I'm not sure the translation is exactly right. I recall "amerikansk uttagning" refering to a race where the team selection would be based on the results alone - if they were picking 3 people, the top 3 in the selection race made it. There wasn't a complex system of points. Of course, that was 20 years ago (and in Sweden rather than Norway). Maybe the term has changed since then.
The original article at
landg.se doesn't include the definition of "american selection."