The Trials

Checking in from the US Olympic T&F Trials

Jun 22, 2024

Took this picture myself. Day 1 at the Trials was a doozy. It was hot and the races were even hotter.

I’m reporting live from Eugene, Oregon. Track Town, USA. It’s the morning of Day 1 at the US Olympic Track & Field Trials. My… favorite… meet. Period. With all due respect to the Penn Relays and the Bislett Games and the NJ Meet of Champions it’s going to be the Trials that get me fired up most. How can it not? Okay, I can tell that some of you are not with me… yet. Don’t worry. I’m prepared. Sit back. Get comfortable. I’m about to rock your world. Because it’s time to tell you why the Trials is the best Track & Field meet in the world.

IT’S RUNNERD NIRVANA - Running is a massive sport. Probably the one sport that is participated in more than any other on this big ass space rock we call home. But one of the best parts about this sport is that all it takes is one comment about how crappy 1200m repeats are and you are becoming friends with a complete stranger. (Everyone knows that 1200m repeats suck.) And when we runnerds get together we really come together. The crowd at the US Olympic Trials is a massive collection of fans, coaches, parents, family, friends, media, and elite world class badass kick-ass athletes that mix together over the course of ten days. It’s basically like the most epic Comic-Con but for our sport of running and jumping and throwing. We meet for runs, beers, trivia nights, more beer, pizza, more runs, and a whole bunch of watching and cheering for all that running, jumping and throwing.

Everyone knows everyone here. And that includes everyone you don’t know too! Because like I said, this may be one of the worlds biggest communities but it’s also one of the worlds closest communities. We are all one running partner, race, run crew, running club, or brutal trail away from making a connection. It’s a glorious and beautiful reunion with the running community.

By the way, YOU are a part of and not apart from this community. Don’t believe me? Make it to the next US Olympic Trials. And when you are around a group of runnerds you don’t know just yell out “the 1200m interval is the worst of all interval distances”. You won’t pay for another drink all week.

THE COMPETITORS

The US Olympic T&F team. They say it’s the hardest team in the world to make. They may be right. I’d say that the freshman basketball team I failed to make might have been harder. It must have been. I didn’t make that team. And I was a fantastic basketball player. My mom even told me so. Anyway, I didn’t make the US Olympic T&F team either and my mom said I was a great runner too. You know what? I didn’t get a speaking role in the school play in 8th grade either! And my mom said I was the worlds best actor! I’m starting to think that there are a lot of people in charge of picking teams that are terrible at their job.

I’ve gotten off track here.

My point is that Trials is like one long All Star show. Race after race after event after event you get to see some of the best athletes on this planet compete alongside the best athletes on this planet. It’s a veritable feast of excellence. In fact, there are so many world class athletes competing that you can almost become too comfortable with what you are watching. The danger here is that you start to take for granted what you are seeing. It’s an important thing to note.

I need to remind myself a few times a day that it is not normal. usual, or ordinary for a woman to break 2 in the 800m. It’s not normal. usual, or ordinary for a man to throw a shot put over 70 feet. It is actually extraordinary… really it’s somewhere beyond extraordinary to do those things. So, get up off your butt and cheer for that performance that may end up as the 7th or 9th or 12th best performance in a specific event but is and should be treated as… extraordinary. Remember, being surrounded by extraordinary does not make the extraordinary any less extraordinary.

THE DRAMA

Someone is making that Olympic Team. Someone is not. Someone is going to throw down a performance that is going to allow them to chase their dreams for another summer or season or for a few more years. And someone is going to walk off the track knowing that they just walked off the track as a competitive elite athlete for the last time. Those are the stakes. And those are the stakes for every heat and flight that takes place over the next ten days. Drama? You better believe it.

One of the best things you can do as a fan is remind yourself that these are human beings out there competing, They are the best of the best in the world in their chosen events. But they are daughters and sons and partners and wives and husbands and boyfriends and girlfriends and sister and brothers and teammates and teachers and nurses and cashiers and students. They get sick sometimes and they stub their toes on the way to the bathroom in the middle of the night sometimes. They cry during movies like Interstellar and Field of Dreams. In fact, they cry every single time they watch those movies. They’re confident and full of doubts. They struggle and they smash barriers. They get sick. They are incredibly strong. They are nervous there on the starting line. They don’t know what’s going to happen on the other side of that line. But they still cross that line. Because they have hope. Hope they will give their best.

They are more like you and me than they are different from you and me. I think that’s one of the reasons why I cheer so hard for them. In a weird way… I’m cheering for me and for you. Because we too can be extraordinary just like them. Maybe not in the same ways. Maybe not measured in seconds or minutes or meters. But we can give our own extraordinary efforts. And that’s badass.

THE HEARTBREAK

Not everyone makes the team. In fact, almost everyone that competes at this big T&F meet will not make the Olympic Team. They’ll compete as best as they can and it still won’t be enough to make it. Some won’t even come close. And they’ll be devastated. Some will come so close that it will take a computer looking at a picture to decide just how close they were to almost making the team. They too will go home devastated too.

I hope they go home proud of themselves too. But I know no matter what… it will hurt. A heart breaking hurts after all. It’s one of the many reasons why this meet is so special and so fascinating to watch. It’s just so damn human. Sure, these athletes are doing things that only a handful of humans can do when they run a 400m or throw a discus or jump into a sand pit. But their hearts break just as easily as ours do.

AND DREAMS COME TRUE

It happened. All those miles and meters and minutes of work. Years. Rep after rep. Interval after interval. Race after race. Wins. Losses. Setbacks. Stumbles. Breaks. Breakthroughs. They all led to this. And for a few… this meet… these trials… lead to another meet. The one they’ve been running towards their entire lives. The Olympics.

To get to share this moment with these athletes even if it’s from a distance - our seat in the stands or on our couches - to them there on the track or field as they live their dream… well, it’s emotional and personal and overwhelming. And maybe what makes it so special is that these dreams coming true… they’re not coming true because of some magic order of numbers like in a lottery drawing. These dreams were earned. These dreams came true because these runners and jumpers and throwers woke up every day and hung on to those dreams and invested in those dreams by doing the work. The seemingly endless work. And seeing it all pay off is a beautiful thing.

There. Do you get it now?

You know you do.

That’s why I’m including links to the schedule and the TV and streaming schedule so you can experience it all yourself. And if you are at the meet… let’s get together and talk trash about 1200m repeats and then raise our glasses to the Trials.

Cheers,

Coach Bennett

Check out the US Olympic Trials Schedule Here

NBC coverage of the US Olympic Trials details here

Citius Mag article on sprint storylines for Trials

Citius Mag distance races storylines for Trials

Citius Mag coverage of field events storylines