Heath Thorpe Non-Selection

[Passion]

What’s the point of naming a national champion if that means nothing for selection to the big events?

Do you cancel National Championships in years where there are no Worlds?

 

[RedBirdie]

A bit of a theme in Australia. See my comment on Georgia Godwin above.

 

[makam]

The only years there aren’t Worlds are the years there are Olympics…both count as big events, no?

 

[Passion]

I mean like 1998, where there are no Worlds or Olympics.

Or we could even use next year as an example, only a few countries will be picking teams for the Olympics. There are more countries sending zero athletes to do gymnastics at the Olympics than countries that are sending teams. Should every other country just cancel their Nationals?

The point is that National Championships don’t exist just for team selection to big events.

 

[makam]

Whatever. I just think it is wrong for a country (any country) to name someone a champion and then, for no good reason, exclude them. If they had defending world champions on 5 apparatus and wanted to send them to defend their titles instead of sending their AA gymnast, that might be an argument but that seems to not be the case here. I think I am allowed to have an opinion and obviously national championships are not just selection events but if you have them, maybe the results should mean something.

 

[irichluck21]

I mean like 1998, where there are no Worlds or Olympics.

There are always continental championships and other “bigger” meets.
1998 had the Goodwill Games and World Cup+ World Cup Final

But predominantly, national championships are used to determine the national team and who gets funding.

 

[JDB]

Not selecting a national champion would be justified if he peaked for nationals and didn’t contribute to Gymnastics Australia’s team selection goals. Neither of those applied to Heath Thorpe.

 

[RedBirdie]

I think the writing was (faintly) on the wall when Australian didn’t select Thorpe to do AA at Oceania Championships.

 

[Matilda23]

Possibly Emma Dennis in 2008. I think she withdrew her appeal after being told it was affecting the team’s preparations.

 

[RedBirdie]

Thank you! An excellent memory. I was able to find this article.

Dennis withdraws challenge

www.google.com

 

[Matilda23]

I enjoy Heath’s gymnastics especially his leaps. But I’ve noticed his twisting skills on floor in competition have poor form…one leg in front of the other, bent left knee. Same with his Y2.5 on vault. Hopefully he’ll make improvements before Continentals in ‘24.

 

[irichluck21]

 

[irichluck21]

Ranked 1st in AA potential, ranked 2nd in actual AA.
Ranked 1st on SR, 2nd on FX, VT, HB, 3rd on PH.

So essentially in a 5-4-3 scenario, Heath is the guy you want.

Definitely not a closed story and I am sure more to come.

He had to pay $19,000 AUS in order to appeal. The appeal WAS granted. GA still selected the same team.

 

[RedBirdie]

I read the report and I still can’t make sense of this. The appendix referenced is not included in what the NST published, so there’s no way to see the actual scores. But somehow the guy who won nationals and was the top Aussie AAer at worlds is only the 3rd best AA athlete? Okay.

GA prepared a document entitled 2023 WC Results IAA Comparison (listed as Appendix 4), which compared the three IAA athletes, namely Clay Stephens, James Hardy and the Applicant, Heath Thorpe. That comparison summary included a number of results within the selection period:

a. Best stand alone IAA result (Thorpe 2nd)
b. Average of the last 3 IAA results (Thorpe 3rd)
c. Best potential result (Thorpe 1st)
d. Best potential result based only on IAA events (Thorpe 2nd),

and the addition of the totals from these four results led to Clay Stephens having the greatest total amongst the three IAA athletes (ie ranked 1st) and the Applicant ranked 3rd.

 

[Bogwoppit]

This is not a level playing field, by any stretch of the imagination. When the appeals process comes with a price tag like that, they literally are closing down an athletes right to question the process.

 

[irichluck21]

Or the appeal process costs that, but if the athlete wins, the federation should have to pay it back.

GA should have to pay Thorpe.

 

[Hatsumomo]

That whole process is an insult. $19K just to appeal, win the appeal, but still not receive a satisfactory answer as to how you’re the country’s top gymnast but still left off the Worlds team and the country still needs to be able to qualify a full team to the Olympics.

 

[gymfan]

Damn 19k AUD is A LOT.

 

[Passion]

The appeal process cost me a total of $19,000 AUD. This included the GA appeal fees, NST fees, and the costing of my own legal team.

How much were the fees vs how much were his lawyers? Was the GA appeal and the NST appeal two separate appeals? If he was appealing to the NST why was there a GA fee.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-hea...ium=copy_link&utm_campaign=p_lico+share-sheet

The GoFundMe is up to 3.5k so far

 

[FrolovasDoubleLayout]

It’s unfortunate that he is not able to pursue this further due to finances. I’m sure that if he could he would have a strong case based on the statement re: “…the selection committee did not weight the selection activities.”

Since the selection committee was able to re-assess the process, it was quite simple for them to revise the process and tinker with the numbers to work in their favor and select their original team after the fact. Any decent arbitrator would take this fact and rip it (and the selection committee) to shreds!