The
USATF Annual Meeting took place in Florida over the weekend, and while they haven't issued an official press release yet, the
2016 Olympic Trials Marathon qualifying standards and window were determined:
Men A = 2:15 B = 2:18, 1:05 (HM)
Women A = 2:37 B = 2:43, 1:15 (HM)
The
qualifying window will run from
August 1, 2013 until 30 days before the Olympic Trials (date and location yet to be determined - it will be sometime between Fall 2015 and Spring 2016).
This is pretty much what we expected - that USATF would adopt the Olympic "A" and "B" standards. For the men, it doesn't get
that much tougher - although now if you run a 2:15:XX marathon, that is only worthy of the "B" and you are paying your own way to the big dance. On the women's side, things have been tightened up quite a bit - you have to run 3 minutes faster to hit the "B".
Personally, I think the women's HM standard should be 1:16 - I feel like that is a more equivalent performance to a guy running under 1:05. I also wish that they would allow qualifying at the 2013 USA Half Marathon Champs (which fall 5 weeks before the window opens). That would generate a lot of excitement... as would setting "equivalent" times for the 20K and 25K, and allowing qualifying at the USA Championships for those distances. But then again,what do I know? :-)
Just for fun, I looked up some historical data on
USATF and
MarathonGuide and made this chart. Despite the fact that the standards got tougher after 2008 (mainly due to no more aided courses), there were more qualifiers in 2012. It will be very interesting to see what happens in this next Olympic cycle.
The bar has been raised again - how will athletes respond?
|
Men
|
Women
|
Year
|
“A” Standard
|
“B” Standard
|
Qualifiers
|
“A” Standard
|
“B” Standard
|
Qualifiers
|
1980
|
2:21:54
|
-
|
225
|
No Women’s
Marathon until 1984
|
1984
|
2:19:04
|
-
|
201
|
2:51:16
|
-
|
267
|
1988
|
2:20
|
-
|
136
|
2:50
|
-
|
246
|
1992
|
2:20
|
-
|
112
|
2:45
1:14
32:40
|
-
|
118
|
1996
|
2:20
|
2:22
|
135
|
2:42
|
2:40
|
187
|
2000
|
2:20
|
2:22
|
114
|
2:37
|
2:50
|
210
|
2004
|
2:20
|
2:22
|
1041
|
2:40
|
2:48
|
1513
|
2008
|
2:20
|
2:22
28:45 (10K)
13:40 (5K)
|
138 (Mar)2
25 (10K)
10 (5K)
|
2:39
|
2:47
33:00
|
171
(Mar)4
10
|
|
Downhill courses no longer eligible after 2008
|
2012
|
2:19
1:05
28:30
|
-
|
85 (Mar)
65 (HM)
10 (10K)
|
2:39
|
2:46
1:15
33:00
|
196 (Mar)5
24 (HM)
7 (10K)
|
2016
|
2:15
|
2:18
1:05
|
|
2:37
|
2:43
1:15
|
|
1 - 2004 Men’s
Marathon qualifiers à A = 53 B = 51
2 - 2008 Men’s Marathon qualifiers à A
= 65 B = 73
3 - 2004 Women’s Marathon qualifiers à A
= 25 B = 126
4 - 2008 Women’s Marathon qualifiers à A
= 19 B = 152
5 - 2012 Women’s Marathon qualifiers à A
= 45 B = 151
I was only able to find the A vs B breakdown from 2004, 2008, and 2012.
In terms of how this affects my own running plans, I'll do what I originally planned for the first half of 2013 - run an early spring marathon, then shift my focus to the Half Marathon Championships in June. Then I'll have to decide whether to start chasing the 1/2 standard or run in the 2013 USA Marathon Championships (which will be hosted by Twin Cities in October).
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