U.S. sprinter Jeneba Tarmoh yesterday withdrew from a runoff against Allyson Felix to determine the final position on the Olympic Team in the women's 100 meters, and while both athletes are sponsored by Nike, Tarmoh insisted that the company “didn't play a role in the decision,” according to Pat Graham of the AP. Tarmoh said, "Nobody got any kind of money. Nike didn't even know, in fact." She added that she “would not pursue any legal action to get her spot” (AP, 7/2). However, Steve Nelson, Tarmoh’s high school coach, said of the decision, "This is a Nike and NBC Sports deal. This is Jeneba against the world. She feels like it's everybody against her." Former Univ. of California coach Erv Hunt “also sees Nike at the center of the decision.” He said, "If that wasn't Allyson Felix, we wouldn't have even been talking about this. U.S. track and field is Nike." Former U.S. Gold Medal-winning sprinter Eddie Hart said, "It sounds fishy. Who's going to say no to Nike?" (SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, 7/3). ESPN's Michael Wilbon said Felix “has a chance to be ... the star” of the London Games and asked, "Do you think there’s some favoritism involved, is there a nudge here?” ("PTI," ESPN, 7/2). SI.com’s Tim Layden wrote, “In cases like this, there is always underground speculation that other parties -- most notably sponsors -- might have intervened to entice Tarmoh to give up her spot.” But there is “no immediate evidence that any such deals were cut” (SI.com, 7/2).
IN HER OWN WORDS: Tarmoh and Felix Sunday agreed to the runoff, but Tarmoh informed USA Track & Field officials yesterday she had changed her mind. She said, “I felt pressured into having to make a decision. They said, ‘Do you want to concede or do you want to run?’ I was like, ‘Are those my only two options?’ They said yes, so I said, ‘Yes, I will run.’ But then as I was going throughout the day, I thought about it and I ran that 100m, I took my victory lap, I went through the press conference, I got my medal, and then they tell me I have to run again, after I ran six rounds of the 100m and 200m? I just had a whole lot of emotions and was heartbroken because in my mind, I felt like my joy was kind of taken after hearing that I got third.” She added, “I can safely say that I was pushed into a corner. They said, ‘Jeneba, you have five minutes and two options, run or give it up.’ In the heat of the moment, anybody would have said run.” When asked who she was referring to when she said “they,” Tarmoh said, “I don’t know all of their names. They didn’t push me exactly, but they said ‘these are your options.’ It was Max (Siegel) and Stephanie (Hightower). They didn’t really say, ‘You have to choose,’ but I felt like I was pressured” (NBCOLYMPICS.com, 7/2). ESPN’s Michael Smith said of Tarmoh's decision, “I don’t understand what’s going on here. This is what you do. You run. A coin flip would have been disastrous.” L.A. Times columnist Bill Plaschke said, “This is a chance to race, to show your wares, on national television with the world watching. Nobody’s ever heard of you … so this is great publicity for her, for her career, for her future (and) she turns it down. That’s ridiculous” (“Around The Horn,” ESPN, 7/2).
THE BLAME GAME: ESPN.com’s Jim Caple wrote Tarmoh’s decision “makes her look bad,” but she “never should have been in this position in the first place.” It was “bad enough that USATF did not have a tiebreaking protocol in place ahead of time, as does virtually every other sport.” It was “worse that it passed the buck onto the athletes.” USATF's first misstep was that “no third-place finisher should have been declared until after both camera angles had been reviewed.” That way, neither Tarmoh nor Felix “would have had to go through the emotional roller coaster of being told one outcome only to learn it wasn't accurate.” USATF's second mistake was “not having a tiebreaking procedure in place.” USATF's third mistake was “hastily writing a tiebreaking policy that was confusing, involved and subject to emotion” (ESPN.com, 7/2).
