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Noah Lyles and Sha’Carri Richardson are among the headline names, but we could also see an 18-year-old make Team USA’s men’s 100 meters squad.
With the 2024 Summer Olympics just over a month away, the best track and field athletes in the country are in Eugene, Oregon for the Team USA Olympic trials. Given the sheer quality and depth across multiple disciplines, it’s exceptionally difficult just to earn a spot on the team, which means everyone has to bring their A-game in order to punch their ticket to Paris.
There will be familiar names and superstars vying for their Olympic berths, but there many others great athletes worth following for their skills and personal stories. To prepare for the trials, here’s a look at 10 track standouts to pay close attention to over the next 10 days of competition.
Established stars and gold medal favorites
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Sha’Carri Richardson, 100 and 200 meters
Speaking of stars, Sha’Carri Richardson seemed destined for superstar status ahead of the previous Olympics. Her controversial marijuana suspension dashed her Tokyo trip, and a subpar 2022 saw the former LSU sensation fail to even qualify for Team USA’s World Championship team.
Richardson bounced back superbly in 2023, winning a dramatic World Championship gold, as well as a bronze in the 200 meters, and a 4x100m relay gold as the anchor leg. To paraphrase Richardson: she’s not back, she’s better.
While the 200 isn’t Richardson’s best race, she’ll be considered the clear-cut favorite in the 100. With reigning Olympic champ Elaine Thompson-Herah battling injuries, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce approaching the end of her illustrious career, and Shericka Jackson still looking to reach her best form this year, the Jamaican grip on the women’s sprints could be coming to an end. Richardson seems well poised to stake her claim as the undisputed queen of the 100.
Noah Lyles, 100 and 200 meters
The world’s fastest man and supreme showman is aiming for four gold medals in Paris. At last year’s world championships in Hungary, Lyles won the 100 and 200 meters, then completed his hat trick by anchoring Team USA to gold in the 4×100 relay. His desired fourth gold would be through the men’s 4×400 relay, even though he’s scarcely run that event. He did get a silver at the World Indoor Championships in Scotland as part of the relay quartet, but it takes two laps to run 400 meters indoors compared to one lap outdoors.
Lyles will have stiff Team USA competition in the 100, including 2019 world champion Christian Coleman and 2022 world champ Fred Kerley, but he’s proven almost unbeatable in the 200 meters. His last loss in his signature race came in the previous Olympics in 2021, when he took bronze behind American teammate Kenny Bednarek and Canada’s Andre De Grasse. It won’t be easy, but if Lyles achieves the 100/200 double in Paris, he’ll join (among others) the likes of Jesse Owens, Carl Lewis, and Usain Bolt in rarefied Olympic air.
The United States has not won Olympic 100-meter gold since Athens 2004. Lyles and Richardson represent the strongest opportunities to end that drought and elevate their respective profiles to new heights.
Grant Holloway, 110 meters hurdles
The Florida Gators legend has won countless NCAA indoor and outdoor titles, three world outdoor championships, two world indoor golds, and the indoor world record in the 60m hurdles. What’s missing from his already legendary résumé? Olympic gold.
Holloway lost out to Jamaica’s Hansle Parchment in Tokyo, denying the former star high school wide receiver his lifelong dream of becoming Olympic champion. One of the more entertainingly outspoken athletes in the sport, Holloway told reporters following his win at last month’s Prefontaine Classic that his main focus was on beating the other Americans in the field as opposed to Parchment, knowing that trials were on the horizon.
With his unique blend of speed, power, and hurdling technique, he’s a massive favorite to win another US championship and have another crack at realizing his golden moment.
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, 400 meters hurdles
The term “generational athlete” gets overused, but Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone is generational. This is someone whose first Olympics berth was when she was only 16. She has rewritten the history books to the point where her world record of 50.68 seconds would be a good 400-meter run without the barriers.
McLaughlin-Levrone isn’t just a hurdles specialist. She ran a personal best 22.07 seconds in the 200 meters in May, and her 48.75 seconds in the flat 400 earlier this month narrowly missed out on Sanya Richards-Ross’ American record.
Alas, the competition timetable will limit the 24-year-old to just the hurdles (and, assuming she’s picked, the women’s 4×400 relay).
With fellow American Dalilah Muhammad in the twilight of her career, there’s no one other than Dutch sensation Femke Bol who can challenge McLaughlin-Levrone. Qualification should be a formality; how fast she runs will give us an indicator of the potential for something special in Paris.
Athing Mu, 800 meters
A prodigious talent as a teenager, Mu burst onto the global scene at just 19 years old, winning Olympic gold in the 800 and the women’s 4×400 meters relay in 2021. She captured the world title in 2022, but the effects of long Covid and injuries limited her in 2023. She ceded her world title crown to Kenya’s Mary Moraa in a bronze medal performance.
Once again hampered by injuries, the 22-year-old Mu enters Olympic trials with no races in 2024. While she should not have any issues qualifying, her status as a gold medal favorite over Moraa and Great Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson is admittedly dicey.
Medal contenders
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Gabby Thomas, 200 meters
The Harvard grad has the versatility to run the 100 all the way up to 400 meters. Thomas’ specialty is the 200 meters, with a bronze in Tokyo and a silver at the 2023 Worlds. Her 21.60 at last year’s World Championship trials makes her the fourth-fastest woman in this event.
Thomas initially planned to double up and make her first 400-meter team, but was scratched from the startlist.
There’s no doubt that Thomas is a serious contender in the 200, and if Shericka Jackson doesn’t rapidly improve upon her recent form, it’s very possible that Thomas can turn her Tokyo bronze into Parisian gold.
Rai Benjamin, 400 meters hurdles
Of the historically great trio of Benjamin, Norway’s Karsten Warholm, and Brazil’s Alison dos Santos, only Benjamin has yet to win gold in this event. His 46.17 clocking in Tokyo remains the second-fastest ever, only behind the ludicrous 45.94 seconds from Warholm in the same race. When Warholm faltered in the 2022 World Championships, Benjamin settled for silver behind dos Santos. At last year’s Worlds, he beat dos Santos but finished well behind Warholm and took home a bronze.
Much like McLaughlin-Levrone, there are no other Americans particularly close to Benjamin. His 2024 outdoor opener in Los Angeles saw him dominate the field in 46.64 seconds, good for 10th fastest in history. If all is smooth-sailing in Eugene, there’s no doubt that his latest showdown with his main rivals will be one of the marquee races of the Olympics.
Yared Nuguse, 1,500 meters
While the main storyline in the 1,500 meters is the burgeoning rivalry between Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Great Britain’s Josh Kerr, there is a real chance that an American will get on the Olympic podium in this event for only the third time since 1972.
The 25-year-old Nuguse is already the fastest American miler and 1,500-meter runner both indoors and outdoors. He qualified for Tokyo while at the University of Notre Dame, but later pulled out due to injury. Nuguse came in 5th in his first World Championships in 2023, but did pick up an impressive silver medal behind Kerr in the 3,000 meters at the World Indoor Championships in March.
“I feel like the Olympics brings its own big set of tension with it, and to test that tension in other places [like the World Indoor Championships] I think really helps just with your race preparations and mental preparations,” Nuguse told SB Nation prior to his third-place finish in the hotly anticipated Prefontaine Classic mile back in May.
While the American men’s 1,500 meters has several promising talents like Hobbs Kessler, Cole Hocker, and Cooper Teare, it’s clear that Nuguse is a cut above his countrymen. If Nuguse gets through qualifying, he’ll once again be joining an incredibly stacked global field and it’ll be a battle royale just to get a medal.
Up-and-comers
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Christian Miller, 100 meters
What were you doing at 17 years old? Floridian high schooler and University of Georgia commit Christian Miller was busy becoming the youngest in history to go under 10 seconds in the 100 meters, clocking in at an astonishing 9.93 seconds.
Miller also turned in a 9.95 outing at this month’s New Balance Nationals high school meet.
The level of competition will get much tougher for Miller against top college and professional athletes this weekend; he may need to improve upon his personal best to finish in a qualifying spot. It is nevertheless realistic that the now 18-year-old Miller could make the Olympic team and be one of the great stories heading into Paris.
McKenzie Long, 200 meters
The college track circuit is more grueling than the pros, and it’s never more evident than the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Two weeks ago, Ole Miss standout McKenzie Long won the 4×100 meters relay, then the individual 100 meters, followed by the 200 meters to wrap up an epic triple national championship in the span of less than two hours. Her 21.83 seconds leads all women’s 200m runners for 2024 and is the second-fastest performance all-time by a college athlete.
It was the culmination of a deeply emotional senior season for Long, whose mother passed away suddenly back in February.
“I talk to my mom everyday,” Long told ESPN’s John Anderson. “Everything I do is for her.”
If Gabby Thomas and Sha’Carri Richardson are likely to command two of the three spots for Paris, the third is up for grabs and Long has a legitimate shot. The only caution is that between indoors and outdoors, Long has competed in over 30 races this year. It’ll be more than understandable if she (and many other college athletes at these trials) eventually run out of steam after a hectic schedule.
The USA Track and Field Championships run from June 21 through June 30 and air on NBC, USA Network, and Peacock.
