Coin flips aren't exactly a rarity in sports. The NFL uses them to determine which team gets the football at the beginning of a game. MLB used to use them to determine home-field advantage in one-game playoff scenarios. And, the NBA uses a figurative "coin flip" (it's actually more of a random drawing, but it's referred to as a coin flip) to determine how teams who finish with the same regular-season record will be seeded in the NBA Draft lottery. But, using a coin flip to determine which of two athletes will go to the Olympics? That's certainly a new one.
Yet, that might be exactly how USA Track & Field determines whether Allyson Felix or Jeneba Tarmoh gets to go to the 2012 Summer Olympics next month to represent the U.S. in the 100-meter race. After reviewing Saturday afternoon's photo finish of the 100-meter Olympic qualifying race that saw both Felix and Tarmoh achieve times of 11.068 seconds, the USATF announced that, by rule, the U.S. Olympic representative will be selected in one of two ways—either through a run-off that occurs sometime in the next week or so or by a coin flip. It's expected that both young ladies would agree to run the 100-meter race one more time, but there's a good chance that, if they don't both commit to running another race, a coin flip could be used.
Fair or foul? We say they should should race one more time to determine the winner. Outside of the fact that it'd be great for the sport of track and field, we'd also hate to see someone miss out on realizing their Olympic dreams because they subscribe to the theory that "tails never fails." So, put the coin down and let these ladies race. It's only right.
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[via Yahoo! Sports]
