Why Wasn’t Naylah Jones Accepted Into The U.S. Olympic Trials???
Naylah Jones is DEAF-!!!!!!
Psst. I didn’t know about her until Google introduced her to me this morning by headlighting “‘I wanted people to know I am deaf’: Rutgers-bound sprinter Naylah Jones is embracing her track stardom” from The Philadelphia Inquirer. (Be careful that it could be accessible at your first click.)
In school, Jones always had an American Sign Language interpreter. She also learned to read lips and interpret facial expressions and had a separate “teacher of the deaf,” who helped with academic tutoring.
This led me to expand my research about her.
Suddenly, sjtrackblog exposed on June 18, “Why wasn’t Naylah Jones accepted into the U.S. Olympic Trials???”
The blog states that Jones’ 11.23 in the 100 meters event is the fastest time ever by a New Jersey girl during the high school track season.
The blog points out the following:
The “A” standard for the Trials is 11.07, and everyone who runs the A standard is guaranteed a spot in the field. But the “B” standard is 11.30 and as meet officials fill the field for each race, they begin accepting athletes with the B standard until they reach 36.
Only 17 U.S. women ran the A standard this year with legal wind and 16 of them entered the Trials. To get the field to 36 women, they took everyone who ran 11.30 or faster.
And 11.23 is faster than 11.30.
So you would think Jones would have qualified.
But on the Trials “status of entries” list, her entry is listed with “rejected,” with no additional information.
She ran 11.23 on June 7 – within the qualifying window of July 1, 2023, through June 9, 2024 – and she got her entry in well before the 11:59 p.m. June 11 deadline.
The official data of the first round of the Women’s 100 m dash at the Trials could place Jones on the 26th of the 35 entries.
The blog also wrote an article about Jones on June 7, “YOU WON’T BELIEVE WHAT NAYLAH JONES JUST RAN!!!!!!!!!!!!
Her time is No. 41 among all U.S. women this year and No. 8 on the World Athletics Under-20 list and No. 3 among U.S. women.
Jones’s 1.73 is only two seconds from the Deaf World Record (and Deaflympic Record) of 1.71, with the wind of 1.7 held by Suslaidy Girat Rivero of Cuba in 2013.
NOTE: Jones recently was invited to the July 14 World Deaf Youth Athletics Championships in Taiwan but will not attend.
She could be too fast in the Youth program, so she should compete in the World Deaf Athletics Championships-!!! But…
