Many of the world’s fastest athletes descend upon Eugene, Oregon, on Friday for the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials.
Over eight days, Noah Lyles, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Sha’Carri Richardson and other notable Americans will compete for a spot in the 2024 Paris Games. The top three finishers in most events will qualify for the Olympics.
The marquee meets this weekend include the men’s and women’s 100-meter finals. Lyles is seeking to become the “fastest man on Earth,” a title an American hasn’t held in 28 years. He’ll face competition from 2019 world champion Christian Coleman and teenage sensation Christian Miller, a high schooler who held this year's fastest time in the world for nearly two months before the Tokyo 100-meter gold medalist eclipsed him.
Those long odds haven’t deterred Lyles.
“World records are meant to be broken,” he told NBC Philadelphia. “It’s just another goal to check off the list, and it’s always fun to go after the top. I still got Olympic gold medals to get. I still got records to break. Why shoot for the clouds when you can aim for the stars?”
In the women’s 100-meter event, Richardson is aiming to set her own records and conquer her Olympic dream after she missed out on competing in the 2020 Tokyo Games after a positive test for cannabis.
Richardson took responsibility for her actions in an interview on NBC’s “TODAY” show.
“I know what I did,” she said at the time. “I know what I’m supposed to do. I know what I’m allowed not to do, and I still made that decision.”
Richardson ran her fastest 100-meter time at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, in August. Her 10.65 was just off the 10.49-second world record U.S. star Florence Griffith-Joyner set in 1988.
Meanwhile, world record holder Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone will aim to defend her 400-meter hurdles title. This week McLaughlin-Levrone confirmed to The Associated Press she won’t compete in the 400-meter and 200-meter flat events as originally planned, to focus on her “first love.”
“I think we kind of just knew we wanted to come back to the hurdles,” she said. “Last year was fun trying the [400-meter flat race] and kind of dabbling in that. In the future we might come back to that, as well, but I think this is kind of just our focus right now.”
McLaughlin-Levrone has set world records at the Olympic trials, first in 2021 and three times since then with her most recent record at the 2022 world championships.
In the women’s 800-meter event, Olympic champion Athing Mu, a New Jersey native, is expected to make her season debut. She has competed only once since she won bronze at the world championships last year.
Mu, who is 22, was the youngest woman to ever hold track and field medals after she claimed gold in the 800 meters at the 2020 Tokyo Games.
For the field events, world record holder Ryan Crouser will compete in the shot put, along with Joe Kovas. In the women’s field events, world champion Chase Jackson is seeking to qualify for Paris after having finished fifth at the trials for the Tokyo Games.
The U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials for the 2024 Paris Games will air live on NBC, USA and Peacock on Friday to Monday and June 27-30.
