Controversial appeal process leaves Sophie Coldwell off the British team for Paris Olympics
British Triathlon panel elects to stick with original decision after arbitrator sides with athlete
Photo by:
Kevin Mackinnon
We’ve written a lot about the incredibly difficult decisions selectors were going to have to make when it came to picking the American and British women’s triathlon teams (not to mention the French men’s team) for the Paris Games this summer. Both countries feature a number of top athletes and would have to leave some big names off the roster this summer.
The American team would leave off Rio gold medalist Gwen Jorgensen and Tokyo bronze medalist Katie Zaferes. The French team didn’t include two-time world champion Olympic mixed relay bronze medalist Vincent Luis. Last week we learned that Jonathan Brownlee wouldn’t be on the men’s team for Paris as the selection panel went with Sam Dickinson to accompany Alex Yee. (The British team only qualified two men – it’s the first time a Brownlee hasn’t been on the Olympic team since 2004). Yesterday the final women’s team member was announced to accompany reigning world champion Beth Potter and Tokyo silver medalist Georgia Taylor-Brown – Kate Waugh would be the third woman.
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Coldwell, 29, (pictured above with Yee, Taylor-Brown and Dickinson as part of the gold-medal mixed relay team at the Commonwealth Games) was ranked four spots higher than Waugh, 25, in the Olympic ranking (eighth to 12th), and also finished ahead of Waugh at WTCS Cagliari in May, a race British Triathlon had declared would be a “priority” race. Potter took third in Cagliari, while Taylor-Brown finished sixth, one spot ahead of Coldwell, with Waugh rounding out the top 10. There were only 16 seconds separating the three women vying for the two available spots on the team.
“I’m disappointed, I’m sad but above all I’m angry at my federation,” Coldwell wrote on Instagram. “After the original selection was made, it became clear that I needed to appeal … We then found out that we won the appeal, the arbitrator approved it on the grounds of ‘failing to follow the selection policy.'”
Based on the arbitrator’s decision, Coldwell felt that she had a reasonable shot at being named to the team, but ultimately the panel stuck with its original decision.
“The panel would have to meet again, to redo selection and use their policy properly,” Coldwell wrote. “I knew it would be an uphill battle to get them to admit they had made a mistake, but I thought a fair and competent panel would get it right. But no, still not enough.”
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After Coldwell’s post and a number of angry comments to it, British Triathlon told a number of outlets (including Tri247 and Triathlete) that it was an extremely difficult decision and that the event in Cagliari, while a priority event, was not a qualification race. Automatic selection was available for Tokyo medalists through a podium finish at the Paris Test Event. The only other automatic selection possibility was to make the podium at the Paris Test Event and the Grand Final – Potter won both and thus nailing her spot to Paris. Waugh did take the silver medal at last year’s Grand Final in Pontevedra, where Coldwell finished seventh.
Coldwell has since followed up with a post on Instagram that includes an excerpt from the arbitrator’s decision which states that the panel should have placed more priority on the Cagliari result;
After the abitrator’s decision, the three-person British Triathlon panel met again and chose to stick with its original decision.
