I have yet to earn the privellage to meet him.
haha im not sure its that easy. But ill try to explain how it works.
I speak only for track and field (Athletics). And am not sure what the process is for many other sports, though most are a similar format.
The most important thing in making the Olympics in track and field is to hit the Olympic “A” standard.
If you hit the Olympic A standard in your event, you are automatically qualified to compete at the Olympic Games.
Every country can enter up to 3 individuals in per event. Not every country has enough qualified athletes to send 3 athletes in per event though. Different countries have different strengths and weaknesses. USA for the most part qualifies 3 athletes in every event, though not always.
In the event that your country has more than 3 individuals qualified for a single event, the countries decides who they send (so long as the individual has made the standard). But they instead usually determine the representatives, through its countries Olympic trials. Where the top 3 finishers qualify for the team.
In the event your country does NOT have any qualifiers with the “A” standard, there is also a “B” standard.
The A standard is determined by looking on the World Top List for the previous Olympic year and marking the 50th position.
The 50th fastest time in the world (in 2008) is the A standard for the 2012 Olympic Games.
The B standard is the 75th position from the previous Olympic year.
Most athletes competing, achieve the Olympic A standard, though some B standard qualifiers go as well.
For the most part, being top 50 in your event, will give you a shot at competing at the Olympics.
As far as contacting the Olympic Committee..
It is usually their job to know which athletes are potential qualifiers. This process usually starts in HS. Same as most other professional recruiting processes.
You are given official word when you have earned your qualifying mark. No one has to tell you you qualified, its something you’ve worked a long time for, and you usually know when you’ve made it.
I like your user name. 
What meaning does it have for you?
Regarding your training - do you train in a lot of different conditions, such as in the locations you are competing? For example, Puerto Rico is fairly tropical and I would assume humid a good amount of time. If your competition was in Denver, CO (higher and drier), would you plan to train in such conditions? How about differing weather conditions, and seasons?
i honestly do not know the answer.
I am always working towards improving this.
I used to be better, but have gotten away from fundamentals over the years.
What i am doing this year, is basically returning back to what i know works. Discipline.
During the season i do commit time to this every day. I visualize often, at night before bed, and during training.
i do have access to sports psychologist, but do not take advantage of them often.
Ive spoken with a couple here and there, over the years. But have never really felt i would improve much by working with one on a weekly basis. They reinforce many of the things Ive already learned over the years, and I actually just enjoy learning on my own.
Maybe one day ill run into one whom i feel id benefit from, were i to work with on a consistent basis. For now though, i feel I’m doing pretty good on my own.
The username was my way of not having to come up with a username.
I usually have a certain name for websites i join, but decided not to use that one, and instead wrote nothanks (hoping it wasnt already taken).
The conditions dont vary too much. You have to train in a warm climate. Those that live in states where it snows, simply train indoors. Most track meets are held during the summer time, so you usually find yourself competing in 75+ degree weather. though during the early outdoor season (april) you might very well find yourself competing in high 50s low 60s.
Puerto Rico like you said is very humid. and i feel it is an advantage training in the humid weather, because my body naturally knows how to react in the humid conditions.
It is pretty difficult to maintain fluids, when you go from training in a non-humid climate, to an extremely humid one. Ive had issues with cramps, and injuries in the past for this very reason.
For the most part the weather is good, but you might have to run in the rain once or twice a year.
As far as altitude training. It is better suited for distance athletes. Those requiring more oxygen for their event. My event is done in less than 13.5 seconds though, and therefore this issue isnt too great.
I don’t think that is true, though it may have been at one point. I think that the IAAF is trying to get fields in each event within a certain range of participants. They certainly don’t want 50 entrants in the decathlon. That would be chaos.
The qualifying as I understand it for track and field (athletics) in the Olympics is:
–Every nation with an Olympic committee gets at least one male and one female participant.
–If a nation wants to have more than one participant, all of them must meet the B qualifying standard. If all of them have the B standard, they must be in different events.
–If a nation wants to have more than one participant in a single event (up to a limit of 3), all of them must have the A qualifying standard.
I think that the independent entrants are from countries that don’t have an Olympic committee yet. Usually the independent entries are from recently established countries, and are typically chosen or selected by petitions to the IOC. The biggest group was from the former Soviet Union shortly after it broke apart. The smaller former Soviet republics didn’t have time to put together an Olympic committee, so a unified team of former Soviet republics was given entry.
At this year’s London games, a marathoner from South Sudan was entered as an independent athlete. South Sudan has only just been established, so it doesn’t have an Olympic committee. There was some internet lobbying to get him into the games, which seemed to work.
Do you have any interest in distance running? As I got older, I developed an interest in longer distances.
Would it be tacky of me to ask if we might see a picture of your trophy collection?
Do you have lots of cool souvenirs from your Olympic appearances?
Do you have to buy your own equipment? What, if anything, do you get for free? Was it different when you were in the Olympics. (i.e. was free stuff raining down from the sky, in hopes that it might wind up on TV?)
I suspect that 100m hurdles is not a sport that might attract many of the mercy-entrants from countries that don’t have established sports programs to turn out high caliber athletes. But do you have any anecdotes about this?
Sometimes it’s hard to find those preliminary events televised during the Olympics, but I always have enjoyed seeing the one performance from countries that send a very limited team. (Even better if they are competitive!) 50-meter freestyle swimming seemed to be a popular wild-card-entrant event at the last Olympics.
Do you get pressure from the PR Olympic committee when the Olympics are nearing? Do they have a medal “quota” or other agenda that they try to get pushy about with the athletes?
Ask me questions, I’ve been in every Olympics ever (even the pre-modern ones).
Don’t hijack topics with posts like this. If you have something to say that is meaningful and makes sense, feel free.
What’s the biggest BS sport in the Olympics, in your view?
Framed another way, what would be the easiest sport for a 47-year old man whose BMI is 27 to qualify in?
Thanks for doing this thread. Here in suburban Chicago, we’ve had a couple of winter Olympians in the community, and it’s neat to be reminded how the Olympics involves ‘real’ people.
I dorry.
Hey thanks for starting this thread. I see you’re new to the board and probably don’t know me as the resident ephebopile. Apparently Liam from the boy band One Direction was slotted as an alternate for the 2012 running team (apparently he’s VERY fast, also he was born dead and came back to life and at some point regenerated a dead kidney. OK LIAM! WTF?)
He chose pop stardom over Olympic stardom. Which would you choose? That must’ve been tough.
Oh voguevixen. Was the board not paying enough attention to you?
This is an awesome post.
Bit of a late one, eh?