[Right_Wing_Madman]

From what I read, she only failed to qualify because she was pregnant and the committee didn’t ‘trust’ her; not because he couldn’t perform.

I did some digging and there seems to be more to this story. Apparently for female windsurfing, there were two qualifying events to qualify for the 2016 Olympics: the Sailing World Cup in Miami in January 2016 and the Trofeo Princesa Sofia Iberostar Regatta in Spain in March 2016.

Blanca Manchon, who is from Spain, did not compete in either qualifying event. Manchon gave birth in December 2016, which means she became pregnant in March 2016, which means she was not pregnant for the first qualification in Miami in January 2016. According to one source, she did not compete in the Miami event because she focused on recovery from giving birth in late 2015! So she gave birth in late 2015, and again in December 2016. She was a very productive woman.

[scrabblehack]

‘In my federation, the head of Olympic preparation told me, ‘Blanca, either you’re competing in two months or I can’t justify your being on the team.’ I asked him, ‘What did I do wrong?’ and he replied, ‘Since you’re pregnant, the bosses don’t trust you’.

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Are there automatic qualifiers? Could the coach put her on the team even if she didn’t participate in the qualifiers?
It sounds like that’s what she wanted to happen.

I recall Carl Lewis’ sponsors wanted to put him in the 4x100 relay even though he finished 8th in the final qualifier. (He otherwise qualified in the long jump, so he did make the team). Such a move is extremely rare except in the case of injury. The coach said no.