Where to Watch: 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Track and Field

To make it to the biggest stage in track and field, athletes must first audition. And it is a very rigorous audition. The U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Track & Field is consistently one of the most intense, exciting – and unforgiving – meets in an Olympic year.

Competitors will be fighting for a spot on Team USA’s roster for the Olympic Games Paris 2024 in running, hurdling, jumping, throwing and race walking events. The U.S. can send up to three athletes per event, provided all have met the qualifying standard or are ranked high enough by World Athletics, the international governing body for the sport. The formula can sometimes get complicated, but in most cases the top three finishers at the Trials are on the plane to Paris.

The meet runs from June 21–30 at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon (streaming on Peacock and televised on NBC and USA Network) and will feature some of the biggest names in track and field, including Olympic gold medalists, world champions and world record holders. They’ll face off against up-and-coming athletes who are eager to seize the moment. At the Olympic Trials, it doesn’t matter what you have (or have not) accomplished in the past, only how you perform now.

Here are five women and five men sure to make an impact:

Long known for her enthusiasm, competitive intensity and trademark cowboy hat (a nod to her Texas roots), the exuberant long jumper has established herself as a gold medal contender over the past year. She placed sixth in Tokyo in 2021, but finally leapt onto a global podium at last summer’s world championships in Budapest, taking the silver medal. She took another step up this winter, setting a lifetime best of 7.18 meters (23 feet, 6 ¾ inches) to become the fourth best American of all-time, then grabbing gold at March’s world indoor championships in Glasgow.

“I think what changed is having first place snatched away from me multiple times in a competition,” Davis-Woodhall says of her motivation to be more aggressive in her jumping. “I’ve realized that you can’t play the safe game.

"You have to put something out there so far that no one can touch, or put something out there so fast that no one can touch.”

Over the last several years, the 400-meter hurdles has become one of the most exciting events on the track and field circuit, with Benjamin playing a major role, taking Olympic silver in 2021 and two silvers and a bronze at the last three world championships. He proved he is ready to move to the top step of the podium when he defeated Olympic and world champion Karsten Warholm of Norway at the season-ending Diamond League final in September. Still, he refused to read too much into that victory.

“I need to perform when it really matters, and that’s at worlds, at the Olympics, and I haven’t done that yet,” he said.

Benjamin’s formidable combination of speed and strength have also made him a mainstay on Team USA’s 4x400 relay squads, winning gold at the Olympics and world championships.

Since Michelle Carter became the first American woman to win Olympic gold in the shot put in 2016, the level of competition in the United States has exploded. The battle for the three spots on the team for Paris will be fierce, but Jackson has made herself the center of attention — and not just because of her distinctive set of colorful tattoos, which includes tributes to anime and Tim Burton films. Jackson has won the past two world championship titles (as Chase Ealey; she married Mitch Jackson in January) and last year she broke Carter’s longstanding American record with a throw of 20.76 meters (68 feet, 1 ½ inches). Three years ago, she was among the favorites to make the Olympic team but finished fifth at the Trials and missed out on Tokyo.

“I ended up throwing one of the furthest marks in the world that year, but it didn't matter, I hadn't made the team,” she told Olympics.com last year. “I want to show that when I make that team [for Paris], I'm also going to bring home a medal. It's not just about making the team for me."

In an era of increased athletic specialization, Harrison is unique is his commitment to two very different events. In 2021 he became the first man since Jim Thorpe in 1912 to make the Olympic team in both the high jump and the long jump. He finished seventh and fifth, respectively, in those events in Tokyo. Since then, he’s continued balancing both, though his high jump results have been more consistent, including a silver medal at the 2023 world championships. Harrison hopes to continue making history with double gold in Paris, and he says he doesn’t play favorites between events.

“It’s about equal, it’s two different excitements,” he said. “I feel two different things, but I’ll say the excitement is equal with both.”

During a dominant stretch in 2021-22, McLaughlin-Levrone won Olympic and world titles in the 400 hurdles and broke the world record four times, topped by an astonishing 50.68 clocking. Last year she took a break from the hurdles and focused on the flat 400, winning the U.S. title in that event in 48.74, just off the American record. Unfortunately, she had to scratch from the world championships due to a knee injury. She looked impressive as the 2024 outdoor season got underway, including setting a personal best in the 200 (22.07) in May. She’ll be aiming to make her third Olympic team, having also competed in Rio in 2016 shortly after her 17th birthday.

Few athletes have dominated their event as much as shot putter Ryan Crouser has over the past three years. In 2021 he won his second straight Olympic gold medal and then he added world titles in 2022 and ’23. Last year’s win was particularly remarkable because Crouser was competing with two blood clots in his left leg, a condition that nearly prevented him from traveling to Budapest for the meet. Crouser began the Olympic year by scoring his first world indoor championship gold medal in March. Since 2021 he’s rewritten the all-time list, topped by a series of world records, most recently a monster toss of 23.56 meters (77 feet, 3 ¾ inches) last year.

“I’m at the point in my career where I have to really work for every centimeter of distance,” he said, “and that has me as motivated as ever knowing what it will take to further my best."

After winning the 100 at the 2021 Olympic Trials in dominant fashion, Richardson told the world “I’m that girl.” Though she had to miss the Tokyo Games due to a one-month suspension for a positive marijuana test, Richardson quickly became a household name, thanks to her flashy, confident personality — not to mention an assortment of colorful wigs. She stormed back to prominence last year with a sensational run to the world title in the 100. Richardson, whose 2023 mantra was “I’m not back, I’m better,” also took bronze in the 200 and anchored Team USA’s gold-medal winning 4x100 relay. Known for her ability to perform at her best in the biggest moments, she should thrive in the Trials spotlight.

Since taking the bronze medal in the 200 at the Olympics three years ago, the exuberant Lyles has not lost a race at that distance. He admitted that it was difficult to muster motivation in Tokyo’s empty stadium (due to Covid restrictions), but he regained his groove in 2022 and 2023, adding his second and third world titles in the event. And he stepped up in the 100 last year as well, staking a claim to the title of world’s fastest man. At the world championships in Budapest Lyles won gold in the 100, 200 and 4x100, a triple that hadn’t been accomplished since Jamaican superstar Usain Bolt pulled it off at 2015 worlds and the 2016 Olympics. And, assuming everything goes according to plan at the Trials, Lyles is hoping to do one better in Paris, adding the 4x400 to the mix.

“We’re coming after everything,” he said this winter. “All the Olympic medals. I don’t care who wants it. It’s mine.”

Since winning the 2021 Olympic Trials 1500 and placing 10th in Tokyo, St. Pierre has seen her support system grow in one crucial way. In March 2023, the Vermont native gave birth to her son, Ivan. One year later, St. Pierre capped an incredible return to racing by winning the world indoor title in the 3000 meters, outkicking Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay, a world record holder and world champion, with Ivan in the stands watching. Three weeks earlier St. Pierre lowered her own American indoor record in the mile, clocking 4:16.41 to win the prestigious Millrose Games. She will also be a contender in the 5000 meters, after clocking a personal best 14:34.12 in May. Only four American women have ever run faster.

“It’s pretty cool to see other moms really set the bar pretty high,” she has said of her return to world class fitness. “Just because you’re a parent doesn’t mean you have to give up your entire career.”

Nuguse qualified for the Olympic team in 2021 but was unable to compete due to an injury. He’s spent the last two years asserting himself as one of the world’s best milers. In 2023, in addition to winning his first U.S. title, he set American records in the 1500 (3:29.02) and mile (3:43.97), won a pair of Diamond League races and placed fifth at the world championships — his only race of the season where he finished lower than third. Though he’s known for his laid back, almost goofy demeanor, Nuguse is a bold racer, unafraid to force the pace. He can also finish strong, as evidenced in March when he used a blazing kick to take the silver in the 3000 meters at the world indoor championships.