Tag: USATFOTQualifying

In an earlier post I discussed USATF’s qualifying procedure change that means marks from high school and college meets not on the World Athletics Calendar no longer count for qualifying for the Olympic Trials. 

Disclaimer: I do not know which athletes would have chosen to compete at the Olympic Trials had their marks counted. It costs money to enter the meet, many athletes chose not to flush that money down the drain, knowing their marks would not be accepted. This article is about who had the choice taken away from them.

The men’s high jump entries were not quite as dramatic as the women, but there were a number of impacted athletes who did not make it into the meet as a result.

Of the top 16 athletes who were accepted, Caleb Snowden of Arkansas-Pine Bluff had a mark from a meet at Memphis that did not count and Trey Allen of Louisville had a mark from a home meet that did not count. Both athletes were able to get in with a lower mark that did count.

Quite a few athletes near the bottom 1/3 of the list did not enter, so 2.19 ended up being the lowest accepted mark. Tito Alofe of Harvard had a mark from UMass-Lowell that did not count, but made it in with his best counting mark.

Four athletes had marks that did not count that might have gotten them in the meet in the past. Post-collegiate athlete Perry Christie entered the meet and was rejected, the other three did not try.

At the 2021 Olympic Trials, 2.20 was the lowest mark accepted, in 2024 it was 2.19.

In an earlier post I discussed USATF’s qualifying procedure change that means marks from high school and college meets not on the World Athletics Calendar no longer count for qualifying for the Olympic Trials.

Disclaimer: I do not know which athletes would have chosen to compete at the Olympic Trials had their marks counted. It costs money to enter the meet, many athletes chose not to flush that money down the drain, knowing their marks would not be accepted. This article is about who had the choice taken away from them.

Women’s High Jump

This event suffered from a significant number of marks that did not count and athletes with qualifying marks who did not enter. Some of the athletes who did not enter are competing in the heptathlon or other events.

The target field size was 24 and the minimum entry standard was 1.80. Only 21 athletes had marks that counted and entered the meet.

Three athletes had marks that did not count but next best marks that were high enough to get in:
Cierra Allphin, BYU, had a mark not count from a BYU meet
Jamari Drake, post-collegiate, had a mark not count from a West Georgia meet
Trinity Tomlinson, Texas, had a mark not count from a New Mexico meet

There were 14 women who had marks that did not count and their next best mark was below the minimum to enter…

The second to last column is the athletes’ affiliation, the last is the meet or location of the meet that did not count.

It is hard to predict what the entries would have looked like under the old qualifying system, but I’ll take a stab at it here…

At the 2021 Olympic Trials, there were 24 athletes entered with marks of 1.82 or better, and the field was expanded to 25 to add an athlete with a mark of 1.81. At the 2024 Olympic Trials there will only be 21 athletes in the field, 1.80 was the lowest mark accepted.

In an earlier post I discussed USATF’s qualifying procedure change that means marks from high school and college meets not on the World Athletics Calendar no longer count for qualifying for the Olympic Trials.

Disclaimer: I do not know which athletes would have chosen to compete at the Olympic Trials had their marks counted. It costs money to enter the meet, many athletes chose not to flush that money down the drain, knowing their marks would not be accepted. This article is about who had the choice taken away from them.

Men’s Triple Jump

The top 2/3 of the men’s triple jump was pretty straightforward.

Micaylon Moore of Nebraska and James Carter, a post-collegiate athlete, both had marks from Iowa that did not count, but were able to get in with their next best marks.

The bottom portion of the field was more complicated because so many eligible athletes did not enter.

The two athletes who had marks ineligible high enough to get in were Mitchell Effing from NAU who had a 16.02 from NAU that did not count and Niejel Wilkins from Appalachian State who had a 15.75 from Appalachian State that did not count. Both athletes’ best counting marks were not high enough to get in.

In 2021 there was no minimum entry standard to get in and 14.70 was the lowest mark accepted, in 2024 15.76 was the lowest mark accepted.

Women’s Triple Jump

The women’s triple jump was similarly unaffected for the top half of the field.

The bottom portion of the field is where things got interesting…

The target field size for this event is 24. They dipped below this to pick up Amy Warren and Victoria Kadiri.

Victoria Kadiri competes for Johns Hopkins, she had a 13.43 at Bucknell that did not count.

I have no inside information as to why the field was expanded beyond the target size, but this is generally done if there are extenuating circumstances around a mark, either with one of these marks or a mark above them on the list.

Other athletes who might have made it in under the old system (assuming the same athletes scratched) are Michelle Fokam, a post-collegiate athlete who jumped 13.39 at Houston, Taylor Nelloms of Pittsburg St who jumped 13.11 at Pittsburg St, and Gabrielle Pierre, a high school senior from MA who jumped 13.11 at her state meet.

In 2021 the lowest mark accepted was 13.00 and in 2024 it was 13.04 with an expanded field of 26. If the old qualifying system had been used this year, 13.12 would have been the cutoff for 24th and 13.11 if expanded to 26.

In the previous post I discussed USATF’s qualifying procedure change that means marks from high school and college meets not on the World Athletics Calendar no longer count for qualifying for the Olympic Trials.

In the men’s pole vault, this change had no impact on who qualified for the Olympic Trials.

Chris Nilsen and KC Lightfoot both had their best performances in the window at meets that did not count, but this had no impact on them as they have reached all qualifying standards numerous times.

Bradley Jelmert of Arkansas State had a best of 5.72, the OT auto, from a meet at Pittsburg State that did not count, but he was able to get into the Trials with his best counting mark of 5.65.

In the women’s pole vault, the entries were impacted by marks being rejected that would have been accepted under the old system.

Above is how the entries played out under the current system.

Sydney Horn (High Point) and Kyla Davis (Pittsburg St) had their best marks rejected but were accepted with their best counting marks.

Note that Kyla only made it in because several athletes scratched.

Above is a look at how entries would have looked under previous qualifying systems.

Madi Wulfekotter graduated last year from DII Central Missouri, she had a 4.51 at Nebraska-Kearney that did not count, and would have just missed getting in with her next best 4.38.

Jathiyah Muhammad is a high school pole vaulter who set a best of 4.45 at a meet at the Air Force Academy. She did not get in with her next best of 4.37.

Alina McDonald was also impacted, but decided not to pursue the Olympic Trials when the women’s pole vault was scheduled for a Sunday, which conflicts with her religious beliefs.

4.47 was the lowest mark accepted for the women’s pole vault at the 2021 Olympic Trials.

Karsyn Leeling (NE) has the best high jump mark in the country for high school girls, at 6’1.50″/1.86m  

It is tied for the 12th best mark among all US women this year, a mark that should rank high enough to compete at the Olympic Trials.

Karsyn’s PR was no fluke, she has also high jumped 1.85, 1.82 (2x), and 1.80 (4x) at HS meets this year  

But you won’t see Karsyn at the Olympic Trials.

You would have seen her at every Olympic Trials from 1972-2021 and possibly earlier. The NFHS is a 5C member of USATF and in the past, marks from larger high school meets were always accepted by USATF for qualifying purposes.

Last year, World Athletics added a policy that meets must be on their World Athletics calendar for marks to count for their purposes, which include Olympic Games qualifying and world rankings.

A path was created for NCAA track meets to be added to this calendar. Many colleges did not add their meets, but most of the larger schools did.  

No such path exists for high school meets, and even if it did, most high schools can’t afford the extra expense.

Whether or not World Athletics recognizes a mark has no bearing on whether or not USATF accepts it for Olympic Trials qualifying.  

WA doesn’t care who we let in our Olympic Trials. Most countries don’t even have an Olympic Trials.

We know this is not about the World Athletics lists anyway because USATF *is* accepting marks from USATF-sanctioned meets that are *not* on the World Athletics calendar.

Karsyn competed in a USATF-sanctioned meet one week after her state championship. She won with a respectable mark of 1.75m, but that is below the Olympic Trials minimum entry standard of 1.80m.

From Michael Nussa, Director of High Performance at USATF: 

“USATF is committed to ensuring fair competition for all athletes at the USATF Championships and Olympic Trials and this means athletes must qualify at meets operating under USATF/World Athletics Rules.”

For most events there is little to no meaningful difference between the competition rules at the high school, college and elite levels of our sport.  

It is not inherently unfair to allow marks from college and high school meets to be used for qualifying.

In cases where “illegal” shoes were used, those marks should not be accepted, regardless of whether or not the meet was on the WA calendar.  

Given how ubiquitous video footage of competition is these days, it is not difficult for an athlete to prove their shoes were legal.

The women’s high jump is not a strong event for Team USA at the moment. We only have two women with the OG standard and no one else currently ranked high enough to be selected.  

Which is why it is so valuable for young talent like Karsyn to have the opportunity to gain experience.

The NCAA and AAU used athletes as pawns for decades until Congress stepped in, broke up the AAU and required the applicable NGBs to give the NCAA representation on their boards, an attempt to force all of the major players in each sport to play nice.

Karsyn is far from the only athlete impacted by this policy change.  

In the women’s pole vault we have three athletes who would have qualified to the Trials under the old system, but are now left out in the cold, their best marks rejected.

High school and college athletes have no control over whether or not the meets they attend are on the WA calendar, but USATF sure is doing a great job of teaching them a lesson about competing in the “wrong” meets under the “wrong” rules.