Ahead of the Formula 1 British Grand Prix Red Bull team boss Christian Horner noted that Sergio Pérez needed to “dig deep” to pull himself out of a bit of a slump.
Digging in the gravel trap at Copse was probably not what the Red Bull Team Principal had in mind.
During Saturday’s qualifying session, Pérez was one of the first drivers to make the change from the intermediate compound to a set of slicks, but that soft tire did Pérez no favors as he quickly found himself in the gravel, and out of qualifying.
“I was the first one basically to get to the slick tire, and as I was coming into Turn 9 I downshifted and lost the rear of the car,” said Pérez in the team’s post-qualifying report. “I just locked up. So I went straight … but it was completely wet on the outside. My mistake.”
Despite his starting position, down in P19, Pérez hopes he can get back into the points and minimize the damage for Red Bull.
“It’s gonna be a very tricky race, a long afternoon, but I have every hope that I can get back to secure some points and minimize the damage,” added Perez.
Speaking with the official F1 channel after qualifying, Pérez went as far as to say that he “let the team down” with his mistake at Copse.
“It’s very frustrating, it hurts to let your team down in that way, especially because we’ve had a really strong weekend up to now. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to show the full pace,” described Pérez.
That mistake came not only during a difficult stretch of form for the driver but on a week where that run of poor performances has led to renewed speculation about Pérez’s job security at Red Bull. Despite the announcement of a new contract for the driver which could keep him in his current seat through 2026, his recent struggles have seen more rumors about Pérez potentially losing his spot due to performance clauses in his contract.
As always, paddock rumors require at least a healthy grain of salt or two, but there is no denying that Pérez is under pressure to deliver for Red Bull as they face a potential Constructors’ Championship fight with teams like Ferrari, McLaren, and Mercedes.
Seeing Pérez in the gravel is not how Red Bull wanted to start their weekend, as they look to stay ahead in that fight.
Team USA captain Stacey Lewis has her second team member for the 19th edition of the Solheim Cup. From September 13-15 at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Va., Team USA will look to reclaim the Cup on home soil against the European team.
On Tuesday, former World No. 1 Lilia Vu earned enough points to clinch her spot on the 2024 team. She tied for second at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, giving her 1,932.50 total points throughout the qualifying period.
From the 2023 Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament through the final day of the AIG Women’s Open on Aug. 25, players can accumulate points to try and qualify for spots on the Solheim Cup teams.
All five of her LPGA victories came during that period. She won four times last season, including two majors, and earned the Rolex Player of the Year.
This season, Vu battled a back injury that forced her to withdraw from The Chevron Championship and take two months off. However, her fifth victory came in her first start back at the Meijer LPGA Classic a couple of weeks ago. The 26-year-old defeated Grace Kim and Lexi Thompson in a three-hole playoff.
Despite her back issues, Lewis knows her experience will be so beneficial in Virginia.
“It’s been very exciting to see how she’s played the last two starts, coming out of the injury with her win and really just picking up where she left off,” Lewis said in an LPGA press release.
“She’s a tremendous player, from ball striking to putting, with a true all-around game. We’re excited to have her back for her second Solheim Cup, with an opportunity to step up and become a leader on this team.”
Vu also qualified for Team USA last year as she made her Solheim Cup debut. She went 1-3-0 at Finca Cortesin in Andalucia, Spain, claiming the singles match over Madelene Sagstrom.
The former UCLA golfer became the second automatic qualifier for Team USA in 2024. She joins current World No. 1 Nelly Korda, who secured her spot after the ShopRite LPGA Classic. Korda has six wins since the start of 2024 and held a commanding lead in the points race.
Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. For more golf coverage, follow us @_PlayingThrough on all major social platforms. You can also follow her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @savannah_leigh_sports.
In the aftermath of the release of the U.S. women’s national team Olympic roster, it’s clear a new era has arrived. What it’s full of is a roster that features youth and versatility at the forefront.
Ahead of the planning and preparation for the Summer Games, let’s take a look at notable names on the list, the ones who missed out and the one player who’s addition might be an overcast on the rest.
Notable misses: Alex Morgan
For the first time in 13 years (and the irony of it being 13 is strong) the U.S. women’s national team roster for a major tournament does not have the name Alex Morgan listed on it. We all know Morgan’s name for one reason or another, so before we dive into the present, we have to look back.
Photo by C. Morgan Engel/Getty Images
Alex Morgan was a member of the 2011, 2015, 2019, and 2023 women’s World Cup rosters, and the 2012, 2016, and 2021 Olympic rosters. Morgan has 224 appearances with the senior national team under her belt with 123 goals and 53 assists. For those of you who like to do the math, Morgan has either scored or assisted a goal in 79% of her senior caps. She is the 13th player in USWNT history to reach 200 caps and is fifth on the all-time scoring list. Needless to say, her trophy case is full, but let’s run through her accolades anyways:
Three World Cup trophies
One World Cup silver medal
One Olympic gold medal
One Olympic bronze medal
World Cup silver boot
NWSL golden boot
US Soccer’s Female Athlete of the Year award (2012 & 2018)
Four-time CONCACAF Player of the Year (2013, 2016, 2017, 2018)
Five-time FIFA Women’s World 11 selection (2016, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2022)
“Her record speaks for itself,” said new USWNT head coach Emma Hayes in the press conference to announce the 2024 Olympic roster. Alex Morgan is, arguably, one of the best to play her position.
Even greater than her accomplishments on paper are those that are intangible. Her leadership, her class, and her determination to fight for equal pay for the US Women’s National Team are qualities that, quite simply, cannot be replicated.
Today, I’m disappointed about not having the opportunity to represent our country on the Olympic stage. This will always be a tournament that is close to my heart and I take immense pride any time I put on the crest.
Alex Morgan has made a lasting impact on the USWNT, and her legacy will never be forgotten. Even in this painful moment, with her statement, Morgan displayed ultimate class and remained an exceptional teammate.
The Olympic schedule is grueling. Each team will play a game every three days — that’s only two days rest in between — and because of that all 18 players on the Olympic roster are expected to carry a heavy load. In comparison, World Cup rosters are 23-players deep and teams have more than two days of recovery between games.
While this could seem like the end of the road for Alex Morgan’s senior national team career, it’s impossible to ever fully rule out a competitor like Morgan. We do know one thing: she’ll be watching this summer’s Olympic games on TV with the rest of us.
Notable Makes: Crystal Dunn, Casey Krueger, Korbin Albert
Photo by Brad Smith/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images for USSF
Crystal Dunn being named to the US Women’s National Team roster for a major tournament is something that the forward has accomplished four times already, most recently for the 2023 World Cup. However, she hasn’t seen her name listed under the FORWARDS category for a major tournament since 2016.
Dunn is a goalscorer and plays forward for her NWSL club, Gotham FC, but has been playing outside-back for the USWNT since 2019. Upon taking over at the helm of the USWNT, Emma Hayes immediately brought Dunn into camp as a forward.
Dunn provides a veteran presence, leadership, and versatility as a player that can play forward, midfield, or defense.
Photo by David Berding/USSF/Getty Images for USSF
Casey Krueger is a consistent standout defender in the NWSL every year, and has seen herself called into many USWNT camps, but only made one major tournament roster. Krueger was listed as an alternate for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, but when rosters expanded due to COVID-19, she joined the squad as a rostered player. Krueger is a fan-favorite, as a player that is nothing but consistent on the field and is constantly overlooked at the National Team level.
Photo by Robin Alam/ISI Photos/Getty Images
Korbin Albert is a notable make, but for all of the wrong reasons.
In March of this year, Albert found herself at the center of controversy, receiving criticism from not only USWNT fans, but former USWNT players including Megan Rapinoe. Fans found anti-LGBTQ videos that Albert posted to her personal TikTok, and also found her having liked a post hoping for pain to be inflicted on former USWNT star Megan Rapinoe
Korbin Albert plays her club soccer at PSG and was a breakout star in the midfield for the team during the inaugural Concacaf Women’s Gold Cup earlier this year. Immediately following the tournament, her hateful social media activity surfaced.
Fans turned on her, and it caused enough stir to even warrant a response from Rapinoe.
Photo by Brad Smith/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images for USSF
“To the people who want to hide behind ‘my beliefs’ I would just ask one question, are you making any type of space safer, more inclusive, more whole, any semblance of better, bringing the best out of anyone?… because if you aren’t, all you believe in is hate. And kids are literally killing themselves because of this hate. Wake TF up!”
Shortly after, Albert posted an apology on her Instagram stories.
Photo by Brad Smith/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images for USSF
Captain Lindsey Horan and Alex Morgan spoke to the media in a press-conference, and expressed their disappointment, but stated that the matter was being handled internally. Since then, fans have been calling for more transparency into how the matter was handled. Albert’s play has suffered, and she has been audibly boo-ed at every USWNT match she has appeared in since.
Many were speculating that Albert may not make the 2024 Olympic roster because of her actions, but without knowledge of how the matter was being handled internally, fans were in the dark.
Photo by Brad Smith/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images
“There’s no denying that there’s been a lot of work that’s going on in the background,” Hayes said of Albert, adding that Albert is young, learning from her experiences, and has had a tough time in reference to the backlash and boos she has received from fans.
“She’s spending time working on herself,” continued Hayes, “and I want the fans to really embrace Korbin because I do think she’s a tremendous human being.”
The issue itself is much larger than just Korbin Albert, though, and her name being listed on this roster shows a changing of the guards in more ways than one.
The USWNT has consistently been a safe space for LGBTQ fans, and players on the team have always made it that way. A new era of young talent brings fears around perhaps a new identity of the USWNT, and questions about if it can remain the same safe space that it has always been.
Albert’s inclusion in the roster coupled with Hayes’ comments around it is drawing a cloud of negativity that is, in some ways, close to overshadowing the positivity that has come with the announcement of this young, dynamic new era. How, if any it impacts the team internally is a wait and see.
Tom Brady, from the University of Michigan, is hoping to clinch a spot on the United States Olympic Track and Field this week, competing in the men’s 5000 meters.
Of course, we are not talking about THAT Tom Brady.
No, we are talking about Tom Brady, the member of the Michigan Track and Field Team who is the school’s record-holder in both the indoor 5000 meters, as well as the outdoor 10,000 meters. That Tom Brady gets his Olympic quest underway later today, in the opening heat of the men’s 5000 meters.
However, there are some eerie similarities between the two athletes, beyond the University of Michigan. Consider this: Brady’s personal best in this event, the 5000 meters, came at the David Hemery Valentine Invitational back in February.
That event was held at Boston University.
Brady’s other focus is the 10,000 meters, and as indicated above he holds the Michigan record in that event. Where did he set that record?
Stanford University, in the San Francisco Bay area, near where the other Tom Brady grew up.
One thing the two do not share, however? Their NFL allegiances. Obviously Tom Brady the NFL quarterback has his ties to the New England Patriots and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But Tom Brady the Olympic hopeful?
He is a Chicago Bears fan, through and through.
“Growing up in Chicago, for some reason there’s some kind of rivalry with Tom Brady there. I don’t know why but I think it’s because he destroys us every time we play him,” Brady said in a profile of him back in 2023. “Except for the last time, that was a good time.”
Included in that profile was this bit: “Brady will never root for the 20-year NFL veteran because of his “unhealthy” Chicago Bears obsession, but he respects Brady’s work ethic, and for that, he admits Tom Brady is the greatest NFL player of all time.”
But that Tom Brady never made an Olympic team, even though his mom once said he was the fastest player in the NFL.
The other Tom Brady might do just that this weekend.
Welcome to Playing Through’s new morning ritual: Golf Talk Today.
Each morning will feature a Golf Talk Today, in which the crew will discuss various elements of the PGA Tour, LIV Golf and other professional golf tournaments.
Today begins a way too early discussion about the 2024 Presidents Cup. Team USA will travel to the Royal Montreal Golf Club from Sept. 24 to 29 to take on Team International.
Professional golf will get another trip to Canada in 2024 after a widely successful RBC Canadian Open. The golf fans in the Great White North do not disappoint, but will it be too much of a home event for the Americans?
In 2022, Team USA won its ninth consecutive Presidents Cup 17.5-12.5, improving to 12-1-1 all-time in this competition. While the Presidents Cup does not have as long a history as its fellow biennial Ryder Cup event, it still draws in crowds.
This year’s Team USA captain is Jim Furyk, and the International captain is Mike Weir.
There are six American PGA Tour players that qualify through points, per the Presidents Cup website. It did not mention LIV golf players because they were denied qualification last year. Various events receive points in the qualifying standings. Furyk will also get six captain picks.
7: Tony Finau: 3,780 8: Max Homa: 3,772 9: Brian Harman: 3,669 10: Chris Kirk: 3,265 11: Russell Henley: 3,235 12: Sam Burns: 3,160 13: Akshay Bhatia: 3,102 14: Justin Thomas: 2,918
Scottie Scheffler holds a commanding lead in the standings. After six PGA Tour victories this season, he has all but officially secured his spot.
Many of the Ryder Cup team members from Rome could see themselves in Canada.
However, will Furyk take a similar approach to Ryder Cup captain Zach Johnson?
A later Golf Talk Today will feature a more detailed discussion about who Furyk should have on his team.
Team USA Presidents Cup hot take
This take will be short and sweet.
Bryson DeChambeau should easily be on Team USA for the Presidents Cup.
Despite playing for LIV Golf, DeChambeau finished inside the top 10 in two majors and won the U.S. Open at Pinehurst. He is playing phenomenally right now, and the former SMU golfer will be a great addition.
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Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. For more golf coverage, follow us @_PlayingThrough on all major social platforms. You can also follow her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @savannah_leigh_sports.
The Olympic Women’s Golf Competition officially has a field of 60 participants with the latest update of the Rolex Rankings.
They will play at Le Golf National in Paris, the site of the 2018 Ryder Cup, from Aug. 7 to 10.
Two players from each country can qualify unless they rank inside the top 15 in the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR). A maximum of four players from each country are eligible.
Each tournament has a strength of field rating for the Olympic Golf Rankings based on the quality of players within the field, like the OWGR.
That determines the points awarded at an event, which are then allocated to the players based on where they finish. Better performances in stronger events lead to more points.
Team USA has three of the top 10 players: No. 1 Nelly Korda, No. 2 Lilia Vu, and No. 9 Rose Zhang. Korda has six wins on the season, including five straight. However, Korda missed the cut in her last three starts.
She won the gold medal by one stroke in the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo over silver medalist Mone Inami and bronze medalist Lydia Ko. Can she win her second gold in Paris or get on the podium?
South Korea will also have three Olympians after Amy Yang won the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship on Sunday. She will join Jin Young Ko and Hyo Joo Kim in Paris.
Yang’s addition to South Korea’s Olympic team dropped Morocco’s Ines Laklalech, at No. 321, out of the competition.
Charley Hull and Georgia Hall will represent Great Britain, while Ko looks to get back on the podium for New Zealand. Australian golfer Hannah Green is also back in the Olympics after tying for fifth in Tokyo.
Nelly Korda’s most recent missed cut came at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.Photo by Darren Carroll/PGA of America via Getty Images
The individual teams and the participants on each follow below, with their current world ranking in parentheses.
Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. For more golf coverage, follow us @_PlayingThrough on all major social platforms. You can also follow her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @savannah_leigh_sports.
McLaren delivered a stunning turnaround throughout the 2023 Formula 1 season. A slow start saw the Woking-based operation limp out of the starting gate, and when the grid left the 2023 Spanish Grand Prix they were mired in sixth place with just 17 points on the season, 23 points behind fifth-place Alpine. But a series of upgrades to the MCL60 saw McLaren storm up the table passing several teams along the way, including Alpine.
Is the French team putting together a shocking turnaround of their own?
Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon finished inside the points for the second straight race, with Gasly scoring a P9 finish and Ocon adding a P10, as the team added three more points to their account with a double-points result at Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix. After beginning the season with five straight races without a point, Alpine has now scored in four out of the last five race weekends to climb out of the F1 cellar, and into seventh place in the 2024 F1 Constructors’ Championship.
Gasly hailed the week as the team’s “best race of the season,” following the race.
“That was our best race of the season so far as a team, so on that front, I am very happy with today,” declared Gasly in the team’s post-race report. “We had a strong Qualifying on Saturday, which set us up for a good result in ninth place today. We executed the race well with the two-stop strategy and managed each stint well.”
The driver highlighted just how close he was to their best single result of the year, as he finished just seconds behind eighth-place finisher Sergio Pérez.
“We almost had eighth place and only missed out on the last lap but I gave it my all. Even so, I’m happy with such a strong race where we battled two fast cars – the McLaren early on and then the Red Bull at the end – so that’s positive for us,” continued Gasly. “We must understand why the package was strong here and take these learnings going forward. We are progressing in a good direction, that’s three points scoring finishes in a row, and we have to keep that going!”
On the other side of the garage, Ocon outlined that it was a “challenging” race, but one that saw a “satisifying” conclusion for the team.
“It was good to get both cars in the points for a second consecutive Grand Prix. It was a challenging race for us with car balance and some tricky stints but nevertheless we managed to bring the car home inside the top ten again and that’s satisfying,” described Ocon.
“It was close with Nico [Hülkenberg] at the end but we were able to maintain pace and grab the final point on merit on track. We have things to analyse such as why the car felt harder to drive in race conditions as I was sliding quite a lot,” continued the Alpine driver. “Even so, we were much more competitive this weekend and we’ve come out of it with a good reward. We will aim to continue our points run in Austria next weekend where we have two opportunities to score points with the Sprint.”
Photo by Kym Illman/Getty Images
Team Principal Bruno Famin — who faced some questions earlier in the week with the news that Alpine was bringing Flavio Briatore aboard in an executive role — hailed the “positive trend” from the team in recent weeks.
“It’s pleasing to have again both cars in the points here in Spain and to score at the last three Grands Prix as a team. It’s a positive trend, which we must keep continuing. We were better at this track and we must analyse the reasons why in order to keep improving our overall package. The race was a tough two-stop for both cars,” described Famin. “The two drivers did a good job, especially in [tire], energy, and fuel management. Next up is the Sprint weekend in Austria where we aim to continue our positive run inside the points.”
Last year at the Red Bull Ring Alpine banked three points, with Ocon securing a pair of points with a P7 in the F1 Sprint, and Gasly adding one more with a tenth-place finish in the Grand Prix. A similar result next weekend would see Alpine creep into double digits on the season, and a few more points closer to sixth-place VCARB.
Perhaps not enough to truly mirror last year’s McLaren rise, but certainly an improvement given where they started the year.
This past Monday, the International Golf Federation released the golfers who will represent their home countries at the 2024 Olympics in Paris later this summer. That list includes seven LIV Golf players who will represent their nations.
Then, on Thursday, ahead of the LIV Golf Nashville event, Louis Oosthuizen, Branden Grace, and Dean Burmester—all South African players—detailed what it felt like not to make the South African Olympic team. PGA Tour players Erik van Rooyen and Christiaan Bezuidenhout will represent the country instead.
Grace felt strongly that the Olympic committee got it wrong.
“These are the two guys [Burmester and Oosthuizen] that should be representing South Africa this year,” Grace said ahead of the Nashville tournament.
“I think that’s maybe a good call for each country to pick or try to get their own solution on how they get the criteria right for guys to qualify. But the system at this stage is not very accurate. We all know that. We all talk about it, week in and week out, but these should be the two guys probably representing South Africa.”
Burmester won his first LIV Golf title in Miami earlier this year. Not to mention, he has three other top-10 finishes. The worst performance came at LIV Las Vegas, but for the most part, he has played well.
At the two major championships, Burmester tied for 12th at the PGA Championship. He then captured 69th place at the U.S. Open last week.
Oosthuizen, meanwhile, has two runner-up finishes this year at LIV Adelaide and LIV Jeddah. Two more top-10s followed suit at Mayakoba and Miami. While he has been successful, the Olympics are not high on his radar.
“I grew up with the four majors being your main events, and I don’t really see the fit of professional golfers playing golf in the Olympics,” Oosthuizen said.
“I had the opportunity to go to one of the Olympics and pulled out at the end. It was more getting scheduling-wise getting everything—I think it was close to a major, and that was my main focus always, majors, so the Olympics didn’t fit into my schedule that year.”
Oothusizen represented his country at the World Cup and in the Presidents Cup before, so missing the Olympics is not a big deal to him. Regardless of tour affiliation, he wished the two participants good luck.
“I hope the boys play well and that they perform well, and it’s still going to be a strong South African team playing,” Oosthuizen said.
Burmester followed suit, praising van Rooyen and Bezuidenhout for their performances. Van Rooyen has one runner-up finish, three top 10s, and seven top 25s. As for Bezuidenhout, he has second place at the American Express. He also has three top 10s and nine top 25s. Bezuidenhout was solo fourth at The Memorial in one of his most recent starts.
“Christiaan and Erik are going to do South Africa proud, and they’ve also played some great golf in their own right,” Burmester said.
“I think Louis and I look like Olympians, first of all,” Burmester said. “It would be an honor to go to the Olympics and represent your country. I think it’s the field we have, and those two guys are going to have that opportunity, so it’s super special, and we can only wish them well.”
Taking the high road and wishing two of their fellow South Africans luck in Paris is the proper way to handle it. While they did not get chosen to play in the Olympics, it seems they understand why.
Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. For more golf coverage, follow us @_PlayingThrough on all major social platforms. You can also follow her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @savannah_leigh_sports.
The United States track and field team is often described as the world’s toughest to make, and for good reason. No country has amassed more Olympic track and field medals (827), and the US outpaces the next six countries on the all-time list combined (819).
There are so many talented athletes, but only a select few are allowed to compete at major global championships. For the fifth consecutive time, Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon will host the unforgiving USA Olympic Track and Field Trials. Let’s take a closer look at the qualification and selection process for Paris 2024.
How many athletes can qualify in each discipline?
A maximum of only three athletes are allowed per country. Unlike the World Athletics Championships, which offers “wild card” berths to incumbent world champions (creating a fourth slot for countries), there are no byes into the Olympics.
World and Olympic champions and prohibitive gold medal favorites are not spared if they have an off-day at the worst possible time. In 2021, 800-meter world champion Donavan Brazier finished last in the USA finals and did not make the trip to Tokyo. Women’s 100 meters hurdles star Keni Harrison, widely expected to win the 2016 Rio Olympic trials, only finished sixth and missed the team. Two weeks later, she would set a new world record, but it was a mere consolation.
This is also as good a time as any to remind casual track followers that for sprints (100-400 meters), it only takes one false start for a runner to be disqualified from the race.
How many qualifying rounds are there?
All sprint and middle distance (800-1,500 meters) races have three rounds of qualification (Round 1, semifinals, final), whereas long distance (3,000-10,000 meters and race walks) have either two rounds or a direct final.
Olympic qualifying rounds by discipline
Round 1, Semifinals, Final
Round 1, Final
Final Only
Round 1, Semifinals, Final
Round 1, Final
Final Only
100 meters*
3,000 meters steeplechase
10,000 meters
100 meter hurdles (women)*
5,000 meters
20 km race walk
110 meter hurdles (men)*
50 km race walk
200 meters
400 meters
400 meter hurdles
800 meters
1,500 meters
* – Semifinals and final are contested on the same day.
All field events have one qualifying round and a final, the decathlon and heptathlon don’t have qualifying rounds, and marathon runners already had separate qualifiers in February.
Is it possible to still finish in the top-3 and not qualify?
Yes. This is where it gets a little complicated for a small percentage of American athletes. Similar to swimming, there are minimum times (or distances for field athletes) that must be met within an Olympic qualifying window. The window for athletes competing in any individual event (except the 10,000 meters, marathon, and race walks) is July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024.
For example, the women’s 5,000 meters Olympic standard is 14:52.00. NCAA champion Parker Valby narrowly missed the standard by 0.2 seconds at this month’s NCAA Outdoor Championships. Not only must Valby finish in the top-3 at trials, she also must run at least 14:52.00 to guarantee her spot on the team. And unlike regular track meets, championship competitions do not have pacemakers and wave-light technology to help guide runners to a specific time.
Without the qualifying standard, the last-ditch effort is placing high enough in the World Athletics rankings system, which is too complicated to explain even in an explainer post. The final rankings list will be published on July 7.
Here’s the simplified way to clinch a Team USA Olympic berth:
AND
Have the Olympic qualifying standard
OR
Achieve a high enough world rankings placement
This will most likely only affect competitors in disciplines where the Americans have traditionally weaker depth, such as the long-distance races and a handful of field events. Otherwise this won’t be a storyline for, say, any of the sprints.
What happens if someone finishes in a qualifying position but isn’t selected for the Olympics?
The next highest-placed athlete goes in their place, provided they also have the qualifying standard or a high enough world ranking.
When Sha’Carri Richardson was controversially suspended following a positive marijuana test ahead of the 2020 Olympics, fourth-placed Jenna Prandini replaced her. In the women’s high jump, neither Inika McPherson nor Nicole Green achieved the qualifying standard and didn’t have a high enough world ranking. They were replaced by fourth-placed Rachel McCoy and Tynita Butts-Townsend, who had the requisite ranking despite not making the final.
The 2016 men’s 20 km race walk team, however, sent no entrants to Rio after none of the top three finishers met the standard or ranking.
How do the relay teams qualify?
New to the Olympics is the use of the World Athletics Relays as a qualifying competition for major championships. At this year’s championship in The Bahamas, the American men’s and women’s 4×100 and 4×400 teams all qualified, as did the mixed (two men, two women) 4×400 meters squad. A total of 14 countries in each discipline needed to finish in the top-2 in either the qualifying heats or the repechage rounds to qualify for Paris.
How are the relay participants decided?
Per USA Track and Field guidelines, three of the five competitors for each relay team must be athletes who are entered in their corresponding individual event (e.g. Noah Lyles is entered in the individual 100 meters and therefore will be part of the 4×100 relay team). One reserve/alternate athlete can also be named. The other two selections are made at the discretion of the USATF committee, which includes “medical or exceptional circumstances” for a waiver request to be granted.
This is why it’s common (at least for Team USA) to have relay runners who did not compete in the individual event. Athing Mu, who won the 800 meters in Tokyo, joined the women’s 4x400m relay team and picked up another gold.
It’s worth keeping an eye on the relay selection pool this year for the men’s 4×400 meters, as there’s a possibility that Noah Lyles could be picked despite not being entered in the 400 at Olympic trials and scarcely running the 400 throughout his career. His indoor relay inclusion was already meant with some divided opinion.
Team USA trials run from Friday, June 21 through Sunday, June 30 on NBC, USA, and Peacock. The track and field portion of the Olympics commences on August 1 and ends on August 11.
On June 12, the New York Mets’ entire season took a shift.
Entering the day eight games under .500 despite having the payroll of a world superpower, the Mets were struggling and on the brink of digging themselves into a hole that they couldn’t get themselves out of.
Then a hero came along. A purple blob of a hero.
After Grimace threw out the first pitch, the Mets have simply been one of the best teams in baseball. New York has been on a seven game win streak, including a come-from-behind victory over the defending champion Texas Rangers. Baseball players can be superstitious sometimes, but the Grimace-led vibes are something even Mets players can get behind.
This also comes in conjunction with the Mets celebrating Pride Month, and since posting the Pride flag and hosting Grimace, the Mets have been the hottest team in baseball.
It’s gotten to the point now where even McDonalds is in on the Grimace Mets.
Mets fans are loving it:
Just tried to explain the gay Grimace Mets winning streak to my wife who said “I didn’t ask for any of this information” and “none of these were words I understood.”
Just tried to explain the gay Grimace Mets winning streak to my wife who said “I didn’t ask for any of this information” and “none of these were words I understood.”
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