i believe she (Gabby) was far and away the best gymnast during the Olympic trials....there’s such a thing as peaking as and athlete and that what Gabby seems to be doing....my heart broke for Jordan Weiber not making the individual finals- its complete BS...sort of like three teams in the AFC North going 11-5 and the NFL saying “sorry- you can only have two teams from each division in the playoffs”...a complete joke...
i’ve been to the games four times (’84/LA, ‘88/Calgary, ‘96/Atl, ‘02/SLC) and this PC/affirmative action has been creeping in...i also trained for the olympics for ten years (track and field) and it used to be there was one standard and if you met it you got in the games...now there’s an A standard for the countries with good athletes and B standard for the countries whose athletes suck and they let inferior athletes in...everyone loved the Jamaican bobsled team in 1988- but they had absolutely no right to be there...ditto for British ski jumper Eddie the eagle for those who remember him....
Not the same, since only one team can win the superbowl. They don't give out prizes for 2nd and 3rd place.
Plus, in football and other team sports, you tend to play within your division, so your record isn't really comparable to every other team's records. A team that can go 11-5 in one division might have gone 8-8 if they had to play a harder schedule of another division.
So in team sports, they tend to use an elimination format -- you have to achieve against the smaller group you are in, in order to get out. If you can't be the top two of your division, it is less likely you could be considered the best team in the nation.
BTW, in the olympics, soccer is another sport where something similar happens. You play in a group of 4, and only two move on. The groups are built to spread out the "expected" winners, but theoretically, the top 3 teams might end up in one group, and then the 3rd-best team gets eliminated. But practically speaking, the top three teams aren't in a group. In gymnastics, there have been times when the top three gymnists were from one country.
And in fact, that seems to be the reason for the rule. Although aren't there other olympic events where teams are only allowed to qualify two athletes?
Oh well.