USATF Announces 2023 World Championship Roster

On Monday, USATF announced its team for the 2023 World Athletics Championships, which will take place in Budapest, Hungary, from August 19-27. USATF is sending a total of 139 athletes to Worlds.

Most of the spots were already known after the results of the USATF Outdoor Championships in Eugene last month, but there were still some t’s to be crossed and i’s to be dotted in a few of the distance events. Here are the main things you need to know.

Sean McGorty is double-entered in the 5,000 and 10,000 — but it’s still possible Grant Fisher could run at Worlds

There were a couple of questions regarding Sean McGorty, who finished 3rd at USAs in the 5,000 and 10,000. The first was whether he would qualify for Worlds in the 10,000 meters. McGorty did not have the World Championship standard of 27:10, and on the Road to Budapest tool, he was ranked highly (28th) but not highly enough to earn an immediate invitation to Worlds. But a few of the athletes ranked higher than him will not be taking their spots at Worlds, meaning McGorty is qualified in the 10,000.

Kevin Morris photo

The next question was whether McGorty would run both the 5,000 or 10,000 or if he would focus on only one event. Scratching the 10,000 would allow McGorty’s Bowerman Track Club teammate, the American record holder Grant Fisher (who was 4th in the 10,000 at USAs) to take his place — though there remains doubt about whether Fisher, recovering from a stress injury in his femur, will be healthy enough to compete at Worlds.

McGorty is double-entered in the 5,000 and 10,000, but his agent Tom Ratcliffe told LetsRun that McGorty and BTC coach Jerry Schumacher are still discussing whether to double at Worlds. World Athletics requires final entries this week but Fisher will be entered by USATF as the alternate (every country can enter up to four qualified athletes per event but only three may run). That means that if McGorty does withdraw, Fisher would be entered in the meet and available to run — if he’s fit.

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All three 10,000 women will double back in the 5,000

At USAs, the same three women finished 1-2-3 in the 10,000 and 5,000 meters: Elise Cranny, Alicia Monson, and Natosha Rogers. The issues to be settled were whether Rogers, who did not have the entry standard in the 10,000, would be accepted in that event and whether any of the three would scratch from one of the events and open up a spot for someone else.

As with McGorty on the men’s side, enough qualified women scratched from the 10,000 to allow Rogers to go to Worlds in that event. It’s worth noting that Spain had three women qualified via their World Cross Country Ranking but none of them will be going to Worlds — either the women declined their spots or the Spanish federation declined the invitations. That opened up a spot for Rogers at Worlds, since World Athletics only sends out eight invitations for World Cross Country Ranking spots and does not go any farther down the XC list. If one of those XC spots is declined, it is offered to the next person on the regular 10,000m ranking list.

There is a similar situation to McGorty/Fisher in the women’s 5,000. Monson, Cranny, and Rogers are all double-entered in the 5k and 10k, but if Monson does change her mind at the last minute and opts for the 10k only, her On Athletics Club teammate Josette Andrews would be entered as the alternate in the 5k and able to step in.

Men’s steeplers have no issue qualifying via world ranking and Joe Waskom is in as well

On the USAs broadcast, the NBC announcing crew was hesitant to definitively say whether certain athletes would be going to Worlds since they did not have the World standard. But that is going to be a more frequent occurrence given World Athletics now wants a 50-50 split between qualifiers via the standard and qualifiers via world ranking. At USAs, we were very confident that the top three finishers in the men’s steeple (Kenneth Rooks, Benard Keter, Isaac Updike) would all be going to Worlds even though none of them had the standard, and they all made it easily. 1500 runner-up Joe Waskom also looked set to go at USAs, and definitely after running 3:34 in Lignano on July 14, and now it’s official that he will be going to Worlds as well.

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We already knew Athing Mu would be passing up her spot in the 1500 to 4th placer Sinclaire Johnson, so there were no other major surprises on the roster, which can be found in its entirety below.

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Team USA Roster announced

MEN’S ROSTER BY EVENT

WOMEN’S ROSTER BY EVENT