2028 Olympic Marathon Trials Standards are Here: 2:16:00 for Men, 2:37:00 for Women

Bad move. It truly is the only thing keeping a lot of guys motivated. The difference between 2:18 and 2:16 is vast. 2:16 OR top 200 (if that many don’t run the standard) would make this more palatable.

I think if you ask the guys in the 2:25-2:18 range whether this discourages them and most say yes, then the answer is clear. I know what it does to my motivation to keep training at a high level for the marathon. Getting comped entries to marathons isn’t really motivation. Aiming for the standard was.

Two one six? That should be a cakewalk for the pride of Detroit, Michigan, Mr Dion Marquise Hayes. He has the ability to make the team outright, but only if he wants to. He may or may not be too preoccupied with more important endeavors like trapping though. To be continued. Would be nice to see a Hayes, Mantz, and that other former BYU cat be the three to go to LA 28.

Sorry, the truth is a 2:18-2:25 guy has zero chance of making the Olympic team, so he has no business being at the Trials.

I’m a 2:45-2:50 guy. I have no chance of making the Olympic team either, but that doesn’t discourage me from putting in the miles. I do it because I love the sport and I want to be the best I can be at it. That should be all the motivation that’s needed.

Yeah, I think there has to be a balance of the OTQ being an event unto itself and it being an Olympic focused qualifier.

We're seeing an explosion of American guys running fast marathons post-collegiately. Matt Richtman, Ryan Ford, Alex Maier, and who thinks that (regardless what you think of them as individuals) Joe Klecker, Hillary Bor, Charles Hicks, Zouhair Talbi, Casey Clinger won't be able to get under 2:16?

It's important to remember that when the 2024 OTQ standard was set, US marathoning was basically at a historic low point. The US didn't do great in 2020, Rupp and Abdirahman were getting up there in age and Riley never ran sub-2:10. The best US marathoners at the time were like CJ Albertson, Colin Bennie, Elkannah Kibet, Scott Fauble. I mean no disrespect but 2:18 is a reasonable standard in light of the fact that the best American marathoners in 2022 were getting 2:10, maybe 2:09 on a good day.

LOL. LRC berates fun run participation medals, but some support allowing 2:25-2:18 guys do the trials, which is EXACTLY the same thing. Bragging rights "look, I'm sub-sub elite".

Using your logic above, they could set the standard at 4 hrs, and there'd still be 4:20 guys whining about not having anything to run for.

What you’re arguing for is an entirely different format, which is a whole different conversation. What we’re talking about is the reality we live in, where there’s an Olympic trials with an aim to have 200 men and women compete.

The reason we have a large (roughly 200 people) Olympic trial at all is to encourage participation. There’s no other point if not that. A 2:16 guy isn’t going to make the team either, but again, that’s not the conversation we’re having.

I never argued a 2:25 guy should go to the trials. Nor did I say a 2:20 guy should.

What you guys are missing is that the reason we have the trials is to encourage participation. If they get 200 dudes to run the B standards, I’ll eat my words. I don’t think they’ll get 100.

You are arguing for an entirely different format it would seem, as a 2:16 guy racing Mantz is also just for sport. That dude will never get top 3. I still think it’s great they go, and that motivation keeps a lot of quality runners going post college.

This is maybe not a true representation of men who qualified that could run 2:16 or faster. Had the standard been set to 2:16 for the 2024 Trials, I'm sure there would have been more athletes that would have attempted to dip under that time. I know a few runners who have ran well below 2:16, but simply ran 2:17:xx in the qualifying window to get their time.

2:35 is a round number and seems pretty dead-on. A bit surprised they went with 2:37.

I do think 2:16 is a reasonable time. The B standard for the 2016 Trials was initially set to 2:18 but they eventually moved it back to 2:19. And this was before super shoes were widely available. If we're being honest the standard should have been at least 2:17 for the 2024 Trials.

Why does participation need to be encouraged at the Olympic Trials? We already have mass participation marathons.

The Olympic Trials should be about selecting the team for the Olympics. It shouldn’t be a mass participation event. Having 200 people per sex is way too much. I’d cap it at the top 100 men and top 100 women. Even that’s being generous.

We need to get rid of the entitlement surrounding entry into the Olympic Trials. The 200th best quarterback in the country doesn’t get to try out for the NFL. The 200th best marathoner shouldn’t get to try out for the Olympics.

That would have been a 101 person race

Well youre comparing to a sport with over 1000 pros in the NFL. 32 teams that each have 4-5 QBs on their active roster and practice squad collectively = ~150ish QBs in the NFL. 86 men ran sub 2:16 for the 2024 qualifying window.

If it is really about field size have a guaranteed “A” qualifying time then fill out the rest of the field to 200 based on time. How hard is it to keep a spreadsheet of submitted times and sort based on time?

Again, I think the core of your argument is that the trial format (as it stands) doesn’t accomplish its goal very well. I would maybe agree with you.

But a 2:16 standard doesn’t really make it better, does it? Does a 2:15:59 guy have a shot at top three? If the answer is no, then 2:16 is just as pointless as 2:18.

What I am saying is that the entire event already exists to encourage people on the brink to keep going. It builds a healthy population of sub elite runners, which is good for USA distance running. Maybe one of those guys does develop and make things interesting the next cycle. Or maybe they quit because the gap between qualifying for Boston and an OTQ is an enormous empty void.

Maybe that enormous gap is really where my qualm lies. If there were something to fill it, I think the entire sport would benefit.

Or maybe I’m a salty 2:20 guy who sees the window closing in front of him. Either way, I can tell you there are many who feel the same way I do. I don’t see this decision helping to grow the sport from the middle out, which is what I think is the way to do it. Anyway

Right, the NFL has more quarterback spots than the Olympic marathon team, and even if with that many spots, the Dallas Cowboys aren’t calling up the 200th best quarterback to compete for a roster spot.

I see what you’re saying. I agree it would be great to have more meaningful competitive opportunities that fall in between Boston and the OTQ. The USATF club cross country championships is a good one but there could be more.

I just think the Olympic Trials should be reserved for the top runners who have at least a 1% shot of making the team.

Nothing Jurrah does would surprise me

I think it has to be a balance between encouraging participation and just a qualifier for the Olympics. I don't mind the fact that extra runners are allowed, in fact I think it's part of the charm, because the marathon is inherently a large community event.

But as the standard of American marathoning improves, the qualifying times should also improve. The best American marathoners are faster than they were 4 years ago, and honestly they're probably more than 2 minutes faster.

The fastest time in the post-Olympic window that I could find was Scott Fauble's 2:08:52, and most marathoners were much slower than that, in the low 2:09s on a good day, or even the 2:10s, 2:11s. And that actually played out all the way to Olympic Qualifying time. People will famously remember that the US struggled all cycle to get men to meet the Olympic standard and only 2 men eventually got the Olympic standard of 2:08:10, Conner Mantz and Clayton Young.

Now the fastest marathoner is 2:05 low with a bunch of marathoners packed up in the 2:07, 2:08 range. Like last cycle, we expect times to speed up as we get closer to the Olympics and prospective Olympians have to meet the Olympic Standard, which early rumor says will go from 2:08:10 to 2:06:30. It's possible a bunch of guys run 2:07s, 2:06s in this upcoming cycle, and the American Record may also fall.

Part of the prestige of the event is not only that you are one of the top 200 or so marathoners in the world, but also that you run a time that is considered "elite" in the context of what is being run by the rest of the country, including the top performers. That's why I think it makes sense to raise the National Standard, and the Olympic standard is also being raised by almost 2 min as well.

But I think, while amateurs are certainly going to be grumpy today, they're also going to raise the bar. If you're really a 2:20 guy, 2:15:59 is not unattainable. And even if you specifically don't get it, someone in your friend group who is also a 2:20 guy is probably going to rise to the occasion. I suspect with the influx of college marathoners at the top level and amateurs raising the standard from the middle, we may still end up with a field size in the 150-200 range.