After tripping over itself in 2008 with the Adam Goucher incident—in which then-USA Track & Field men's track and field committee chair John Chaplin legendarily said, “The Olympic trials are not a goddamn all-comers’ meet" after admitting Goucher but not seven athletes ahead of him on the descending order list—USATF made sure to cross its t’s and dot its i’s with the 10K field in 2016. The qualifying standard lists 24 athletes, though it takes pain to be clear that the field sizes are not minimums or maximums and that expanding the field is at management's discretion.

USATF used that discretion to let in 27 athletes. Until today, only athletes with the standard of 28:15 were listed as “accepted,” but now, 27 athletes are listed as “accepted.” The 27th athlete, Chris Derrick, is 0.16 seconds ahead of the 28th athlete, Robert Cheseret, who is listed as “not accepted.”

While USATF wrote its rules in a way that properly protected itself, it's clear their discretion was not applied evenly across all events. And that's a victimless crime! More athletes in the meet is a good thing! But in every other distance event, the accepted fields either go to the listed field size or are only composed of athletes who hit the standard. For example, in the men's steeplechase, 24 athletes (the exact prescribed field size) are listed as accepted, and No. 25, Matt Cleaver, is just 0.08 off the top 24 and listed as not accepted.

Though these Trials have been less controversial than the last two with entry issues, they have not been controversy-free.

Becky "With The Good Cones" Wade was told twice by USATF that her steeplechase time achieved at a meet in Atlanta would not count for the Trials due to cones substituting for a metal rail. Then, this morning, Wade woke up and noticed her time was listed as accepted—despite the fact that she was told yesterday to cancel her "travel plans, flights, hotels—everything." In response, USATF communications boss Jill Geer said, "I am unaware of Becky’s situation. If she hasn’t already, she should reach out to the people who told her to cancel her travel plans."

Derrick is a member of the Nike Bowerman Track Club, a three-time U.S cross country champion, and former American junior record-holder. Unlike in 2008, USATF admitted athletes between its stated cutline and Derrick. Martin Hehir and John Crain, No. 25 and No. 26 on the declaration list in the 10K, were also listed as accepted today.

​An earlier version of this article referred to John Chaplin as the USATF rules chair. He was chair of the USATF men's track & field committee.