Australian skeleton athlete John Farrow admits he is torn over three fellow sliding athletes who've been knocked back from competing at the Winter Olympics despite meeting international qualifying standards.
Breanna Walker (pilot), Ashleigh Werner (No.1 brakeman) and Mikayla Dunn (No.2 brakeman) were left bitterly disappointed when not nominated for PyeongChang by Sliding Sports Australia because the body had more rigorous qualifying standards in place to get to the Games.
The Australian Olympic Committee was keen to have the team in South Korea but the ultimate decision lay with the SSA who chose not to push their case.
Farrow, who has been competing in skeleton for more than a decade and went to the 2014 Games in Sochi where he was 17th, said he felt for the trio.
"I really think the girls should be here," he said. "I've been supporting that decision for a long time with our governance.
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"At the same time the rules that our governance put in were done 12 months ago.
"As an athlete you have to take care of that. They did have fair warning."
Farrow said he made sure he addressed the criteria that was laid out for him.
He applauded SSA for wanting to set higher standards in sliding sports but argued that the world championships and not the Olympics was the place to do it.
"The best of the best compete at the world championships; the Olympics is supposed to be about people representing their region," he said.
"Even though I don't agree with it (the decision), the good thing they did as a governing body was hold to their decision and where they want to take the sport," he said.
"If they fold over - what credibility do they have? They're damned if they do, damned if they don't."
The trio opted not to pursue an appeal the decision and instead will target the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
