Home > Runs & Races

772 runners qualify for U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials

In 2016, 457 runners qualified for the trials. In 2020, double that number will be on the start line

The U.S. Olympic Trials are only six weeks away, and this past Sunday was the final day to qualify. On February 29, the Atlanta race will see hundreds of runners race, and six of those runners will automatically qualify for the Olympics. The 2020 event is seeing one of the largest Olympic Trials ever, with 261 men and 511 women having run qualification standards. The 2016 trials only saw 457 runners qualify in total–this year that many women alone will be running.

https://www.instagram.com/p/ByaOUHwgS1U/

RELATED: Molly Huddle is concerned about Nike AlphaFly at US marathon trials

RELATED: Indianapolis Marathon sees 39 runners qualify for Olympic trials

Of the 772 runners qualified for the Olympic trials, there are roughly 20 runners vying for those six Olympic spots. But for everyone else in the race, it’s still a very cool thing to get to participate in and an exciting goal to set for themselves. Runners qualified for the trials one of three ways: half-marathon or marathon ‘A’ or ‘B’ standards.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B3219JuHYWS/

The standards

Men Marathon  – ‘A’ 2:15:00, ‘B’ 2:19:00
Half-Marathon – 1:04:00

Women Marathon – ‘A’ 2:37:00, ‘B’ 2:45:00
Half-Marathon – 1:13:00

The full list of qualifiers can be found here.

Houston marathon

The Houston marathon was held on the final day to qualify, and both the American and Canadian results were impressive. In the men’s race, 18 Americans went sub-1:03 and in the women’s, 12 runners went sub 1:11. The upcoming trials is going to be a serious battle between several American heavy hitters and ultimately will come down to who’s having a good day.

In Canadian results, two nationals records were broken with a third near miss. Malindi Elmore set the new marathon record, Natasha Wodak did the same in the half and Rory Linkletter was only 16 seconds off of the men’s half record.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bc–UksFCYY/

Americans to watch

Of the runners with a real shot at the upcoming Olympic, most have run similar times (Sara Hall, Molly Huddle, Emily Sisson), but there are a few wild cards who have run much faster than their competitors but struggle with consistency (Galen Rupp, Jordan Hasay). Here are their names and an educated guess as to how they’ll do.

Potential women’s results:

  1. Emily Sisson
  2. Molly Huddle
  3. Sara Hall
  4. Des Linden
  5. Kellyn Taylor
  6. Amy Cragg
  7. Jordan Hasay
  8. Emma Bates
  9. Steph Bruce
  10. Aliphine Tuliamuk

Potential men’s results:

  1. Galen Rupp
  2. Scott Fauble
  3. Jared Ward
  4. Bernard Lagat
  5. Leonard Korir
  6. Dathan Ritzenhein
  7. Shadrack Biwott
  8. Connor McMillan
  9. Noah Droddy
  10. Abdi Abdirahman

 

Check out the latest buyer's guide:

The best trainers in Canada under $150

We curated the best performance trainers under $150 to meet your 2024 running goals, while staying on budget