Starting Friday and concluding on June 27, America’s best and brightest will compete at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, for their spots on the team for the Tokyo Games.
Excited to watch the Olympic trials but haven’t exactly been keeping up with the sport since, well, the last Olympics? Fear not, we’ve got you covered.
Houlihan, a 2016 Olympian and the American record holder in the 1,500 meters and the 5,000 meters, was banned for four years earlier this week.
I don’t do this for the accolades, money, or for people to know my name.
Now, the 35-year-old Felix is looking to make her final Olympic team — and win some more hardware to perhaps cement her status as the best ever.
Felix gave birth to her daughter in 2018, and has since become a fierce supporter for female athletes and maternity policies.
“Being a mom has shifted my motivation and desire,” Felix said in a recent interview with Shape.
The 23-year-old won gold at the 2019 worlds in the 200 meters and as part of the 4×100 meters team — and is the reigning national champion in the 100 meters and 200 meters.
In an effort to raise awareness about racial inequalities in the U.S., he paid homage to Tommie Smith and John Carlos’ iconic stance at the 1968 Olympics, wearing a black glove on his right hand and raising it while being introduced from the starting blocks ahead of a race in Monaco in 2020.
Richardson, who turned pro in 2019 following her sensational freshman season at LSU, enters the trials with the fastest qualifying times in the 100 meters and the 200 meters.
He has also notched two sub-10.0 second races this season and recorded victories at the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational and at an Olympic test event in Tokyo.
After recording one of the top 10 times in history in the 100 meters in 2015, Bromell was expected to be a breakout star of the Rio Games.
He tore his Achilles while diving to the finish line during the 4×100 meters relay in hopes of securing the bronze medal.
The 25-year-old recorded his personal best earlier this month with a 9.77 in the 100 meters — a world-leading time and the fastest qualifying time going into the trials by .08 of a second.
Dalilah Muhammad, the reigning Olympic gold medalist in the 400-meter hurdles, has somehow only gotten better since her triumph in Rio.
How fierce has the competition been between Muhammad and McLaughlin? When Muhammad broke the world record at the 2019 world championships, second-place McLaughlin did too.
While Muhammad has bested her in the highest-stakes races in the past, it’s McLaughlin who has recorded the best time this season at 52.83 seconds.
Three of the top five ranked male shot putters in the world are Americans – with three more ranked in the top 20.
It should be a battle among reigning Olympic gold medalist Ryan Crouser, currently ranked No.
The 23-year-old Cunningham has won every outdoor and indoor national title in the high jump since 2017 and is the fourth-ranked woman in the world.
in this event? Americans make up for all of the top six fastest times in 2021 and eight of the top 10.
So, yes, this isn’t exactly a marquee event for the American squad.
Ajeé Wilson, the winner of the last three national titles in the event, has been seen as the country’s best hope for the race for the past several years.
The Texas A&M freshman broke records in the 800 meters and the 400 meters this year — and recorded the second-fastest time in the world in the 800 meters and the fourth best in the 400 meters.
Do you recall what you were doing during sophomore year of high school? No matter what you say, for most of us, it certainly wasn’t qualifying for the Olympic trials.
On the men’s side, Erriyon Knighton broke the world junior record in the 200 meters — set previously by Usain Bolt in 2003 — at a meet in May and holds the 10th-best time in the world in the race this year entering trials.
Hobbs Kessler broke the high school record in the 1,500 meters with a time of 3:34.36 and is one of just five Americans to have achieved the Olympic standard.
“My thinking is that, if I’m there, I might as well have a run at the team,” Kessler said.