Hello again track and field fans! As opposed to the Olympic Trials, which stretch out over a week, athletes at USAs are packing their heats, finals, and attempted doubles into just four condensed days of racing. We can expect even more unexpected outcomes in already highly volatile events like the men’s and women’s 800m, but we did our best to make sense of the madness and lay out how to watch each race below. If you just can’t get enough track and field coverage, there’s plenty more where that came from:

- Each day before the meet begins, tune in to Good Morning Track and Field (presented by Bee Keeper Coffee), where Eric Jenkins and Aisha Praught-Leer give their takes on the action and happenings in Eugene. (Also available on the Off The Rails Podcast feed.)

- After each day at the track, tune in for CHAMPS CHATS—Chris Chavez, Eric, Aisha, Anderson Emerole, and Paul Hof-Mahoney will break down all of the results and offer up their analysis from each day’s competition. (Also available on the CITIUS MAG Podcast feed.)

- The CITIUS MAG Newsletter will be hitting your inbox daily with a recap of results and a round-up of the best content from the day.

- And for those in Eugene, we’ll be hosting two group runs with New Balance, Saturday and Sunday at 8 a.m. PT, meeting in front of Agate Alley on 1461 E. 19th Avenue. There will be coffee, treats, free “I Love Track and Field” t-shirts and the chance to try out the new FuelCell Rebel v5 and FuelCell SuperComp Elite v5. It’s going to be a great time!

Schedule + How To Watch

First Round: Thursday, July 31st at 6:33 p.m. ET (Watch it on USATF.TV)

Final: Saturday, August 2nd at 2:14 p.m. ET (Watch it on NBC, Peacock)

Last year's Olympic team: Cole Hocker, Hobbs Kessler, and Yared Nuguse

Who has the World Championship qualifying standard or is in the World Rankings quota: The U.S. has nine men who have run under the World Championships standard of 3:33.00 and two men in the World Rankings quota.

Top Contenders: Given that the U.S. went first, third, and fifth in this event at last summer’s Olympics, and all three men are back, healthy, and racing reasonably well, it’s not inconceivable the same team will head to Tokyo. 

Yared Nuguse has looked the strongest this outdoor season of the bunch, and is coming off a 3:45.95 performance in the Bowerman Mile, losing by a hair at the line. Cole Hocker finished a second and a half back in that race, and holds a lifetime record of 6-11 against Nuguse, but he’s as strong a championship racer as the U.S. has ever seen and has a penchant for peaking at just the right moment. Nuguse will likely assume the lead with 800m to go and start pressing. Hocker will go with him. Either could win—it’d only be a surprise if neither did. 

Hobbs Kessler was further back in the pack at Pre, but again… he was fifth place at the Olympics and has raced well enough this year to be given some benefit of the doubt. Plus, he’s not doubling this year after making the Olympic team in the 800m and 1500m last year, so he’ll get to the final fresher, after already exhibiting a workhorse-like ability to navigate round after round.

Dark Horses: The question on everyone’s minds—okay… maybe just American distance running fans’ minds—is “where is Jonah Koech?” Up until late May of this year, Koech was a solid 800m specialist, who repped the U.S. at the 2022 World Championships but failed to make the final. That all changed at the Rabat Diamond League meet, where the 28-year-old won a loaded 1500m in 3:31.43 off a spectacular 53.1 final 400m, to become a globally relevant 1500m runner. The next week, Koech won the 800m at the Kip Keino Classic in 1:43.32, but it’s been crickets ever since. If he’s healthy, he’s a very real threat to make the team—but that appears to be a big if.

Regardless, you’d be wise to keep an eye on two freshly-minted professional milers—Nathan Green and Ethan Strand.

Green hasn’t run the World standard (3:33.00) within the window and isn’t currently in the quota, but given recent American championships, it’s likely he’d achieve both with a top-three finish. He’s unproven in races won in the low 3:30s or faster, but as a two-time NCAA 1500m champ, he’s demonstrated he knows how to run rounds and position himself well in championship races. In a slower race—or if he’s made a leap into 3:30-or-so fitness from his 3:32.20 PB—Green could perhaps give Kessler a scare.

Strand, on the other hand, has run in 3:48 territory twice for the mile, so it’s no secret he can hang onto a hot pace. He’s also shown he can close with the best of them, placing second at this year’s NCAA 1500m final (behind Green) despite having to catch just about the entire field over the last 150m. Strand has what he needs in his toolkit. Does he finally have enough reps under his belt to be where he needs to be coming into the home stretch? If there’s anyone poised to be crowned the Next Big Thing in American Middle-Distance Running, it’s Strand. Could he be ready for the coronation already?

One Good Stat: For some context around just how good this event has gotten in recent years… at last year’s Olympic Trials, Vince Ciattei placed fourth in 3:31.78, which was faster than the old meet record. Hocker won in 3:30.59, and if fourth place this year runs faster than that, expect Chris and Mac Fleet to set a record of their own for “longest, most deranged emergency podcast ever recorded.”

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