Sooo...... Does the US still get to enter 3 athletes for each track event? And among those three qualifying standard athletes first and if any spots left by rankings? Or do you take all the qualifying athletes in the world and do the rest by rankings not respective of country? Asking for a friend. How are they going to to field events where the number of participants is limited?

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I believe the US can send whomever they want, as long as those selected hit the qualification time or rankings. I didn't read further into the normal T&F events but at least the marathon allows for qualification by placing at some major events. I think it just means that anyone going to US trials needs to have already proved themselves or would need to hit the time standard AT the trials themselves.

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808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo

I don't follow track so not sure about the other times but did they really drop the marathon times for men by like 8 minutes and 15 minutes for the women? That seems like a crazy amount of time for both!

Yep, they did but at least with marathon they are allowing placing at major races (abbott WMM, IAAF gold label & worlds) to qualify even without the standard time. My guess is that it is because they know how subject marathons are to conditions.

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808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo

Holy shit, so they need to hit sub 2:10 for a B??? Damn. . .smh. Poor Sage, won't make it again I'm afraid :(


Edit: I looked after I posted and this still seems pretty much the same:

http://www.marathonguide.com/...sQualifiers.cfm?RL=1

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B standard allows you to run the olympic trials, where in that race only top 3 get to go. (The idea is that a B standard person is consistently improving).

NOW its The A standard only - a minute faster. so I dont know if USA will have a qualifying race, but it seems only 4 people have hit it.

That people are up in the arms over the women's marathon standard is a funny, because it is a joke.

In 2018, 159 women ran under 2:29:30 for the marathon.
That the US can't put someone into that is not the standard's fault, it's our fault.

Want a a standard that everyone should be questioning?
How many women ran under 31:25 for the 10k?

...3...

... In the world...

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Well not that simple. That's USATF's standard but no matter who gets top 3 in the trials, those people will need to hit the actual IAAF Olympic time standard OR a top placing at one of the major races (regardless of time). This is why there is discussion around this diminishing the importance of the trials, it is wholly possible that the top 3 of the marathon trials may not actually qualify individually to run in the olympics.

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808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo

Been a while since I left the T & f world, but if memory serves, in order to be able to compete at the olympics, you need at least a B standard to be able to race. The qualification criteria very from country to country, some it's purely, you need at least a B standard, and top 3 at trials, other countries it varies, some require a combination of standard times (multiple Bs or a single A) with or without a placing at trials/nationals...

Not sure how USATF does it, but you just need the standard within a qualifying window, so theoretically you could hit your standard at the trials and qualify if you achieve the selection criteria... I saw on social media that for Canada, in the women's 10km, you'd need to take a decent chunk off the national record to even hit the B standard... There's still a season and a bit to qualify, but in some events the fields might be small...

With stiffer standards, you'll likely see more meets using pace setters to try and get people under the standards, and then likely much slower times at the actual trials, as those who have the standards race for placings...

I've only been a fan for the past few years but from what I understand, the minimum qualification time for the Olympics (IAAF Standard) was the B standard for USATF, the A standard was simply a USATF specific time meant to encourage top talent? And that's meant to ensure that whomever places at trials can automatically get in to the Olympics.

And what's changed is that the IAAF standard has raised by a significant margin, making the USATF time standards useless and the intention to fill the field with the new ranking system. What will be interesting is whether USATF will change their entry standard to the trials to ensure that whomever wins/places in all events will be allowed to actually go to the Olympics or if they risk allowing athletes to compete who haven't hit any time standards and are ranked too low to be let in.

Again though, you and many, many others keep forgetting or failing to read that they are tightening the time standards fully expecting to have only half or less of the field qualify via time, they will fill the field with their ranking system so no field sizes will be any smaller so there will almost definitely be representation of Canada in the women's 10km because of course, even if they rank like 200th, once you take out Kenya, Ethiopia, etc. after their top 3, then they shoot up to like 40-60. Regardless of their PBs.

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808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo

Except that Canadian qualification works nothing like the USATF model... In the past the Canadian Olympic committee has imposed standard that were tougher than the prescribed olympic standards, and have shown that they are perfectly happy not starting athletes in an event, if they have not met prescribed standards... It's not simply achieving a top 3 at trials to get in... In the past it's looked something like Top 3 at trials, and 3 B standards, or 1 A and 1 B standard, or 2 A standards in order to be eligible for nomination to the olympic team... The process is geared to ensure that anyone being sent to the games has the chance to be competitive, the problem is that the approach makes it harder to be able to field younger athletes that may not quite be competitive yet, but could gain the experience and then come back 4 years later and be a genuine contender...

Back in my T & F days, I was never close to being in the ballpark for such selections, but I trained with and raced against many who were... It always struck us as ass backwards... On our university team, we had implemented A and B time-standards in order for selection to championship meets (both for XC and T & F). As a minimum to be selected you needed a B standard... As a freshman/sophmore, you only needed a B standard to be selected for a championships team, so that you could get the developmental opportunity. As a veteran athlete, you needed an A standard for auto-selection, or a B standard (or multiple B standards) and to produce consistently faster times than younger athletes who had B times (or for there to be not enough of the younger athletes with a B standard to fill our quotas...) to have any shot at selection. It was a good balance of getting people the experience at the level they were striving to achieve, and making it fair to field the strongest team possible... It was certainly a motivator, because at times as a veteran with a B standard, you knew you had to race your arse off to try and make sure you either got the A, or that you were crushing the young bucks to that they couldn't leave you behind... From an olympic perspective, I'd love to see some sort of similar system... A bit easier of a standard for U21 or U23 aged athletes to give them that chance to get that first OG experience without too much pressure...