Winners and Losers of the 2016 US Track and Field Olympic Trials
At every Olympic Trials we witness the birthing of stars and the slow, though sometimes explosive, demise of veteran athletes.
The Washington Post's Rick Maese wrote, "Every four years, the U.S. Olympic track and field trials anoints the next class of American stars. But away from the medal podium, where cameras capture the joy of the newly coronated, past heroes grapple with emotional goodbyes."
And, man, this year was no different.
You have older athletes/medalists like Jenn Suhr, Bernard Lagat and Allyson Felix making the team yet again. Then you have Vashti Cunningham and Tori Bowie looking to win their first of what they hope are several medals in their young careers.
Where Tyson Gay and Alysia Montano fell, Jenny Simpson and English Gardner rose up.
The Olympic Trials had it all. Here is a humble cross section of the winners and losers from TrackTown in Eugene, Oregon.
Loser: Tyson Gay's 100-Meter Bid
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What must it be like to see your career end in under 10 seconds? What’s it like to know that within five seconds of the men’s 100-meter dash, you’re overmatched and will never have what it takes to compete on the world’s highest stage?
For Tyson Gay, the 33-year-old sprinter whose 2012 silver medal was stripped from him amidst a doping scandal, he now knows how that feels.
For these games, the narrative became one of redemption.
An Associated Press story (h/t NBCOlympics.com) said:
"A career full of missed chances, close calls, untimely injuries and that stripped-away medal is nearing its end. The man who used to be considered the biggest threat to Usain Bolt is now often viewed as a bit player in the sprint game. Fine with him, the American 100-meter record holder insists. He's making one last run at the Olympics, doing it for himself, his family, his fans and nobody else.
"
When he finished fifth in the trials in the 100-meter dash, his story ended in TrackTown, not Rio.
Winner: The Young High-Jumper
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Vashti Cunningham, the 18-year-old wunderkind finished second in the high jump and qualified for the Olympic team.
She made initial headlines as the talented daughter of Randall Cunningham, a former star quarterback in the NFL*. Then Vashti made her own headlines by clearing bar after bar at TrackTown.
Once she cleared 6-feet-5-and-a-half inches, she earned her spot on the team.
“In every competition I get in I want to win, and I’m not going to be satisfied until I win,” she said in Rick Maese’s Washington Post story. “This is something that hit me on the head that will make me work harder for the Olympics.”
Vashti’s precocity, along with several other young athletes, always makes for compelling narrative. This country loves itself a young prodigy or a tenured athlete going for one last medal.
While Vashti is the one jumping, her father, who also happens to be her coach, will be a as big of a story in Brazil.
*: And, it should be said, one of the all-time great video game quarterbacks in Joe Montana Sportstalk Football 1994.
Loser: The Untimely Fall of Alysia Montano
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The one-two Favorites for the women’s 800 meters finished last and second to last after an untimely fall slayed Alysia Montano’s attempt at making the team.
Unfortunately these things happen, and sometimes they happen when the pressure is at its highest when results matter most.
“I rehearsed this a thousand times. You can’t predict what happens with someone else,” said Montano in Rich Maese’s Washington Post story. “I don’t know what happened to Brenda. She ended up tripping and I found myself jumping around her and someone kicked me out from behind. What can I do in that situation? I didn’t touch anyone.”
Montano, who finished fifth in the 800 meters at the 2012 London Games, might still be awarded a bronze if the two Russian winners get stripped of their gold and silver medals due to doping allegations.
That won’t change the fact that neither Montano nor Martinez will make the team in the 800.
Martinez, to her credit, rebounded and made the team in the 1,500 meters with an emphatic dive at the finish.
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Winner: The Double Threat Tori Bowie
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Tori Bowie’s feet turn over at nearly full speed from the moment she exits the blocks. That’s true for the 100 meters and the 200.
Early in the trials she finished second in the 100-meter dash, then parlayed that with a win in the 200-meter dash, beating crowd favorite Alyson Felix.
Bowie ran a smashing 22.25 in the 200 while powering down in the final five yards. She ran a 22.27 in the semifinals.
She has some of the best times in the world in the 100 meters and the 200, which put her in the conversation with the world’s best sprinters.
Daily Relay tweeted, “Lost in [Alyson] Felix missing team in 200m is that Bowie has a real shot to win double gold in 100/200 in Rio. Tough competition, but it's possible.”
The big competition comes not just from the Jamaicans, but also fellow Americans English Gardner and Tianna Bartoletta. If Bowie gets a little bit sharper, she’s sure of medaling in both events, maybe even taking double-gold.
Loser: The Short-Lived Jumping of Marquise Goodwin
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Marquise Goodwin failed in his attempt to make the Olympic team as a long jumper, and at this point he might be fine with that.
He gets to go back to work at his day job of catching passes in the NFL for the Buffalo Bills. His coaches may not like the wear and tear on his body before training camp has even begun.
"Now that this is over, I get to stop eating like a bird and get into some real food," he said in Cameron DaSilva’s FoxSports.com story. (h/t Zac Neel of NewYorkUpstate.) "I'm going to rest first, though. I haven't had any rest in a long time, so my body is banged up — I feel like I played eight or nine games and I'm in week 10 already."
The Bills will need him. As DaSilva wrote, the Bills lost a key receiver to rival New England and Sammy Watkins to injury.
Goodwin’s short-lived bid at jumping ends at the right time for the Bills.
Winner: The Molly Huddle Double
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In a time of 15:05.01 for the 5,000 meters, Molly Huddle made it a clean sweep in the 5,000 and 10,000 at the Olympic Trials.
Winning the 5,000 was well and good, but after the race she told NBC, “I will likely only do the 10K.”
Huddle has plans to run in the New York City Marathon, so the 5,000 adds too much strain.
Should Huddle scratch from the 5,000, fourth-place finisher Emily Infield will slide up to fill out the vacancy.
What Huddle did was a most impressive feat, but it’ll be a challenge for her to compete on the global level. Her winning 10,000-meter time of 31 minutes and 41.62 seconds isn’t quite in the same orbit as the gold-medal time of 30 minutes 20.75 seconds from 2012.
Huddle will be a long shot at the Rio Games, but her sweep in the Trials makes her a big winner at TrackTown.
Loser: Allyson Felix's Double-Gold Attempt
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Allyson Felix put on a master class in closing during the 400-meter final, but her historic bid to win double-gold in the 400 and the 200 came up one-100th of a second short in the 200-meter final.
Coming down the stretch, Felix gritted her teeth trying to catch Jenna Prandini. It was Prandini’s final lunge—a lunge that put her on her back—that ended Felix’s bid at both events in Rio.
While double-gold Felix was a loser, she will be the favorite to win gold in the 400 meters. Her win in the Trials in that event was so easy, this despite suffering from an ankle injury that limited her speed training.
“It just seemed like things were hitting me left and right, and somehow, some way, we found a way. Two months ago, I couldn’t even walk,” Felix said in Stefanie Loh’s Seattle Times story. “I just had a whole team of people who didn’t let me face it alone.”
Despite losing in the 200 meters, her favorite event, she did run the fastest 400-meter time of the year on a healing ankle, so she’ll still put on a good show in South America.
Winner: Make It Five Olympics for Bernard Lagat
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NBC loves the super young and the super old.
Bernard Lagat fits into the latter category. The 41-year-old won the 5,000 meters in a time of 13 minutes and 35.30 seconds, closing with a final lap in a blazing 52.8 seconds.
Come on!
“There were people going, ‘You never know how he’s going to perform.’ They were saying I’m done and cannot make the team,” Lagat said in a USAToday.com story. “That didn’t sound right to me.”
Lagat makes it to his fifth Olympics. That means his first games were 16 years ago in Sydney.
Yet here’s Lagat for one more bid at a third Olympic medal. His first two came as a Kenyan and his third, should he win one, will be his first as a member of Team USA.
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