2004 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Track & Field Media Kit TABLE OF CONTENTS SELECTING TEAM USA FOR THE 2004 OLYMPIC GAMES ...................................................... 1 OLYMPIC TRIALS STATISTICS – from HISTORY OF THE U.S. OLYMPIC TEAM TRIALS ....... 2 TRACK & FIELD, by Richard Hymans • Historical Introduction • Olympic Trials qualifying standards • Word records at the Olympic Trials • Progression of Olympic Trials records • Olympic Trials all-time lists • U.S. 4- and 5-time Olympians • Collegiate, Olympic Trials and Olympic performances • Youngest and Oldest Olympians U.S. OUTDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS RECORDS......................................................................... 40 ATHLETE STATISTICS “BY THE NUMBERS” ............................................................................ 41 • Gail Devers, Stacy Dragila, Maurice Greene, Allen Johnson, Marion Jones, Christian Cantwell, John Godina, Adam Nelson SUPPLEMENTAL ATHLETE BIOGRAPHIES (not included in USATF Media Guide) ................ 46 • Tyson Gay • Erin Gilreath • John Moffitt • Jen Rhines • Alan Webb • Lauryn Williams HISTORICAL RESULTS SECTION • 2004 OUTDOOR GOLDEN SPIKE TOUR RESULTS.............................................. 54 o Home Depot Invitational o Payton Jordan U.S. Open o adidas Oregon Track Classic o Nike Prefontaine Classic • 2004 NCAA OUTDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS RESULTS........................................... 62 • 2000 OLYMPIC TRIALS RESULTS.......................................................................... 64 2004 OLYMPIC TRIALS SCHEDULE OF EVENTS – .................................INSIDE BACK COVER 2004 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Track & Field Media Kit Selecting Team USA for the 2004 Olympic Games Countries are allowed to send one athlete per event to the Olympic Games if that athlete has met the Olympic 'B' qualifying standard. To send two or three athletes, those entrants must meet the more stringent Olympic “A” standard. It is the priority of USA Track & Field and the U.S. Olympic Committee to send the largest team possible to the Olympic Games. USA Track & Field must submit to the USOC an Olympic roster of three athletes and one alternate for each individual event, by 11:59 p.m. on July 19. Those rosters are determined by the order of finish at the U.S. Olympic Trials. Due to the short turn-around time for submitting a roster, in 2004 a maximum of only four athletes in each event will be able to chase the Olympic “A” standard. This marks a change from past Olympic years. The following selection system is in place in 2004. Guidelines for selecting Team USA is as follows: 1. The top three finishers at the U.S. Olympic Trials who have already met the Olympic "A" qualifying standard in their event will be named to the Team USA roster for the 2004 Olympic Games. In the vast majority of events, that means the first, second and third-place finishers will go to Athens. 2. If there is an event where fewer than three finishers have met the Olympic "A" standard, any finisher(s) who does have the "A" standard will be named to the Team USA roster. Any remaining spots, as well as the position of alternate, will be filled by the highest-placing finishers who have made the "B" standard. 3. Athletes named to the roster in each event then have until August 9 to achieve the Olympic "A" standard, if they don't already have it. Athletes on the roster must make the Olympic "A" standard by August 9 in order to compete in Athens. 4. If, by August 9, only one athlete in any given event has achieved the "A" standard, then the highest-placing finisher who has a “B” standard will be the only Team USA athlete to compete in that event at the Olympics. If two or more athletes have achieved the “A” standard, those athletes will compete. Relays: 1. USA Track & Field will submit pools of six athletes for each relay (men’s and women’s 4x100m, men’s and women’s 4x400m) to the USOC on July 19. 2. At the 2004 Olympic Games, Team USA’s relay pools will include the pool athletes named on July 19. In addition, any athletes already on the Team USA roster in any event may also compete in the relays. 3. However, no more than six athletes total can compete in each relay at the Olympic Games. (Each relay will have only one round before the final.) Four athletes will run in the first round of each relay, with a maximum of two substitutions allowed for the final. 1 2004 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Track & Field Media Kit OLYMPIC TRIALS HISTORICAL STATISTICS From History of the U.S. Olympic Trials – Track & Field, 1908- 2000 By Richard J. Hymans INTRODUCTION The U.S. Olympic Trials is the best national track meet in the world, and there is no athletics meeting quite like the Trials. The Olympic Games and World Championships may have a higher overall standard of performance, but no national track championships can compare in terms of quality. It is not merely a question of statistical performance; the qualification process for the Olympics is more intense for Americans. Other nations generally use their Trials plus the seasonal record of top athletes, but there are very few instances of the sud- den-death form of selection that the USA uses. Make the top-three in your event, and you are on the team. Have a slightly off day, and you are out. The history of the sport is strewn with the debris of world record holders who missed out on Olympic glory because they made a mistake or were ill during the Olympic Trials. For many participants making the USA team is more of a problem than winning an Olympic medal, and the result is that the Olympic Trials have an element of drama that is beyond the scope of even the Olympic Games. The structure of the U.S. Olympic Trials has changed and developed since the first meetings in 1908. Prior to that year there was no elimination process. The presence of athletes at the Olympics between 1896 and 1906 was due primarily to certain colleges and clubs, as well as individual athletes. Princeton and the Boston Athletic Association, plus an individual entry - James Connolly of Harvard, the first gold medallist of the modern Olympics - were the initial representatives of the USA in the Athens Games. In 1900, there was no official team, but eight colleges plus the New York Athletic Club sent athletes, while 1904 saw St. Louis hosting what was almost entirely an American Clubs meeting, with a smattering of individual entries in support. For 1908 and 1912, the system changed, with area trial meets, which served as a guide for selection. In 1908 these were the Western (Stanford - May 9), Central (Chicago - May 29), Collegiate (IC4A in Philadelphia - May 29-30), and finally the Eastern Trials (Philadelphia - June 6). The team was selected two days later in two tranches, being the official team whose travel costs were met by the U.S. Olympic Committee, and a supplementary list of athletes who had to cover their own expenses. In 1912, there were three Trials meetings, beginning with the Western (Stanford - May 17), and followed by the Central (Evanston - June 8) and Eastern (Cambridge - also June 8). The team was selected by the USOC and the AAU, with the winners of the Eastern Trials receiving automatic selection - reflecting the bias of AAU president James Sullivan. The three decathlon Olympic Trials for that year ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous. The Western trial took place with one decathlete competing against specialists, and retiring after the first day’s events; the Eastern event was cancelled after only two entries were received, and the central event was scored on a point-for-place system, rather than using the new tables devised for the Stockholm Games, which would have resulted in a World Record for the winner, J.Austin Menaul. The nature of the Olympic Trials changed in 1920 out of necessity. In the 1912 Olympics, 11 Americans had competed in the 100 meters. In 1920 the number of athletes allowed from a single country in any event in the Olympics was reduced to four, which was further lessened to the present 3 in 1932. The Olympic Trials of 1920 doubled as the AAU Championships, which was also the case in 1928, 1932, 1992, 1996 and 2000. Qualification for the Olympic Trials was via “semifinal” Trials held on June 26 in Chicago, New Orleans, Pasadena and Philadelphia, while a few more athletes qualified through an Armed Services meeting in St. Louis on June 3-5. The 3000-meter stee- plechase, not regularly held outside Europe, took place on July 10 at Travers Island, N.Y., and the decathlon in New York on July 9-10. The Trials for other events were held on July 16-17 in Cambridge, Mass. Although the top-4 was the guide, the final team was selected by the USOC/AAU committee. 1924 saw a similar format, with final try-outs held on June 13-14 in Cambridge, after semifinal meetings on May 31 in Ann Arbor, Cambridge, Iowa City and Los Angeles. While the first four in each event was the general rule for selection, there were 16 choices of ath- letes outside the top-4 made by the committee. The decathlon was held two days prior to the main Olympic Trials in New York and was completed in a single day. The Olympic Trials were held in Cambridge for the third consecutive (and final) time in 1928, except for the 400, 400h and decathlon which took place in Philadelphia on July 3-5, two days prior to the main two-day meeting. With the advent of womens’ olympic track and field, a separate meeting was held in Newark, N.J. on July 4. The women’s meeting would be kept separate from the men’s until 19786. Fourteen qualifying meetings were held between May 18 and June 30, showing the expansion of track and field throughout the USA.