US Track and Field: What Are We Good At?

The USATF Championships begin today in Eugene and continue through Sunday, with the meet serving as the selection process for the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea later in the summer.

The selection process itself is a little complicated. Athletes who won world championships in 2010 are automatically qualified for Daegu provided they compete in some event -- any event -- in Eugene. Hence, Alyson Felix, the reigning world 200m champion, is qualified for Daegu in the 200, but will run the 400 only in Eugene (and decide later whether to attempt to do both in Daegu). Trey Hardee, the reigning decathlon champ, has to compete in at least one decathlon event to punch his ticket to South Korea.

(Defending 400m champ LaShawn Merritt is in a strange position, since he is is currently serving a suspension that will keep him from running in the U.S. championships but not preclude him running in Daegu... at this point it seems it is up to USATF to decide whether to bend its rules that an athlete must compete at an event in the U.S. championships to be eligible.)

Other than those few, the top three in Eugene will go to the world champs, proving they have met the Olympic "A" standard. If they haven't, well, I won't attempt to explain what happens. If you are interested, you can read about it from the Eugene Register-Guard, which provided this handy guide:

Who Advances to Daegu?

This talk about about "A" and "B" standards always makes me think about where the U.S. is strong and where it is weak in Olympic events. You never hear anyone talk about the standards in the 100, 200, or 400. That's because the U.S. typically has dozens of athletes in those events with "A" standards. There's essentially no chance that a "B" standard athlete will finish in the top three.

But in other events, we are weak by world standards. At this moment, the U.S. men do not have a single runner who as met the "A" standard in the 1500m, and only two women have met the standard.

Where is the U.S. strongest? In the sprints. The U.S. is fairly strong in ALL running events. The lack of 1500 "A" marks is balanced somewhat by the large number of "B" standard athletes in that event. In all other running events, we have quite a few athletes with "A" or "B" marks already (and, of course, athletes who need them can chase "A" standards after the tactical U.S. championship races are behind them).

Where is the U.S. weakest? The walking events are a disaster, reflecting the dwindling popularity of walking in the U.S. and the lack of opportunities for youth athletes to compete in walking events. Surprisingly, except for the shot put, the men are weak in the throwing events. The women fare slightly better.

The most surprising weaknesses to me were the lack of U.S. women who had qualifying marks in the high jump and triple jump (no "A" or "B" marks in the women's triple! Is that a reflection of how much time NBC spends showing the triple, or the reason?)

Anyway, here are unofficial lists of qualified athletes from T&F News. Decide for yourself!

U.S. Men With WC Qualifying Marks
U.S. Women With WC Qualifying Marks