Athletics: Perfect system on trial

IF THERE is absolutely nothing to reports that strong men wept and contemplated descent from high windows when Dan O'Brien, the decathlon world champion, astonishingly failed in an attempt to represent the home of the brave in Barcelona, the shock to his sponsors was unquestionably considerable.

Casting fresh light on the myriad complications of modern sport, they immediately aborted a dollars 20m ( pounds 10.5m) advertising campaign assembled around the amiable rivalry between O'Brien and Dave Johnson, a compatriot of lesser capabilities who at best was probably thinking about a silver medal in the Olympics.

Dan versus Dave was big business. Photographs of them wearing the official US Olympic uniform designed by Reebok were already in circulation. They ran, jumped and threw with the benefit of Reebok footwear. Dan versus Dave ceased to be big business when O'Brien made a hash of things in the US Olympic trials in New Orleans, failing three times to clear 4.80 metres in the pole vault after passing up attempts at two lower heights. 'I couldn't believe it was happening. I felt numb,' O'Brien said.

As the manufacturers were doubtless inclined toward a similar reaction, they can draw solace from reliable suggestions that the US Olympic authorities will now come under serious commercial pressure to abandon a controversial method of selection that also removed Carl Lewis, the world champion and record-holder, from the 100m field in Barcelona.

As it stands the American system of trial-by-competition requires athletes, regardless of record and status, to arrive at an officially designated place on a designated day, prepared to put their form on the line.

By taking second place in the long jump Lewis ensured that he will appear in the Olympics but it can safely be assumed that various corporate forces, including NBC, the American television network which has lost a major attraction, are otherwise mightily displeased.

A baleful corporate conclusion is precisely that expressed last week by Joe Douglas, manager of the Santa Monica track club, when Lewis, its greatest sprint star and multiple gold medallist, was eclipsed. 'The Olympics is bound to suffer from not having Carl in his main event,' Douglas said.

The extent to which Lewis, O'Brien, Greg Foster (110m hurdles), Antonio Pettigrew (400m) and Kenny Harrison (triple jump) will suffer financially from their miserable experiences in New Orleans is not easily calculable, but in an era of commercial escalation the Olympics these days are not so much about the roar of the crowd as the scratch of an accountant's pen; not just further, faster and higher, but how much?

In New Orleans last week Richard Slaney, an Olympian who represented Great Britain, and married Mary Decker, spoke bleakly about the future of athletics in the United States from his understanding that high schools and colleges are increasingly directing resources towards basketball and football, pursuits that suggest a higher profile to the alumni. 'Interest in track and field is definitely flagging,' he said.

Doubtless this persuades various enterprises to suppose that through the provision of critical funding at grass-roots level they eventually will have an even greater say in how athletics shapes up for future generations. 'We intend to put a lot more back into the sport,' an executive said pointedly last week.

This hinted at a dangerous proposition but nobody raised a murmur. If there had been any comment, it would have been praise for helping to broaden and maintain an interest in athletics.

Briefed on this simple fact it would be correct to assume that the last has not been heard of a week when so many American world champions fell dejectedly by the wayside. The powerful word on a system that brought about a degree of corporate chaos is that its abandonment will be called for before the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

Had Daley Thompson, the greatest of all decathletes, been committed to such a trial he would not now be striving for the qualifying mark that will guarantee his inclusion in the British team, his spirit improved by O'Brien's absence. There would not have been a second chance following his absence from last week's trials in Birmingham, an opportunity at least to maintain earning power. He could only have thought about going to Barcelona as a tourist paying his own fare.