Iwan Thomas insists UK Athletics’ Olympic selection policy is harsh but fair.
Big decisions have seen some athletes hoping to compete at Paris 2024 left at home because they don’t meet internal standards. Steeplechase star Phil Norman missed the British selection time by just 0.16 seconds and will not be representing Team GB in the French capital.
And Olympic silver medallist Thomas, who will be working with Eurosport and discovery+ throughout the showpiece, said: “Because I have been there myself as an athlete, I totally understand the joy and the despair when you are or aren’t selected for an Olympic Games.
“I think we are sending a really, really good team, there is a lot of young talent.
“The British selection policy is tough but if you look at the American system it is brutal, it is their first three across the line go whatever the outcome, no excuses.
“Keely Hodgkinson for us, who has an Olympic silver, the Olympic champion from America [Athing Mu] won’t be there, she fell during the trials.
“So I think the British system is tough but the American system is tougher and at high-level sport it is small margins, so it has got to be tough.
“You want to send the best team possible. And that is what we are doing and I think the British team will do well.”
Watch every moment of Olympic Games Paris 2024 live only on discovery+, the streaming home of the Olympics
Thomas was part of the 4x400m relay team who won silver at the 1996 Atlanta Games, also reaching the Olympic final of the 400m that year too. Roger Black was on the podium in the men’s 400m in 1996 winning silver, the last time Britain medalled in that event.
But in Paris, Thomas is backing both Matt Hudson-Smith and Josh Kerr to end the drought alongside a whole host of other medals for Team GB.
He added: “If you look at the middle distance, both male and female, we have got a great chance.
“If you look at Josh Kerr in the 1500m, he has already beaten the great Jakob Ingebritsen and Ingrebitsen is a broken man.
“We’ve got middle distance runners who know how to perform when it matters and more importantly they know how to get in the heads of their opponents.
“So I think Team GB are going to do really well, you’ve also got the likes of Dina Asher-Smith, she is going to do really well.
“You’ve also got in my old event Matt Hudson-Smith, he is my tip for the 400m gold medal, I genuinely think he is going to win and maybe an even bigger surprise for the general public who might not know him, Charlie Dobson.
“He is a 200m runner who moved up to 400m and he is flying. I think both Matt Hudson-Smith and Charlie Dobson could both be on the podium in the 400m.”
Watch every moment of Olympic Games Paris 2024 live only on discovery+, the streaming home of the Olympics
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