As far as I see it, the Olympic nominations from the Dutch Olympic Comittee
are a relict of the past. However, they are still used and do IMO more harm
than well.

In the good old days when Olympic participation was hardly limited, the
Dutch Olympic committee had their own selection rules to send athletes to
the Games. The principle is that a Dutch athete is only sent to the Games if
he/she has a reasonable chance to be at the best 8 in the Olympics. For each
event, a precise selection demand is specified: you have to be at the best 8
of the World Championships the year before or run a specific time on a
distance. However, as there are few World Championships in the Olympic year,
they normally look at achievements in the year before. Athletes who make
that qualification demand get a nomination. In the Olympic season, they have
to show "vormbehoud", which means that they should show they are still
worthy to go.
Athletes who do not have a nomination before the Olympic season, still can
earn one in the Olympic season itself.

Nowadays, with IOC-qualification demands on virtually each event, it is
strange that the Dutch Olympic Committee still uses their own qualification
rules. Which leads often to the case that Dutch athletes meet the
IOC-demands, but are still not sent to the Games.

At least for the speed skaters, nominations are nonsensical. Now already,
there are more nominees than places. And speed skaters can get nominations
in next year's World Cups and in the Olympic Trials too.

Only problem is that skaters that are not nominated before the Olympic
trials, but get a qualified place in those Trials, will probably be forced
into a skate-off with nominated skaters, which means just another
qualfication round....


----- Original Message -----
From: "Hovde Robert" <Robert.Hovde@...>
To: <Speed_skating@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, April 01, 2005 2:38 PM
Subject: RE: [Skate] Dutch Olympic Nominations


>
> From: Marnix Koolhaas [mailto:m.koolhaas@...]
> Sent: 1. april 2005 14:03
>
> Dutch Olympic Nominations Turin 2006 - by NOC*NSF:
> Note: more nominations than starting-spots! And no
>
> -----
>
> What does the term "Olympic Nominations" imply in this case, taking into
> consideration that the Olympics won't take place until February next year?
> Does it mean that only those listed under each distance can qualify for
> that particular event, no matter what happens in the pre-Olympic part of
> the coming season? For instance, the second of third best Dutch 10.000 m
> skater this season, Sven Kramer, is only listed as a contender for a 5000
> m spot. If Sven continues his near-exponential improvements and skates a
> sub-13 min. 10.000 m in January next year, would he still be denied a
> ticket for that distance? If the opposite is the case, i.e. that the list
> is only very indicative and preliminary, what's the point of publishing it
> NOW, way ahead of the Olympic season, where a lot of things that can make
> these premature nominations more or less irrelevant? Can someone enlighten
> me?
>
>
> Robert Hovde
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]