EUGENE, Ore. — Kenny Bednarek finally appeared poised to surpass his biggest rival. The always overlooked American sprinter had pulled ahead of Noah Lyes as they rounded the bend in the final of the men’s 200 meters at the U.S. Olympic Trials last Saturday.
Bednarek could have been distraught when he failed to maintain his form late in the race and Lyles stormed past him. He could have ruminated about the fact that the race was a mirror image of last weekend’s 100-meter final, when he also finished second to Lyles.
Instead, Bednarek chose to focus on the bigger picture. He had lowered his personal best in the 100 and 200 and qualified for the Olympics in both races. Later this summer in Paris he would get Lyles again, if it really counted.
“I’m healthy and dangerous,” said a grinning Bednarek. “That’s all I can ask for.”
With those words, Bednarek might as well have summed up the state of USA Track & Field as athletes dispersed after the Olympic Trials. During nine exhilarating, record-breaking days in Eugene, A-list stars cemented themselves as medal favorites and a new generation of fresh talent emerged.
The athletes expected to lead USA Track & Field this summer largely survived America’s brutal Olympic selection process. Lyles, Sha’Carri Richardson, Gabby Thomas and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone each claimed victory in their signature events, as did Grant Holloway, Rai Benjamin, Ryan Crouser and Valarie Allman.
The most notable casualty at Trials was Athing Mu, the reigning Olympic gold medalist in the women’s 800 meters and a leading contender to repeat her performance in Paris. Her hopes vanished last Monday when a stunning fall midway through the first lap of the two-lap race left her too far back to reconnect with the rest of the runners.
Other countries have built safety nets into their Olympic selection process for situations like this. They take previous Olympic or World Championship results into account when selecting their team. In the U.S., big names can’t rest on past achievements. At Trials, it’s top three or bust, whether you’re a former champion or a young unknown.
“I can have it either way,” Bob Kersee, Mu’s coach, told Yahoo Sports last week. “If discretionary picks were used after the competition, that would give us the opportunity to field a stronger team. But you would also be leaving out someone who has earned the right to make the team through competition.”
As usual, the strength of American athletics at the Olympics will be the sprints and hurdles. Next month, ten individual sprint and hurdle races will be held on the striking purple track of the Stade de France. An American athlete has posted the best time in the world in seven of those races this season.
In this Olympic cycle, the US is particularly deep in the 200 meters. The nine fastest women at that distance this season are all Americans. Lyles and Bednarek posted the fastest times so far this season in the men’s 200, while promising 20-year-old Erriyon Knighton ran his way to the team in Eugene despite not having raced in months.
American sprinters and hurdlers have talked openly about the possibility of a pair of 1-2-3 US sweeps in Paris, but Jamaica’s stable of seasoned veterans and promising newcomers should provide formidable competition. Sprinters from both countries have spent the past week playing a spirited game of “Anything you can do, I can do better.”
When Richardson completed the 100 meters in a blistering 10.71 seconds at the US Trials, Shericka Jackson responded with her two fastest races of the season to win Jamaica’s national titles in the 100 and 200 meters. When Lyles equaled his personal best time of 9.83 seconds to win the men’s 100 at the US Trials, 22-year-old unknown Kishane Thompson responded by capturing Jamaica’s national 100 meters title in a world-leading 9.77 seconds.
Shout out to those guys running around in Jamaica! You all really help make this an awesome Olympic Championship.
— Noah Lyles, OLY (@LylesNoah) June 29, 2024
Medal opportunities may be less plentiful for the U.S. in other events, but American distance runners don’t plan to leave Paris empty-handed.
In the men’s 1500m, it will be fascinating to see if Americans Cole Hocker or Yared Neguse can keep pace with favorites Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway or Josh Kerr of Great Britain. In the women’s 800m, rising star Nia Akins has the best chance to help the U.S. salvage a medal despite Mu’s absence.
While field events tend to get less attention in the U.S., expect NBC to devote ample airtime to the men’s shot put. Crouser, the world record holder in the shot put, has won gold in all but one Olympic and World Championships event since 2016. The only year Crouser settled for silver, he was defeated by fellow American Joe Kovacs.
American medal contenders in other field events include Allman in the women’s discus, Tara Davis-Woodhall in the women’s long jump, and Chris Nilsen and Sam Kendricks in the men’s pole vault. Each holds a string of medals from previous Olympics or world championships.
Three years ago in Tokyo, the US piled up 26 Olympic medals in track and field, but flew home with a sickening feeling that they could have won more. For the first time, an American failed to win gold in an individual running event at an Olympic Games that the US did not boycott. The US also dropped the baton again in the 4×100 meter relay, a result that Carl Lewis called a “total disgrace”.
Since then, the American men have made great strides, dominating the medal count at the past two world championships. Lyles in particular has collected gold medals. Bednarek has pushed him, but now hopes this is his year to shine.
When asked what “dangerous” meant to him, Bednarek replied, “It means they should all be afraid of me.”
If he can deliver on those big words, Bednarek will only make the American team even harder to beat.
