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Emily Sarsfield Olympic bid-please sign petition.

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Signed.

Cannot understand the mentality shown by the boards here
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Done, I remember teaching both of you when you first came to Ravens. Can I claim to be Emilys first race coach? Toofy Grin
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Signed
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fatbob wrote:
Would be nice if the BBC in one of their bits of build up sycophancy put the Chef du Mission on the spot a bit about non selection policy.


+1 to fatbob's comment above. Much as I would love to support anyone who has the dedication and ability to pass IOC standards, I still find myself a bit bemused because David Horsely and Plugoby have got me thinking this whole Team GB situation is, frankly, totally disheartening and downright embarrassing… or does it really just boil down to funding? In which case, it might suck but at least there's some basis for the argument…? I can see from threads on here how much people in Plugboy's position are personally putting in in terms of financial investment so what's going on? If not for wont of central funding, what other criteria could you possibly have for denying a place to IOC A grade athletes?

Some simple (whether I agree with the rationale or not) explanation of non selection policy would make things a lot clearer for everyone.

In the meantime… signed, and everything crossed for a positive outcome.
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Signed -i believe it's over a thousand now. IF we all put in a fiver, that would pay for the trip (i'd hope). Where to donate my fiver?
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Tim Heeney, +1
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She is 34 on rankings. Top 32 qualify. She only gets to be top 32 because of injury to better skiiers. Last time BOA allowed people to compete due to others injuries....the competitors didn't cover themselves in glory. I am assuming that sending her will cost BOA some dosh and they don't want to spend it on someone who won't get through the first heat?

If she is self funding they should let her go. If she is taxpayer funded I would rather the funds went to training and infrastructure so we can pick up a medal here and there next time around.


That said - I've signed the petition......34th in the world ranking is still an awesome achievement.
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Thornyhill wrote:
I am assuming that sending her will cost BOA some dosh and they don't want to spend it on someone who won't get through the first heat?

That said - I've signed the petition......34th in the world ranking is still an awesome achievement.


In each heat there are 4 competitors and the first two go through, and given the frequent occurrence of falls in the event it's quite possible that she would get through the first heat. Madeye-Smiley
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As some athletes from other countries can no longer take part due to injury and national quota limits, Emily Sarsfield now has an official invitation from FIS to compete at Sochi. (Edit for clarity: But BOA are at the moment refusing to accept the invitation! rolling eyes ) As regards BOA (British Olympic Association) and BSS (British Ski & Snowboard) I think some of them are more interested in their own self-importance as officials and less interested in giving upcoming athletes the experience (and development opportunity) of competing in the Olympics even though the athletes have met the IOC/FIS participation criteria.


Last edited by And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports. on Fri 24-01-14 9:47; edited 1 time in total
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Alastair Pink,

Quote:

Emily Sarsfield now has an official invitation from FIS to compete at Soch

but not good enough news yet -


Last edited by So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much on Fri 24-01-14 9:28; edited 2 times in total
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Pamski, but this is being turned down by BOA, this is the fundamental argument of the legal case that is being presented by her legal team. There is legal precedence but since then BOA changed their rules.... the fight goes on.....
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andyman, thanks for putting me right -
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Sky News carries a statement by BOA. I note this part in particular:
"The Olympic Qualification Standards are purposely high. Given the investment that has gone into winter sport in the UK, it is expected that every athlete who ultimately competes for Team GB is in a position to deliver a credible performance at the Games."

1. The "Olympic Qualification Standards" referred to here are the self imposed British ones, not the IOC/FIS qualification requirements as Emily now has an invitation (which BOA don't want to take up).

2. What do they mean by "a credible performance"? Emily got 17th place in the World Championships as recently as November, which sounds pretty credible to me. Or do they mean our athletes must have a credible chance of winning a medal? I'm sure the official IOC position isn't that countries should only send athletes to the Games with a "credible" chance of winning a medal - if that rule were to be applied by every country then given that there are only 3 medals in any given event that would make the total number of athletes competing in an event only about 9 (for a 1 in 3 chance of getting a medal)! In the Ski Cross event there are 32 places, so the IOC expect there to be more than 9 times as many non-medal winners as medal winners. Baron Pierre de Coubertin will be turning in his grave... Evil or Very Mad
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Alastair Pink, great comment. Sky News need to know that view!
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As I read it the BOA have already declined her place which implies, given the time scale, that it will already have been offered to someone else and any legal challenges, petitions etc. are pointless.

The BOA have made the point that their rules have changed since the last Olympics and that all athletes were fully aware of the new selection criteria. I would love her to go, I think they probably should have let her go, but I think the moment has now passed and I see no likelihood of the situation changing.

I suspect that all of this stems from Sport England/ the BOA's ruthless focus on supporting success and casting everything else adrift. An approach vindicated by London 2012.
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Alastair Pink, The IOC position may well be different from that of the BOA but that doesn't really matter. ES would be there as a representative of GB/the BOA and therefore they get to decide.
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Surely if she self-funds she can go as part of the Independent Olympic Athletes?
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teapea wrote:
Surely if she self-funds she can go as part of the Independent Olympic Athletes?


Oh, I like that - and what a perfectly damning indictment of the BOA approach if she managed to get a result.
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Richard_Sideways, and what a glowing endorsement of their policy if she doesn't?

teapea, I don't think you can just turn up as an independent athlete. You need to be from Ruritania or a member of the Taliban ice dance team or something like that.

Anyone know what the cost is of actually sending an athlete to the games? Who pays for accommodation etc.
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Not the first time this has happened...
In similar circumstances Simon Bates got denied a chance to represent GB at the Moguls in 2006.
He was never going to win it - but felt sorry he never got the chance to simply be part of the Olympics.

http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=13739
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Signed
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Signed and shared on my Facebook page.
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All I see here is that the BOA want to be able to say is "we had x number of entries in these winter Olympics and came out with a high % success rate." That and the money to send another athlete... Plus there seems to be very little in the way of winter sports on this list: http://www.teamgb.com/boa-board

Unfortunately, this isn't swimming or cycling etc and therefore any extra funding earned from the games (while it would be good) isn't going to be ground breaking enough for any of these athletes. They self fund the rest of the time and compete well. But it's not football and they aren't falling over for millions of £'s a year so it's really not high up enough on the general public's radar (plus, on that note, we send our footballers out to compete everywhere with no hope of them winning Toofy Grin )

At the end of the day, she has been invited (whether on a technicality or not) and whether she was to finish first or last she should be allowed that experience (and that goes for any qualifying Team GB athlete). It would be different if she missed a place because of a better GB skier or was so far off the mark with results that she hadn't qualified, but to refuse an invite to the Olympics is terribly wrong and completely misses the point of the games themselves. IMO these types of politics have no place in sports, yet always seem to ruin something...


Last edited by So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much on Fri 24-01-14 14:08; edited 1 time in total
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
foxtrotzulu wrote:
As I read it the BOA have already declined her place which implies, given the time scale, that it will already have been offered to someone else and any legal challenges, petitions etc. are pointless.

The BOA have made the point that their rules have changed since the last Olympics and that all athletes were fully aware of the new selection criteria. I would love her to go, I think they probably should have let her go, but I think the moment has now passed and I see no likelihood of the situation changing.


Nothing's pointless... As if Emily doesn't make a stand this will keep happening! The rules haven't changed, the selection criteria is exactly the same. Emily over achieved British standards (3 x top 24's at world cup) with 17th at World Champs and 18th/20th/21st in World Cup against the very girls that will be at the Olympics! In Vancouver BOA and BSS decided to exercise a discretion to take the reallocated quotas. They can and have done it before... Why not do it again? Ski Cross is unpredictable.... You are only ever 2 heats from top 8, and 3 heats from top 4!!

Such a shame!!
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Signed - now 2304 supporters.
That's my first online petition - I don't see many causes as worthy as this one.
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Vicsars, I meant pointless in terms of getting ES to Sochi. Not pointless in terms of changing policy, enriching lawyers etc. etc.

Incidentally, I think I read something from the BOA saying that their internal rules/policy/approach had changed with regard to exceptions and hand-back places.

I'd like to hear the BOA logic behind this decision rather than simply 'it's against the rules'.
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Vicsars, as you are probably closer to this than most, is she actually going to mount a legal challenge or not?
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Wonder what the BOA 'official' reply to my question on their facebook page will be!
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Signed up to 2,438 and shared on FB
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The BOA/BSS selection criteria for Sochi is identical to Vancouver (slight change to the performance standard... They now require 3 x top 24's and it used to be 2 x top 16's or best ranked if no one hit that... As field size was a lot smaller in 2010).

The clause not to accept any "previously unallocated quotas" was in the Vancouver policy also. However the BOA/ BSS have a discretion to waive this like they did in 2010.

Emily was 34 on the Olympic list and needed to be 32 for Britain to select her! They say they adopt this "unallocated quota" policy to all winter sports but we know Short Track does allow them. Every discipline gets quotas allocated differently... And in Ski Cross they are very difficult to obtain, hence having to be in the top 32! Given the nature of the sport the more athletes you have on the start the higher your chances of a good result!

No disrespect to the cross country guys because I think its great that there is 4 of them going to Sochi, but apart from one all have world rankings in the 100's and one ranked 500+.

Now GB have declined the quota the next inline is Norways Hedda Bernsten - the silver medalist in Vancouver!

I also heard today that due to injuries and team sizes being over quota they are now offering quotas to place 38 on the list! Sad
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I've not read the thread, if she is raising a lot of her own funding anyway could she go as an independent?
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Megamum, I don't think you can do that. As I said on the other ES thread I think you have to be from Ruritania or part of the Taliban/Palestinian ice dance team.
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Megamum, also I think the place is for GBR
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According to this report Emily has dropped her legal case against the BOA because if she lost she would be faced with large bills for BOA's legal costs.

Emily's lawyer said “Emily has been so gracious and she’s obviously devastated but she’s said that even if she’s not the beneficiary, she hopes that some good comes out of it.
This policy has no place in British sport [not taking up the reallocated place]. It’s such a dogmatic position to take that no one else in the world to my knowledge takes it.
“But the important thing is that this issue has been raised and it won’t be swept under the carpet. There’s been a lot of support and people rallying together for the cause.”


Let's hope as Emily's lawyer says that some good comes out of this. Hopefully the BOA & BSS will re-assess their dogmatic position on not accepting re-allocated places and that the maximum number of British athletes who meet IOC qualification requirements get to compete in future....
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They accepted the places in Vancouver!
Let's hope they see sense for 2018!!
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