With less than 10 months until track and field begins at the Paris Olympics, USA Track & Field (USATF) has yet to announce dates or a location for the 2024 Track Trials—the meet that selects the U.S. team for the Games.
That lack of information hasn’t stopped agents and coaches from making plans, however. Runner’s World heard from three such athlete representatives that they expect the Trials to be held from June 21–30 in Eugene, Oregon.
USATF did not respond to emails from Runner’s World. A spokesperson for TrackTown USA, the local organizing committee for meets held in Eugene, said the organization had no comment.
In the absence of any official announcement from the sport’s governing body, track insiders are relying on some calendar math.
First, World Athletics has announced a “protected window” for the national championships of Northern Hemisphere countries, which is June 29–30, 2024. That means no other high level meets will take place during that time. The Olympic Trials wouldn’t be competing for athletes or fans with a Diamond League meet, for instance.
USATF would almost certainly have its Trials include that protected window, either as the first or final weekend of a championships.
Second, in 2021, there were 33 days between the last day of the Trials (June 27) and the start of track and field at the Games in Tokyo (July 30). Using a similar calculation, if the Trials end on June 30, American athletes would have 32 days between the end of the Trials and the start of track at the Paris Games (on August 1).
Is it set in stone? Not that anyone knows. But that’s what coaches are counting on.
Similarly, everyone expects the meet to be held in Eugene at Hayward Field, which opened in April 2021 after the previous facility was torn down and completely rebuilt. “It’s just an assumption we have nowadays,” one agent said to Runner’s World. Another coach said Eugene is the “default.”
Not knowing the dates well in advance creates difficulties for fans who might plan to attend. In past years, observers have pointed out the empty seats during meets in Eugene, a situation that is likely to persist the longer the delay in announcing dates. By contrast, USA Swimming and USA Gymnastics are already selling tickets for their Trials next June.
What’s the holdup?
In past years, USATF has announced dates and locations for Olympic Trials years in advance. For instance, for the 2020 Games held in Tokyo (later postponed until 2021 because of the pandemic), USATF first announced—in 2017—that the Trials would held at Mt. SAC near Los Angeles. The location was then Advertisement - Continue Reading Below, Sarah Lorge Butler.
But USATF has delayed many important announcements in recent years, giving the impression of an organization in disarray.
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In 2021, USATF was late in announcing the criteria for selecting the marathoners for the world championships in Eugene, Oregon. The organization relied on results from Olympics and marathons in Boston, Chicago, and New York—but it didn’t tell athletes until the races in Boston and Chicago had already taken place.
Why the delay now on the announcement of the Track Trials? It’s possible, one source theorized to Runner’s World, if TrackTown USA is the only local organizing committee offering to host the trials, that group could try to strike a more favorable deal with USATF.
According to the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials Track & Field Agreement, a 36-page contract between USATF and TrackTown to host the Trials (before they were postponed until 2021), TrackTown paid a nonrefundable rights fee of $500,000 and the total prize purse of $1.4 million. They also had obligations to provide $1.1 million for athlete support during the meet, to be used at USATF’s sole discretion. It’s an expensive undertaking for any local organizing committee.
Sarah Lorge Butler is a writer and editor living in Eugene, Oregon, and her stories about the sport, its trends, and fascinating individuals have appeared in Runner’s World Advertisement - Continue Reading Below, Run Your Butt Off! and Walk Your Butt Off!
