6 Takeaways from Super Sunday at the 2024 US Olympic Trials

EUGENE, Ore. — Sometimes, the US Olympic Trials can feel like a slog. When you’re on day seven of a 10-day meet, sitting through five hours of largely meaningless prelims, you can forget just why everyone gets so jazzed up about this thing every four years.

Then you get a day like Sunday — one of the finest hours of competition you will ever see at an Olympic Trials, or indeed, any track meet. Starting at 4:31 p.m. Pacific Time, the following things happened in the next 60 minutes:

• Grant Fisher defeated Abdihamid Nur, 13:08.85 to 13:09.01 in men’s 5,000-meter final that went down to the final meters. Fisher set an Olympic Trials record.
• Bryce Hoppel set a personal best of 1:42.77 to become the third-fastest American of all time in the 800 meters as his friend and training Hobbs Kessler finished 2nd in 1:43.64 to become the first American in 48 years to make the Olympic team in both the 800 and 1500 in the same year. Hoppel’s time was an Olympic Trials record.
• Masai Russell ran 12.25 to win the women’s 100m hurdles to move into a tie for #4 on the all-time list. Nia Ali ran 12.37 — a time that would have finished in the top three at every race in history before today — and missed the team in 4th place. Just like the men’s 110 hurdles on Friday night, this was the hardest podium to crack, ever. Russell’s 12.25 was a meet record.
• Nikki Hiltz ran down training partners Elle St. Pierre and Emily Mackay of New Balance Boston to win the women’s 1500 in 3:55.33. The top three all broke 3:56 — a mark only one US woman had breached before today — and the top eight all set pbs and broke 4:00. Hiltz’s time broke the Olympic Trials record (sensing a trend?).
• Rai Benjamin dominated the 400m hurdles in 46.46, the fifth-fastest time ever run. The time was a 2024 world leader and means Benjamin now owns three of the five fastest times in history (46.17 at the 2021 Olympics and 46.39 at 2023 Pre are the others). You better believe 46.46 was an Olympic Trials record.
• Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone did what Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone always does on the biggest stages in the 400-meter hurdles: she set a world record of 50.65. It was the fifth time in the last four years that SML has broken the record — and she’s still only 24 years old. And yes, it was an Olympic Trials record.

All of that happened in one hour. You might find 60 minutes of track with three better races. Or four better races (the final day of the 2021 Trials, which also featured a Sydney world record, is certainly up there). But six races, all of the highest quality? This was special. Anyone in the stands on a sunny afternoon at Hayward Field (officially, USATF announced 12,243 ticketed spectators for Hayward’s 12,650 capacity; LetsRun’s unofficial butts in seats count pegged it at slightly lower) should consider themselves lucky to have been in attendance.

That’s a whole lot of track to break down. We’ve got race recaps of all the distance finals plus McLaughlin-Levrone’s world record, so if that’s your thing, check them out here: men’s 5,000; men’s 800; women’s 1500; women’s 400 hurdles. Below, I share six thoughts on an amazing day at Hayward.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone has made historic greatness look routine

Kevin Morris photo

Two years ago, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone ran 50.68 over hurdles at the World Championships in Eugene and the track world lost its mind. It was an improvement of a massive .72 on SML’s own world record, set 27 days earlier at the US championships, and her fourth world record overall. It immediately entered the conversation of the greatest track & field performances of all time.

And yet, when I saw the finalists taking their lanes for tonight’s women’s 400m hurdles on the TV screen in the mixed zone behind Hayward Field, I immediately wrapped up my interview and sprinted into the stands. It was unfair to expect a world record, but this was Sydney. She had set a world record in each of her last 400m hurdle championship finals. I had been in the stands for each of them and was not going to miss this one.

Sure enough, Sydney did it again. She relegated her own 50.68 — viewed at the time as a legendary performance — to #2 on the all-time list. She is .80 faster than the next woman on the list, Femke Bol (51.45), which is not close at all in the 400 hurdles. When she crossed the finish line in her 50.68 in 2022, she was already the greatest female hurdler of all time at the age of 22. Now she is just running up the score.

And she may not be done. History shows that McLaughlin-Levrone is brilliant at US championships (51.90 WR in 2021, 51.41 WR in 2022), then raises her game at the global championships (51.46 WR in 2021, 50.68 WR in 2022). It is not normal to break world records like clockwork. But McLaughlin-Levrone wants to break the record again.

“I would love to dip under 50 at some point,” McLaughlin-Levrone said. “I don’t know if that’s this year, I don’t know if that’s next year, whatever.”

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s World Records
June 27, 2021 – 51.90 – Olympic Trials, Eugene, Oregon
August 4, 2021 – 51.46 – Olympic Games, Tokyo, Japan
June 25, 2022 – 51.41 – US Championships, Eugene, Oregon
July 22, 2022 – 50.68 – World Championships, Eugene, Oregon
June 30, 2024 – 50.65 – Olympic Trials, Eugene, Oregon

One thing SML is not interested in doing at the moment is doubling up in the 400/400 hurdles. The Olympic schedule, with six races in six days, is difficult, but it would provide more of a challenge than any of her 400m hurdle opponents could offer on their own. But it is not a challenge McLaughlin-Levrone is interested in tackling in what may well be her prime Olympics.

“I just wanted to focus on one,” McLaughlin-Levrone said. “I like to hone in on one thing and do it to the best of my ability.”

She is definitely doing that.

American 1500-meter women needed to level up to compete against the best in the world — and in 2024, they have done just that

In the last three global outdoor championships, no American woman has medalled in the women’s 1500. And frankly, none of them have even come close. In 2021, Elle St. Pierre finished 10th at the Olympics, 5.89 seconds behind the bronze — and that was the closest an American has come to the podium in that span.

Over the last few years, freak talents like Faith Kipyegon, Sifan Hassan, and Gudaf Tsegay have raised the bar for what it takes to be competitive in the women’s 1500 and the Americans had yet to rise to meet it. That is changing in 2024.

It began at World Indoors, with Nikki Hiltz and Emily Mackay earning silver and bronze in the 1500 and St. Pierre upsetting Tsegay to win gold in the 3,000. Those three were also the top three today’s US 1500 final, with all three breaking 3:56. Sinclaire Johnson ran 3:56.75 — which would have ranked #4 on the all-time US list entering today — and finished 4th. Heather MacLean, a 2021 Olympian, ran a pb of 3:58.31 and was not even close to making the team. Just like the men’s Olympic Trials final, it was the deepest American 1500 ever, and no other race is even close.

“We just completely elevated US distance running today,” Mackay said.

Will 3:55 be enough to get on the podium in Paris? In the last three championships, it was. But Kipyegon is close to a lock for a medal, and Ethiopia has three women who have run 3:53 or faster this year (Tsegay 3:50.30, Birke Haylom 3:53.22, Diribe Welteji 3:53.75). But now they are at least in the conversation.

The combination of super shoes and one of the best runners in the US serving as a de facto rabbit for the first three laps led to the US all-time getting blown to smithereens today. Of the 12 fastest women in US history, seven ran their pbs in today’s race. Special shoutout to Cory McGee who, after running 4:00 four times, finally broke 4:00 for the first time at age 32. McGee skipped the 3:58s and 3:59s entirely by running 3:57.44, but that was only good for 5th in an ultra-deep final.

1. Shelby Houlihan 3:54.99, 2019
2. Nikki Hiltz 3:55.33, 2024
3. Emily Mackay 3:55.90, 2024
4. Elle St. Pierre 3:55.99, 2024
5. Shannon Rowbury 3:56.29, 2015
6. Sinclaire Johnson 3:56.75, 2024
7. Mary Decker 3:57.12, 1983
8. Jenny Simpson 3:57.22, 2014
9. Suzy Favor Hamilton 3:57.40, 2000
10. Cory McGee 3:57.44, 2024
11. Elise Cranny 3:57.87, 2024
12. Heather MacLean 3:58.31, 2024

Bryce Hoppel called his shot, backed it up, and is better than ever

After Thursday’s prelim, Bryce Hoppel said he wanted to run 1:42 in today’s final. A bold proclamation considering Hoppel’s pb of 1:43.23 was nearly four years old. But Hoppel backed it up by running 1:42.77 to earn the dominant win and take .03 off Johnny Gray‘s 32-year-old Trials record.

“A huge part of calling the 1:42 is we need that stepping stone to, all right [Emmanuel] Wanyonyi‘s at 1:41,” Hoppel said. “To make gold medals happen, we’re going to have to beat guys like that. First step 1:42, and then hopefully see what we can do [with the gold] on the line.”

Hoppel is just the sixth American to break 1:43 and the first to do it since Donavan Brazier ran his American record of 1:42.34 in the 2019 World Championship final in Doha. Hoppel was in that race and finished 4th, and while he has been largely unbeatable at the US level since then (this was Hoppel’s sixth straight US title between indoors and outdoors), 4th remains his best finish in a global final.

For the first four years of his pro careeer, Hoppel was training largely on his own under his college coach Michael Whittlesey at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. He was very good but wanted to be better, so he introduced a new stimulus in 2024: altitude training in Flagstaff with Hobbs Kessler, Morgan Beadlescomb, and Mason Ferlic (Hoppel remains coached by Whittlesey).

He saw immediate dividends by winning World Indoors in March and now, at 26, he is in the best shape of his life at the perfect time. With the way Wanyonyi, Marco Arop, and Djamel Sedjati (who beat Hoppel by more than a second in Stockholm on June 2) are running, it will take a big performance for Hoppel to win a medal in Paris. But he believes it is possible.

“I feel like I haven’t peaked,” Hoppel said. “I’m excited to go and see what more I can do.”

Hobbs Kessler had himself a week

Coaching, tactics, and staying healthy are all factors that go into creating an Olympian, but after making the Olympic team in the 800 on Sunday, Hobbs Kessler was realistic about how he was able to qualifying in an event he had never competed in before at USAs.

“Definitely there’s a lot of talent that goes into it,” Kessler said. “I train like a 1500/5000 guy.”

Championship 800 finals can be difficult to navigate for those new to the event. Fortunately for Kessler, the Trials semis and final were super fast, and he responded by running 1:43.71 in the semis and 1:43.64 in the final. When you can do that at an Olympic Trials, you can beat a lot of people on talent alone.

That is not to say Kessler does not work hard — obviously he does. And he has a great support staff, with Kessler highlighting his strength coach Andy Kay as well as Pat Henner, who has assisted Ron Warhurst with Kessler’s speed development.

But consider the difference between someone like Isaiah Harris, an 800 lifer, and Kessler, for whom the 800 is his second event. Harris was the 2018 NCAA champ and has had a successful pro career, making two US teams. But in six years as a pro, Harris’ pb is 1:44.42. Kessler parachuted into the event and ran faster than that twice in these Trials. Talent had a lot to do with it.

Still, Kessler deserves mega props for his results this week. When he lost to Eric Holt in New York three weeks ago, there were doubts Kessler would make even one Olympic team. Now Kessler is the first American since the criminally underrated Rick Wohlhuter in 1976 to qualify for the Olympic 800 and 1500 teams in the same year. Kessler has not made a final decision but is leaning towards running both events in Paris (the 1500 comes first).

“If we think I can really give a good effort, I’ll do it,” Kessler said. “I mean, I was able to run 1:43 in my fifth and sixth races in 10 days, so I think I have the ability to do it.”

Grant Fisher had to turn the 5,000 into his kind of race to win

Grant Fisher knew that if he were to become the first man to complete the 5,000/10,000 double at USAs since Lopez Lomong in 2019, he would have to turn this afternoon’s 5,000 final into a grind-it-out affair. There were a number of big kickers lurking in today’s race, most notably Cole Hocker, who had already kicked down Yared Nuguse to win the 1500 title earlier in the meet.

“I’m not a natural kicker,” Fisher said. “It’d be nice being a natural kicker, because that’s nice to have in your pocket. But the nice thing about being the strength is that you can turn the race into your race. Whereas if you’re a kicker guy, it’s a little harder to turn it into your race.”

At US championships, the Fisher playbook is pretty simple. He will move sometime between three and four laps to go, and he will move hard. In last week’s 10,000, he took off with three laps to go by dropping a 62.32. Tonight’s move came at 1400 and was even more sudden as he ripped the third-to-last full lap in 59.96 to immediately reduce the field to just himself and Abdihamid Nur, who put up a hell of a fight until Fisher edged ahead in the final five meters.

Fisher’s win today was very similar to how he won this race back in 2022. Both times, the races were warm (85 degrees in 2022, 80 today), both times Fisher ran fast (13:03 in ’22, 13:08 today), and both times he won by grinding for the final three laps. The difference? In that 2022 race, Fisher had his Bowerman TC teammate Evan Jager serving as a rabbit for the first 3200 meters. This time, there was no rabbit and Fisher had to do some work earlier in the race (he split 61.58 from 1400 to 1800) to reel in a breakaway from Woody Kincaid. That he was still able to win it, battling back to retake the lead from Nur in the home straight and running his final 1600 in 3:59.97 on a hot day, was some feat.

World Athletics’ emphasis on world rankings robbed the Trials of some of its drama in the distance events

This is coming from someone who writes for an American website that focuses on distance running, so I am fully aware that I am offering a biased perspective here. But the super-hard 2024 Olympic standards (and subsequent focus on world rankings) has sapped some joy out of the Trials distance races. Consider:

• The battle for third in the men’s 10,000 came down to the final 100 between Nico Young and Drew Hunter, but anyone who had been paying attention knew Young would be on the Olympic team either way because Hunter did not have the standard.
• No one knew who was on the Olympic team when the men’s steeplechase finished because 3rd placer James Corrigan did not have the standard. We had to wait five days for Corrigan to hit the Olympic standard with a huge pb of 8:13 in Philadelphia to know the final composition of the team.
• No one was sure whether Parker Valby and Karissa Schweizer made the team after finishing 2nd and 3rd in the women’s 10,000 on Saturday.
• No one is sure right now whether men’s 5,000 third-placer Parker Wolfe will get to go to the Olympics or not (his performance today would move him to 46th on the Road to Paris list, but World Athletics only takes 42 in the men’s 5,000). Fourth-placer Graham Blanks does have the standard and would go if Wolfe doesn’t get in.

This is a problem. Lack of qualifying standards was an issue at the Trials even before World Athletics made them much harder for this cycle to emphasize the world rankings. But this sort of uncertainty makes for a less entertaining product and kills one of the best things about one of the best meets in the sport — top three make the team.

It’s also not great for the athletes. Third place can’t fully celebrate in the moment, and fourth placers who might make the team are left in an extremely awkward position.

“If the numbers are in favor, he deserves to go,” Blanks said of the third-placer Wolfe. “And if the numbers are in my favor, I still honestly think he deserves to go.”

Theoretically I understand the idea of placing more emphasis on world rankings — it encourages athletes to race more — but is this actually happening? Some pros race more under the new system, but the very best athletes don’t because they can hit the auto standard. And the world ranking system really hurts US college athletes, who are often just as good as some of their sponsored counterparts but compete in meets that offer far fewer bonus points.

The obvious fix here is to expand the quota reallocation system from the marathon to all track events, as long as a country holds a trials event and picks its team based off those results.

There are some drawbacks to that system — when individuals are not personally incentivized to chase the standard, you could end up in a prisoner’s dilemma situation where no one chases the standard. But it’s an improvement on what we currently have, where instead of enjoying a fantastic race, us running nerds are scrambling to the World Athletics scoring tables to see whether Parker Wolfe is going to the Olympics.

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