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Olympic trials triple jump champion Melvin Lister was eliminated in the
qualifying round after a top jump of only 16.64 meters, short of the 17.75
meters he leaped last month in Sacramento.
Lister blamed his problems on trackside officials' refusal to allow him to use his measuring tape, which measures distances in feet and inches and serves as a guidepost for him. He said he was told the tape "might hurt somebody" because of a spiked attachment and was told to use a metric tape, but he didn't have one and couldn't work with the metric tape organizers supplied. "Nobody told me I needed one," he said. "Coming down, I need my running speed and to trust in my approach." Teammate Walter Davis, who advanced with a leap of 16.94 meters scoffed at Lister's excuse. "When you're coming overseas, you've got to have a metric tape," he said. "Mine is in feet and meters. You've got to come prepared." Kenta Bell also advanced, with a top jump of 16.98 meters. Tim Seaman of Chula Vista set a 20-kilometer race walk record for an American at the Olympics by finishing in 1:25:17, ranking him 20th. Compatriots Kevin Eastler and John Nunn were 21st and 26th, respectively. Ivano Brugnetti of Italy won, in 1:19:40. Am I missing something here? How does one train for an Olympic
event and not know the event is metric? Why wouldn't such a person be
trained to judge his/her distance in metres. Here is another example of
how using imperial came at a cost.
This person really needs to be shamed before the whole world. Enough
shaming and maybe Americans will realise how serious the world is about
metric. Three cheers to the Greek officials.
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