In an email sent to athletes, USATF announced that the Olympic Marathon Trials, the race to pick the marathoners for the Games in Paris in 2024, will start at noon.
The race will be held in Orlando, Florida, on February 3, 2024.
In a website released on August 1 by the Orlando organizing committee, which shows the course map, the start times were clarified further: 12:10 p.m. for men and 12:20 p.m. for women.
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The late start times are raising concerns among coaches and athletes about the potential for high temperatures that could cause an unsafe environment for runners. Average daily temperatures in Orlando on February 3 range from a high of 73 to a low of 50.
In recent years, it hasn’t been unusual for temperatures to climb into the high 80s in February. Elite marathoners rarely run in those conditions, and although Paris is expected to be warm during the Olympics, both the men’s and women’s marathons are starting at 8 a.m. local time.
Kevin Hanson, a coach of the Hansons-Brooks Distance Project in Rochester, Michigan, has 13 athletes (eight women and five men) qualified for the Trials. “With six months to go, I hope the higher ups take a look at things and reconsider this decision,” he told Runner’s World. “It’s dangerous for the athletes.”
The email sent to athletes reads, “The LOC [local organizing committee] has been planning and executing high level events for 40+ years in Orlando and has contingencies in place for any potential challenges to the event, including weather.”
It is unclear what weather forecast would put those contingency plans into effect.
NBC, the network broadcasting the event, is thought to be behind the start time. The first paragraph of the email to athletes mentions that the race will be televised live on NBC. “For three hours, our men and women distance runners will be showcased through unprecedented coverage on a national television broadcast; both races shown in their entirety.”
The selection of the Olympic Marathon Trials site was the subject of controversy. Runner’s World learned that Chattanooga, Tennessee, was the site favored by USATF’s board of directors, but USATF CEO Max Siegel overrode the board and named Orlando the host city.
USATF also faced criticism for its handling of extreme heat during the 2021 Olympic Track and Field Trials in Eugene, Oregon. When temperatures were forecast to reach 110 degrees, several events were rescheduled. But not the heptathlon. Taliyah Brooks collapsed on the track in the heat and was taken to the hospital. She later filed a lawsuit against USATF.
At the Olympic Marathon Trials in Los Angeles in 2016, the race began at 9 a.m. and several athletes struggled on an unusually warm day, when temperatures reached the mid-70s by the end of the event. The race’s organizing committee and USATF came under criticism for not having more water on the course for athletes.
This story has been updated.
Sarah Lorge Butler is a writer and editor living in Eugene, Oregon, and her stories about the sport, its trends, and fascinating individuals have appeared in Runner’s World since 2005. She is the author of two popular fitness books, Run Your Butt Off! and Walk Your Butt Off!
