The blow-up surrounding John Steffensen’s non-selection for the individual 400m event at the London Olympics has made an unfortunate target of Steven Solomon.
Solomon is the runner Athletics Australia chose to select ahead of Steffensen, despite neither athlete making the required A qualifying time.
Now, whether you agree with Steffensen’s stance or not, or the decision of Athletics Australia, Solomon has done nothing wrong.
Steffensen may be used to all the media spotlight and the headlines, he may even enjoy it, but I don’t know that for a fact. But the 19-year Sydneysider will not be used to this kind of scrutiny or harsh criticism.
Solomon is one the rising stars of the Australian track. He announced himself on the local stage with a win at the iconic Melbourne Track Classic in March last year. There he took on the might of Steffensen, Ben Offereins, Sean Wroe and Kevin, Australia’s Commonwealth Games gold medallists, and beat them all.
It was a surprise at the time because Solomon was a late bloomer had only started athletics as a teenager.
His meteoric rise including winning the Australia All-School titles, a place at last year’s World Championships and posting a career-best time at the World Junior Championships in Barcelona last week.
Solomon has talent to burn and stands apart from the normal athlete – he is polite and highly intelligent.
He is the son of an orthopaedic surgeon and plans to become a doctor himself one day. He grew up idolising the feats of Cathy Freeman and Jeremy Warner.
I interviewed him last year and he struck me as a well-grounded, easy-going but dedicated young man. Greg Meaher, CEO of Athletics Australia, described Solomon as a thoroughbred and a “bloody good athlete”.
Eric Hollingsworth, high performance manager at Athletics Australia, says he is a “quiet, intelligent, unassuming character” who can “go as far as commitment and hard work can take him”.
From the outside, not knowing if racial discrimination has played a factor in the decision, it appears as though Solomon has been selected because he is a real medal chance for the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Solomon has the better recent form, has huge potential and London will be an important learning curve for him. Athletics Australia have gone for the young pup over the old dog. Steffensen has been a fantastic athlete in the past but his best days appear past him.
The whole episode has been handled badly. Athletics Australia have hardly showered themselves in gold, and this is further evidence that a broom needs to be put through the organisation and new leadership installed.
Allegations of racial discrimination should be investigated.
But if they are baseless, then Steffensen, who boycotted the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games because he claimed he had been let down by Athletics Australia, has some answering to do.
His threat of boycotting the London relay team is a very poor one if it is only purely based on him being annoyed at the selection of Solomon.
This 19-year old is eager to make a name for himself on the world stage.
Let’s hope Australia throws its support behind Solomon, who has made no error, at London and the youngster can shrug off the media circus and compete to the best of his ability.
jameswm
Guest
They did stick to them. A B standard means only one max can go, and it's discretionary. The relay boys are there, so you may as well pick one. One is 30 and coming back from injury, one is 19 and in good recent form, running the fastest time of the lot this year. Who do you pick?
jameswm
Guest
Ken two others have hit the A qualifier in the LJ. When Steff was beating Solomon in Jan/Feb, Solomon was coming back from injury. His times steadily dropped and once fit Solomon won nationals and beat everybody.
Jocelyn McLennan
Roar Guru
John, Steff was quick to contact Steve and say that it was not of his fault and felt embarressed for him. It is all AA fiasco and they know it are now trying to save face. Steve, John and Joel have been in regular contact and are very supportive of each other and are looking to get together as a relay team to train. What I hate now is the counter arguement that will make John out to only have got his way because he spoke up. He was speaking up for ALL of the relay guys AND everyone on the aths team that had suffered from AA's inconsistencies. As the interview yesterday on the Today show pointed out. He said it in the first interview too but it was conveniently cut so that it made for good sensatonalism by making John out to be selfish. John...John never ONCE said that he should be selected to run the individual race as he knew and accepted long ago he was not running the times due to his hamstring tear...Neither had Steve or Joel or Ben...he was pointed out that why have qualifying standards if you do not stick to them. I rest my case
Tim
Guest
Well said. Solomon sounds like an impressively gifted individual deserving of our support and respect.
MBS
Guest
There would be no argument if Steffensen had run an A qualifier, which given the stature he holds himself in should pose no issues. As it stands (Olympic Trial Aside), Solomon is in faster form, young, and with high potential for improvement. Steffensen is an out of form veteran with minimal potential for improvement. Given the discretionary nature of 'B' selection, the decision is a correct one. I was reading Solomon has accepted a full scholarship to study medicine at Stanford after the Olympics, which is seriously impressive. This combination of intelligence and athleticism is extremely rare in this country and we need to support these people to acheive their maximum potential. Good luck Steven.
jameswm
Guest
Solomon only got serious about athletics around 15-16, when he filled out a bit and his times dropped. He started the last local season injured, and got back to the mid-45s pretty quickly. However, he needs to drop a full second to be a medal prospect in 4 years. Can he? Maybe. I still think though that Sean Wroe and possibly Solomon, with their lean builds, are well suited to running 800s. Wroe, with his big kick, especially. I wonder if anyone has ever suggested this to them. Our 800 runners like Lachie Renshaw can only manage a 47 for 400, which makes running a 51 first lap much tougher. Back to the topic though - Steve is a class act. AA know that. Talented, just won a medal at world juniors, highly intelligent, unassuming and an all round nice bloke. Seems a bit of a contrast to someone else, hey?
Ken
Guest
Steve Solomon is the beneficiary of a ridiculous 'Rio clause' which is subjective. The merits of this recent form everyone spoke of leading to his selection happened after the selection deadline of 8th of July (The World Juniors were from the 10th to 15th of July). So before the deadline, Solomon only bested Steffensen's time once and lost to him three times head to head in the Australian tour. Steffensen has nothing against Solomon, he is just against the inconsistency in selection. I think the Rio clause is ridiculous as 4 years is a long time in sport, 4 years ago Solomon was a soccer player (http://www.runnerstribe.com/blog/post/show/id/324-Steven-Solomon-Blog-The-first-year-All-Schools-to-All-Schools) with an ambition of being a famous soccer player (http://london2012.olympics.com.au/athlete/steven-solomon/meet). Whose to say he won't be injured in 4 years time and suffer the same fate of Steffensen. More importantly a London clause would have been more suitable. I believe Fabrice Lapierre should come under this as he actually finished top 2 in a top diamond league meet this season and has been hitting B qualifiers consistently. The long jump A qualifier is quite high and that mark would have finished 3rd in Beijing and 6th at least years world championships.