After 10 action-packed days, heat-related schedule changes, and record-breaking performances, the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials have come to an end.
The Olympic Teams (mostly) set, pending a few athlete decisions and regulatory steps to finalize who will represent the United States at the Tokyo Games this summer. The meet ran from June 18 through June 27 at the newly renovated Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.
Keep reading for all of the highlights from Eugene.
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How to watch the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials | Complete results
Day 1 Highlights | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 7 | Day 8 | Day 9
Sydney McLaughlin sets a world record in the women’s 400-meter hurdles
The last time reigning Olympic champion Dalilah Muhammad raced Sydney McLaughlin down the home stretch, at the 2019 IAAF World Championships, Muhammad broke her own world record to edge out McLaughlin for gold.
Today, when the duo once again went head-to-head on Sunday evening, the roles were reversed. Not only did McLaughlin emerge victorious, she smashed Muhammad’s previous record, running a blistering 51.90. Muhammad placed second in 52.42, and USC’s Anna Cockrell finished third in 53.70.
McLaughlin, 21, stayed on Muhammad’s heels until halfway through the race, then surged ahead to a strong finish. On the NBC broadcast, she called her victory “truly just faith and trusting the process, and I couldn’t ask for anything more.”
McLaughlin made her first Olympic team at age 16, then placed 17th at the Rio Olympics. When COVID-19 delayed the Games last year, she changed nearly everything. Under the guidance of coach Bobby Kersee, who also coaches six-time gold medallist Allyson Felix, she spent the past year racing shorter distances and hurdling with her non-dominant left leg in hopes of reaching the next level for Tokyo.
Muhammad, 31, faced a number of setbacks over the past year, including a hamstring injury and a case of COVID-19. The results represent a season’s best for her and a trip back to the Games. “She definitely pushes me,” Muhammad said, before congratulating McLaughlin on the new record. “It’s going to be a battle in Tokyo for sure.”
Cockrell, 23, just won both the 100-meter and the 400-meter hurdles at the 2021 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships earlier this month.
Read more about the race here.
Athing Mu runs away with the 800 meters to make her first Olympic team
It’s been some time since Athing Mu lost a race, and she wasn’t about to let it happen in her first Olympic Trials final. Mu blew past the rest of the field to win the women’s 800 meters in 1:56.07, setting a meet record, a personal best, and a world-leading time this year. It’s the second-fastest time ever run by an American, behind Ajeé Wilson’s 1:55.71 American record.
Raevyn Rogers finished second in 1:57.66, and Wilson crossed third in 1:58.39 to round out the group going to Tokyo.
Mu immediately made moves to the front of the pack, but not before being tripped up by Nia Akins before the 200-meter mark. In the third 200, Mu opened up space on the rest of the pack, and she came down the straightaway with no one challenging her.
Read more about the race here.
Cole Hocker defeats Matthew Centrowitz in 1,500 meters
In a heated battle down the home stretch, Oregon Duck and NCAA champion Cole Hocker outran 2016 Olympic gold-medalist Matthew Centrowitz, 31, for the win. Hocker crossed the line in 3:35.28, with Centrowitz right behind in 3:35.34. But because Hocker doesn’t yet have the Olympic standard of 3:35.00, he’ll have to wait to find out if he’ll make the trip to Tokyo—it will come down to his World Athletics ranking.
Notre Dame’s Yared Nuguse, 22, placed third in 3:36.19 to make his first Olympic team. Nuguse set the NCAA record of 3:34.68 on May 13, then placed second to Cole Hocker at the NCAAs earlier this month. Craig Engels, 27, who narrowly missed making the Games in 2016, finished fourth in 3:36.69.
Read more about the race here.
Noah Lyles runs a world-leading time to win the 200 meters
After placing seventh in the 100 meters on June 20, Noah Lyles knew it was all or nothing for the 200 meters a week later. Luckily, the world champion got the job done on June 27, winning the Trials in 19.74, a world-leading time this year.
Kenny Bednarek finished second in 19.78, a personal best, and 17-year-old Erriyon Knighton crossed third in 19.84. It will be the first Olympics for all three runners.
Bednarek flew through the turn with Fred Kerley, who will be going to Tokyo in the 100 meters, hot on his heels. But Lyles pulled ahead from lane 5 and maintained his lead through the finish.
Read more about the race here.
2016 silver medalist Paul Chelimo returns to the Games in the 5,000 meters
If Paul Chelimo had his way, the men’s 5,000 meters would have been held on Sunday night as originally planned—after all, conditions will likely be scorching in Tokyo this summer, he tweeted before the race.
But officials moved the race to 10 a.m. PDT anyway to beat the heat, meaning the reigning Olympic silver medalist and 2017 world championships bronze medalist claimed his victory a few hours earlier than planned, in 88-degree temperatures.
“I believe in one thing: Go hard or suffer the rest of your life,” Chelimo, 30, said on the NBC broadcast after the race.
In a dramatic final lap after a slow start, Chelimo out-kicked Grant Fisher, 24, who finished second in 13:27.01, and held off a challenge from Woody Kincaid, 28, third in 13:27.13 (Kincaid ran the fastest final lap, in 52.74). The Bowerman Track Club teammates have already made the team in the 10,000 meters.
“This is the title that really matters most to me, because it’s been a tough two years,” Chelimo said on NBC. Two months ago, just when he was getting back into the groove of post-pandemic training, his brother passed away and he had to travel back to Kenya.
Even before the spirited sprint to the finish, the runners jostled a bit; both Fisher and Chelimo called it a “choppy” race. Chelimo said he was clipped about six or seven times, despite running largely in the front.
Kincaid and Fisher join Bowerman Track Club teammate Karissa Schweizer, who placed second in both the 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters. Cooper Teare, 21, a University of Oregon junior who on June 11 won the 5,000 meters at the 2021 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, placed fourth in 13:28.08; if Kincaid or Fisher decide to focus only on the 10,000 meters, he could still compete in Tokyo.
Read more about the race here.
