The first six athletes on Team USA for the 2028 Olympics will be determined in St.Louis.
Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.The city will host the U.S.Olympic marathon trials for both men and women on March 25, 2028, USA Track & Field announced Thursday.
It was selected over Phoenix.Three men and three women will qualify for Team USA during the trials, which will be the first selection event for any U.S.
sport ahead of the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, according to organizers.The full course of the 26.2-mile race, which NBC will broadcast, will be released in the coming months.
Members of the local organizing committee said that the race will begin at Washington University’s Francis Olympic Field, the main venue used during the 1904 Olympics, and will include several loops of downtown before finishing inside Energizer Park, the home of the city’s MLS team.St.
Louis hosted the Olympic trials for the women’s marathon in 2004.The city also hosted the trials that determined the U.S.
figure skating team for the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.“As America’s first Olympic city that hosted the 1904 Games, that Olympic legacy is really important to us,” said Marc Schreiber, president of the St.Louis Sports Commission.The announcement comes at a time when running is undergoing a boom in popularity and professionals are breaking records.
Kenya’s Sebastian Sawe became the first person to run a sub-2-hour marathon on a ratified course in April’s London Marathon.Both hobbyists and pros have benefited from technological advancements that have led to faster shoes and better nutrition.Because of those faster times, USA Track and Field lowered the time standard needed to qualify for the men’s marathon trials by two minutes, from 2:18:00 to 2:16:00, yet still expects about the same number of qualifiers as in 2024, said Ben Rosario, the director of athlete experience for St.
Louis’s local...