Australian Olympic marathon runner Liam Adams believes qualification rules changed, leaving him out of Paris Games
Australian marathon runner Liam Adams has said he "was in complete shock" when he discovered he had not qualified for this year's Paris Olympic Games.
Adams, 37, who competed at Olympic Games in Rio and Tokyo believed he had qualified for this year's event.
While Adams was not part of the 70-man list who completed a race in Olympic qualifying time, he believed his world ranking would allow him to join the 80-runner field.
However, the remaining spots have been given to "universality places" which is for athletes who come from "under-represented National Olympic Committees" according to the International Olympic Committee.
"They are designed to increase the diversity of participating nations across the sports programme of the Olympic Games," the IOC states.
But Adams told ABC News he, and many others, believed the World Athletics would fill those remaining places based off world rankings instead.
"What ended up happening was I finished the qualification period in 74th position out of the 80," he told Charles Brice on News Breakfast.
"Through everything that I had read, through everything that Athletics Australia had read and even the other nations we were all under the impression that you finished in the top 80 and you'd be going to the Olympics.
"When I found out the shocked news three days after the qualification period had ended that — that the universality athletes would displace the 10 athletes that had qualified in rankings, it was a complete shock.
"I felt like it was a nightmare and just wondering how it all happened."
Adams said he was in favour of universality places and believed it added to the Games.
He said he wanted himself, and other runners who believed they had qualified for the Olympics to be allowed to compete along with those filling the universality places.
"If push comes to shove, and the whole issue is the amount of beds in the village, well, I'm very happy to pay for my own hotel room if it means I can get on that start line," he said.