RW: Could Orlando walk away from hosting 2024 US Olympic Marathon Trials? Sarah Lorge Butler says the contract was never signed!

Who in Houston wants to take this headache on? Certainly not Brant Kotch.

At some point, bid sites will finally learn that this enterprise is not worth the time nor the effort. The restrictions by USOPC and USATF make this a sure loser. How many of the the bid sites from the past come back and bid again? USATF needs to put some creative thinking into this and come up with a viable solution.

Good one!

Make Houston the permanent site of the annual USATF Marathon Championship / Olympic Trials Marathon. The course is fair and fast. Airport access is great. Hotel rooms are plentiful. A long-term arrangement would help secure sponsor dollars. The mid-January date works well for summer team selections while still giving elites the option to race a Spring or Fall race. Youngish pros (Monson, Kelati, Fisher, N. Young, Kincaid) might take a flyer on the marathon since they can still recover before the summer track season kicks off.

For Trials years, hitting a time standard earns you travel/lodging money and the Trials fields start 15 minutes before the masses.

I like this idea- I don't really think it matters to mimic the conditions of the Olympic course. The best runners on that day are going to qualify.

I wouldn't mind seeing a loop course either on city streets or in a park.

Make it a running festival with an open race or two at shorter distances and an atmosphere that gets people there and makes the open runners want to watch the Trials race.

Just like the Olympics (Winter and Summer) should always be in Geneva Switzerland. Make a sports city that can accommodate both games (hotels, airport, venues) and get ride of this stupid rotation around the world, corrupt bidding process. The original olympics was in Greece all the time, should follow that model.

Someone needs to talk to the city of Pasadena (CA) about using the approx. 3 mi - 5000m loop around the ROSE BOWL as a multi-loop course for the USOT. Lots of parking, It would draw large crowds , tons of infrastructure w/i 1 mile (hotels, restaurants, parking , bathrooms, etc. It is a resonable and fair loop: 40% slight uphill, 40 slight downhill, 20% flat. It has been and is used for MANY road races. The location is also easily cordoned off from traffic AND the city nd area are used to dealing with crowds for FB games and concerts. Weather is likely to bee good- probably coolish with low humidity. Great for spectating.

Houston hosted the Trials in 2012 and didn't bid this time around. Have they shown any interest in being a permanent host?

If USATF keeps adjusting times, and changing demands less and less people will want to bid. The good news is they only need 1 bidder.

But if it's going to be in Texas, let's have it in Dallas (or Fort Worth!).

Wow, a three mile loop around a parking lot that isn't even flat. I'm sure we couldn't possibly find a better marathon course anywhere in the country.

After this whole debacle, I'd be genuinely surprised if they got even a single bid for 2028.

If you remember Max "golden pockets" yanked the trials in 16' from Houston in favor of the so called media mecca of LA. Late start - high temps - cluster F, I was there. The brain trust of USATF is more concerned with trying to micro manage the Trials to replicate the games. Let the damned coaches worry about that. If its going to be hot at the games move your trials to August - at least then the athletes have time to acclimate to the conditions, rather than holding your trials in Feb. All of this is so simple, yet the morons at USATF can't get out of the way to figure it out.

Have you ever evem been to the RB? Most of the loop is around the perimeter of a golf course! That's LR for you..

God forbid making an event like the marathon trials spectator friendly, far easier and cheaper to televise, plus potentially inspirational for young athletes! We simply can't have innovation!!!

I agree, but then again we said that in 96, 00, 04, 08, 12, 16, and 2020.

USATF, Track Town USA, and University of Oregon Athletics blew the marathon at Eugene WC 2022.

Only a dozen or so entries per race.

The worst marathon in World Champs history.

Where would the course be in Fort Worth or Dallas? It's been icy there in February.

Salt my friend, salt. They know how to solve that easily. Then a DeWalt High powered blower and you're in business;)

Cowtown marathon (Ft Worth) is on Feb 25th. Last year they hosted USATF half marathon champs

Wow, how soon we forget. It was only three years ago that unheralded Molly Seidel finished second at the Trials in Atlanta over a hilly course that mimicked the expected Olympic Marathon course, where favorites like Molly Huddle and Emily Sisson ended up dropping out and big names like Jordan Hasay, Sarah Hall, Emma Bates and Des Linden didn't make the team. It's not about names or times. It's about who competes best on the day.