The adjective discretion, or acting discreetly, is often applied when a stronger word is needed.
It is often said that diplomatic relations are separate. That’s fine when secrecy is actually required, but not so good when a poor country or issue is being sold down the river. Discretion is the better part of courage. It can be a compliment, but it can also obscure what is meant by the more obvious term that amounts to evading the problem.
Discretion has been a key part of Australian athletics policy. Chris Wardlow, the coach of the 2000 Sydney Olympics, often remarked that at least one discretionary selection was needed in case Cathy Freeman fell ill or suffered a minor injury on selection day. (“It’s not a simple injury that keeps you out of the Olympic team,” was another Wardlaw statement along the same lines.)
To this end, our policies over the past twenty-six years have been comprehensive and have always left at least one place open to the discretion of the selectmen. The two worked side by side. Choose every athlete you can while leaving at least one of the three modes open in case an unusual athlete catches a cold at an inopportune time.
Mostly anything that works is a cure. Greater discretion plays into getting athletes onto the team who would otherwise be missed under more stringent selection protocols (hello, USA 1-2-3 over the line). Appeals can sometimes be exceptions – fine if the appeal is against someone’s non-selection, but it’s messy as it basically boils down to an appeal by one athlete over another player’s selection.
In such cases, discretion is fine, but only until it is practiced. The men’s 100 meter dash is an example of this. Australian record holder Lachlan Kennedy won the national title with a distance of 9.96 in both the heat and final: tick. Eddie Osei-Nketia, newly qualified after being chosen to run for Australia in preference to New Zealand, has a plethora of wind-assisted fast times in the US as well as a legal 10.06: tick again.
Then it got messy. Joshua Azzopardi was second in the national title, two meters behind Kennedy. Rohan Browning was third again, 0.03 behind. Only one place left. Rather than pursue a place down the line, the selectors chose Browning over Azzopardi. What is three hundredths of a second between friends?
It seems like a lot. Azzopardi’s camp protested in traditional boxing terms. “We were robbed.”
And look, they have a case. Strong case, even. The problem is that Browning is (and Nketiah is ahead of both). Azzopardi has been one of the athletes who has taken Australian sprint racing to a higher level in recent years. Recently, he has performed better than anyone over 100 meters except Kennedy.
But not decisively. Browning has the credentials to exceed that 0.03 margin at this year’s nationals. Last year, for example, he beat Kennedy — both clocked 10.01 seconds — and Azzopardi. At the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, he ran 10.01 in the heats and 10.09 in the semifinals. Some might say that’s enough to pick him ahead of Azzopardi, others might disagree.
Appreciation – Yes, that’s good. And yes again, sometimes discretionary choices will be confirmed by results, sometimes not. Other times, and perhaps most of the time, it will be impossible to know.
Appreciation is a wonderful thing – until it is practiced!
The pick-and-cell approach that has characterized Australian politics since the 2012 London Olympics cannot fully apply to the Commonwealth Games. As a sport controls its own team at the World Championships, Olympic policy is to agree a comprehensive approach to sports before selection, and cost and other considerations have led the Commonwealth Games Association to impose participation quotas on teams.
Australia had a healthy athletes quota of 63 at the Glasgow Games, which led to a reduction in team size (alleviated somewhat by the removal of some events from the programme. There will only be a 4 x 400 mixed relay, for example, rather than the men’s, women’s and mixed relay). 4×100 remains for men and women. Azzopardi was named to the men’s relay squad, a redemption for the individual decision.
Choosing relay teams also allows the three full representatives to compete for each of the 100-odds. The cap means that many other events – including some in which we currently have significant depth – will not see three Australian competitors.
