The first members of the 2024 U.S. Track and Field Olympic teams were decided yesterday at the Orlando, Florida Olympic Marathon Team Trials. The men and women’s team have three available spots but only two were guaranteed to have a space on the team.
As a part of the Olympic Committee’s efforts to contain the number of athletes competing, the number of participants allotted for the marathon was capped at 80 women and 80 men. Each country is allowed a maximum of three runners, however no country is guaranteed these spots according to OrlandoTrials. Countries can unlock these spots running a fast enough time during the qualifying period – Nov. 6, 2022 to Apr. 30, 2024 – to place in the top 5 among World Athletes.
“These qualifications are so difficult to be completely sure you have a spot at the Olympics,” said junior Anika Carpenter. “The qualifying times are already so fast, but the limited spots add another thick layer of pressure to the runners,”
Qualifying times for the 2024 Paris Olympic Marathon are for women, 2:26:50, and for men, 2:09:50. On the U.S. women’s side, the team has already unlocked all three possible spots since 13 total women have run a 2:26:50 or under since Nov. 2022. For the men, only two spots have been secured by Connor Mants who ran a 2:07:50 in Chicago, and Clayton Young to ran a 2:08:00 also in Chicago. Once a country has unlocked these spots, their federation selects any of these qualified athletes to run in the Olympics, according to San Francisco cross country coach Michael Li.
“Once a country’s runners have unlocked guaranteed spots in the Olympic marathon, that country’s federation canselect any three qualified athletes it wants,” said Li. “Allowing another decision has lead to some pretty large controversy over the years,”
Kenya is one of the countries that select their runners by committee decision, while the U.S since 1968, have used these trial races to remove accusations of favoritism according to Runners World. The top three female runners in Orlando yesterday were, Fiona O’Keeffe (2:22:10), American record holder Emily Sisson (2:22:24), and Dakotah Lindwurm (2:25:31), respectively according to Orlando Trials.
“Fiona O’Keeffe was the youngest person to win the Olympic Marathon Trials,” said sophomore Ruby Quintos. “She is from Davis, California so it is so exciting to see someone close to us make this massive achievement,”
On the men’s side, Conner Mantz won the 2024 trials (2:09:05), with Clayton Young and Leonard Korir following (2:09:06 and 2:09:57 respectively). All three of these men consistently ran under a 5 minute mile according to Track Shack Events.
“The level that people are running at right now is incredible,” said Carpenter. “The paces for both men and women in the U.S. and all over the world right now are completely changing running as a sport.”
