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Allie Ostrander’s Emotional Struggle at USAs Athletes Concerned About Trials’ Noon Start Time, scheduled for February 3, 2024, in Orlando, Florida, discussions among athletes, the national governing body, and the local organizing committee (LOC) about the announced noon start time for the races have turned acrimonious.
Many marathoners who are planning to compete in the Trials and hoping to qualify for the Olympic team with a top-three finish at the event are concerned that high temperatures could make conditions dangerous for athletes. They sought a changed start time of 6 or 7 a.m.
On Tuesday, October 31, three athletes from the Athlete Advisory Committee (AAC) of USA Track & Field (USATF) sent a strongly worded letter to Jason Siegel, the president and CEO of the Greater Orlando Sports Commission (GO Sports), which is organizing the event.
According to the letter, GO Sports is the only entity unwilling to agree to a compromise of a 10 a.m. start. USATF and broadcast partner NBC, the athletes say, have agreed to a 10 a.m. start.
The letter said that, on a site visit to Orlando before the city was awarded the Trials, athletes were promised “a start time to optimize performance.” The athletes believe that 12 p.m. will run counter to top performances, as Orlando temperatures routinely reach into the upper 70s and 80s in the afternoon in February. But they felt that a 10 a.m. start was “progress,” according to their letter.
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“Ward said in a phone call with, 2023, GO Sports delivered the shocking news of firmly standing behind a 12:00 p.m. start time, adding an impossible caveat that any deviation from the current start time would amount to a combination of unexplained projected damages, fines and waived rights fees totaling $700,000,” the athlete letter reads. “It is difficult to find words capable of expressing how angry and disappointed the athletes are to hear the ultimate hurdle they face is with the Great Orlando Sports Commission, a group who so grossly misrepresented the type of experience they were to provide.”
The letter was signed by Jared Ward, We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back.
Siegel of GO Sports was not immediately available for comment before publication of this article. USATF did not respond to a request for comment.
Ward said in a phone call with Runner’s World that the athletes learned of GO Sports’s refusal to change the start time via USATF. Athletes have not been involved in any conversations directly with Orlando organizers.
“This letter is essentially the athlete response to the communication that is happening between Orlando and USA Track and Field,” Ward said. “[USATF is] essentially coming back to the athletes and saying, ‘The LOC is willing to move the race earlier but they’re asking for $700,000 in damages from USATF to move it earlier.’’’
The athletes, he said, want to understand more about the $700,000 price tag.
“We are looking for some answers as to why is that the number,” he said. “What are the damages for moving it earlier, in an effort to try to help or brainstorm or come up with some solutions here. We really are seeking a win-win. This sport’s tough, and we want local organizing committees to win. We want athletes to win. And so we’re just looking for a seat at the table as we help work out what are the costs associated with moving the Trials earlier and how can we overcome them?”
On November 2, Track Shack of Orlando, which is the logistics arm of Orlando’s organizing committee, released a letter of their own back to athletes. Track Shack wrote that the athletes’ narrative is full of “misinformation” and Track Shack was told on multiple occasions by USATF that the start time of noon was “non-negotiable.”
“After reassuring us there would be no time change, we built an event and financial model that would satisfy all the costs for the event,” wrote Jon and Betsy Hughes, who own and operate Track Shack. “For the past four months, the LOC has planned for a noon start time, most importantly coordinating sponsor and revenue opportunities based on said start time to offset event production costs.”
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“Without our knowledge, USATF’s ‘non-negotiable’ noon start time was suddenly being negotiated by USATF. Unfortunately, we were not looped into any of these discussions until October 13 ... This lack of cooperative communication and transparency has forced the LOC to cancel attendance and hospitality agreements, which crippled sponsorship and ticket sales due to a lack of clarity on what we can offer our local stakeholders.”
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- Nutrition - Weight Loss, USATF awarded the Trials to Orlando a group of 84 Trials qualifiers sent a letter to USATF CEO Max Siegel Runner’s World that USATF instructed Orlando, at the time the bid was awarded, that the races were to begin in the noon hour. The LOC had requested an 8 a.m. start time. USATF did not respond to an email from Runner’s World scheduled for February 3, 2024, in.
- No start time was publicly announced for the races, but the previous two editions of the Trials—in Atlanta in 2020 and Los Angeles in 2016—went off at noon ET. (In Los Angeles, that was 9 a.m. local time.)
- On July 31, 2023, athletes learned in a letter from USATF that the television broadcast on NBC would again begin at noon with “contingencies” in place for weather. The next day, at an event in Orlando unveiling the course, marathoners learned the men’s race was set to go off at 12:10 p.m. and the women’s at 12:20.
- Athletes immediately expressed shock and concern about the potential for dangerous conditions if temperatures are high. USATF did not explain the contingency plan.
- The 2024 Olympic Marathon Trials have been marred with controversy since the beginning, The Mind-Boggling Stats of the 2025 Leadville 100 (no relation to Jason Siegel) expressing their concern over the noon start time.
- On October 12, five athletes met with representatives of USATF to discuss the start time. Ward, Leer, and Hurley were on the call. Also attending were Sara Hall and one other athlete. It is not clear whether representatives from NBC or GO Sports were on the call. Ward told Runner’s World after the call that it was largely positive and respectful, although there were no immediate changes in the start time to announce.
The athletes were educated about the financial implications of an earlier start time, as viewership declines at earlier hours. That reduced exposure changes the rates charged for advertising during the broadcast, for instance, or the price for VIP hospitality packages sold at the finish line.
- Ward said in a phone call with, Runner’s World learned that a deal to change the start time was close to being finalized. But later in the day, according to the athlete letter, GO Sports did not agree to the deal.
The 2024 Athletes Concerned About Trials’ Noon Start Time have been marred with controversy since the beginning. Nutrition - Weight Loss, because World Athletics was delayed in announcing Olympic qualification procedures. There were no guarantees that the top three finishers would make it to the Games. As it currently stands, the top three finishers on the women’s side will run in the Games, as long as they have run faster than 2:29:30. On the men’s side, at least the top two on will run, provided they have run faster than 2:11:30.
USATF’s board of directors threw their support behind Chattanooga’s bid to host the Trials, but Max Siegel disqualified Chattanooga based on a perceived conflict of interest of a board member. That board member, Jim Estes, Kevin C. Cox over the disqualification and damage to his reputation.
Not every athlete is upset with a late start time for the Trials. Olympic marathoners Des Linden, Molly Seidel, and Galen Rupp are among those who support the late start.
a group of 84 Trials qualifiers sent a letter to USATF CEO Max Siegel 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 Amazing Runners World Show, Run Your Butt Off! and Walk Your Butt Off!
