Posted: April 21, 2004

Athletics: Olympic Games Qualifying Standards

From David Monti

(c) 2004 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com

With the spring track season just getting started, I thought this would be a good time to remind you of the Olympic Games qualifying standards for the middle and long distance events. In order for a nation to send two or more athletes for any given event, each athlete must have run at least as fast as the times below, the "A" standards:

           Men         Women
800m       1:46.00     2:00.00
1500m      3:36.20     4:05.80
5000m     13:21.50    15:08.70
10,000m   27:49.00    31:45.00
Marathon  2:15:00     2:37:00

All performances (except for the marathon) must be achieved during the qualification period of 01-Jan-2003 through 09-Aug-2004 (midnight local time). For the marathon, the qualification period runs from 01-Sep-2002 through 09-Aug-2004; top-20 athletes from the 2003 World Championships also received qualifying marks regardless of time. All marks must be achieved in federation-sanctioned meets. In-stadium performances by women must be achieved in single gender races. Hand-timed performances are acceptable for middle and long distance events. Indoor marks are acceptable. For the marathon, athletes must reach a minimium of 20 years of age as of 31-Dec-2004 in order to qualify.

Nations are eligible to send one athlete within an event if s/he has reached only the "B" standard times as follows:

           Men         Women
800m       1:47.00     2:01.30
1500m      3:38.00     4:07.15
5000m     13:25.40    15:20.45
10,000m   28:06.00    32:17.00
Marathon  2:18:00     2:42:00

Nations which only have a single athlete entered in the entire Olympic Games, may place that athlete in any Olympic discipline without any qualifying mark. The marathon is often that event.

Finally, RRW has learned that the United States plans to announce their Olympic team immediately following the Olympic Trials which conclude on 18-Jul-2004. Therefore, U.S. athletes must have achieved their "A" standard marks by that date in order to be named to the team. There will be no provisional team members headed for Europe to chase qualifying marks.

The Cardinal Invitational at Stanford University on 30-Apr will be a critical meet for achieving qualifying standards, especially at 10,000m. RRW will be there to bring you a complete report.

Subscribe to Race Results Weekly: www.raceresultsweekly.com.

Race results Weekly Archive