopefully she just ignores it and moves on... and hopefully the cry-baby realizes her immaturity for the situation and grows from this self-knowledge.

On a side note-- This situation makes me think about NFL & NCAA video reviews which, if applied to this situation, would still award her third place because the finish-line replay evidence is "inconclusive," not overturnable.

I don't want her competing in the Olympics for my country if that is the way she handled the situation, so it looks like it all worked out in the end.

Maybe she is slightly injured, or something, and knows that she wouldn't be able to win.

She is either letting her emotions get in the way or afraid of failure.

I much rather have an athelete who will not conceed anything and who puts it first on the field representing the good old USA.

Both runners still have to compete in the 200 m.  Tarmoh may feel that she'd be better off preparing for the 200 without having to adjust her training to accomodate the unexpected 100 m race.  A lot of very careful preparation goes into sprinting at that high a level, so it's no small thing to throw a race into your training regimen.  Also, she's the lesser accomplished of the two, and she may feel like she's already taken her best shot to make the team for the 100...I admit that this is a "best case scenario" way of looking at the situation, and it does seem like she just can't get over the fact that she thought she'd made it only to see that proven untrue. 

EDIT:  Bobby Kersee, coach for both runners, pushed hard for the tie-breaker not to be run until after the 200 m final. 

http://www.nbcolympics.com/news-blogs/blog=the-rundown/post/jeneba-tarmoh-concedes-100m-spot-to-allyson-felix.html

FWIW Tim Layden at Sports Illustrated had an interesting article this weekend that went into depth on how the times in the race were determined.

Link here

I think the article is worth reading because it certainly makes the issue seem a lot more complicated than some of the posters here seem to be doing while judging Tarmoh. For instance, if the time is supposed to be when the runner's torso crosses the line, where exactly does the torso start? When races are measured down to the millisecond, finding the start of the torso down to the fraction of an inch matters. Also, the initial timer measured Tarmoh ahead of Felix by one millisecond, which is why she was originally listed as 3rd place. Why did they make the decision to change the time?

I don't know if Tarmoh is definitely right. After all, where *exactly* does the torso start? But after seeing a few "It was a tie a runoff is fair what a baby" posts, I just felt the need to point out that she might actually have a case here. The first timer did measure her ahead, and if the offiicials didn't have good reason to change it, she might have a reason for appeal. But her grounds for appeal would be weakened if she agreed to this race. So I don't thinks she's being irrational for holding off.

I don't know. I'd give them both spots if possible. You prepare for months for one race and then you have to run another? What if you start poorly the second time or you react differently to only running against one person. A lot could go wrong. I don't think she's automatically a spoiled whiner for questioning the runoff. 

That said, I would do the runoff.

Not directed at anyone specifically, but just a note: If you're saying she's childish for saying they originally said she won, then took it back later, etc. and are one of the folks who still claim Fitz's TD in the OSU game should have counted, you're contradicting yourself.

Figured I'd try to tie this in to Michigan sports somehow.

I would've run the tiebreaker. Here is a pointer on how to win:

What's lost in this controversy is that neither one of them won the race.  They both finished well behind the runner-up.  In this case, third place isn't much to brag about when you finish that far behind.