You wrote: “The real “affirmative action” is the rule that a single country can only place two competitors in the individual all-around final. Wieber was 4th overall, but will have to sit out while 21 girls she out-scored get to compete.”
I agree; pretty messed up. I don’t think any of the other sports have this rule.
I think it’s messed up even in gymnastics. As far as I know, 3 of the girls all qualified for the beam final, and I don’t hear anyone saying they won’t be allowed to do it. It seems to just apply to the individual all-around, or no one’s made a fuss over Ross being left out of the beam.
Because of her high score, Wieber would be allowed to do the all-around if one of her teammates had to pull out because of an injury (that happened to Kerri Strug in ‘96 — she couldn’t go on that bad leg after the team final).