Reigning Olympic champion Emma Snowsill has been left off Australia's triathlon team for the London Games in a selection decision that she plans to appeal.
Snowsill, who has been injured or ill for much of the past year, was not among the three women and three men included in the team announced Monday, but has notified Triathlon Australia that she intends to challenge the decision. If she does, the appeal will be heard by an independent three-person Olympic Appeals Tribunal.
Neither Triathlon Australia nor the Australian Olympic Committee will make any further comment until the appeal is heard.
Erin Densham, who has won two recent triathlons, and Emma Jackson were picked to join 2008 bronze medalist Emma Moffatt, who was selected for the team earlier this year.
Courtney Atkinson and Brendan Sexton joined Brad Kahlefeldt on the men's team.
Chris McCormack, the former two-time Hawaii Ironman champion who made the switch to the Olympic distances 18 months ago in an effort to represent Australia at the Olympics, didn't make the team.
Densham won consecutive qualifying events - the Mooloolaba World Cup race and the opening World Championship Series race in Sydney - to work her way into contention and put Snowsill's place in jeopardy. Densham then all but clinched a spot with a second-place finish last month in San Diego, where Snowsill finished 17th.
Snowsill struggled with a gastrointestinal virus after returning from her training base in South Africa just ahead of Mooloolaba event on March 25, and had to withdraw. She was 14th in Sydney, one spot ahead of Moffatt.
Densham, who finished 22nd at the Beijing Olympics, had surgery to slow an accelerated heart rate after she collapsed and was pulled from the water at a triathlon in Des Moines, Iowa in 2009.
