Team USATF announces roster for 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games

Check out the list below.

This is one of the best Olympic Track & Field teams ever named for the US. I am quite happy with the entire team. From sprints to throws to middle distances to distances, this is a solid team.

My only beef is that there will be so much copy about Sha’Carri Richardson not being put on the 4x100m relay squad, and it will be one of those things that Olympic beat reporters, who write about track & field once every four years, and have no idea a)just how strong the US team is, b) have an idea on how anti-doping works and c) how this would not be tolerated in any other sport.

Sydney McLaughlin, Delilah Muhammad, Anna Cockrell, 400m hurdles, photo by Kevin Morris /Kevmofoto

I will take up the Sha’Carri situation in its own piece, later tonight. One must remember, as Sha’Carri Richardson has a 30-day punishment, her result from the Olympic Trials is no longer relevant. She can still be named to the relay pool, but only if the head Women’s coach asks for that, and it seems that the coaching staff may feel that rewarding someone for violating a WADA rule, is not a good precedent.

And here’s the deal. If the USATF team does not win the 4x100m, good luck getting that off NBC. As Coach John Chaplin, an Olympic coach in the past once told me, “the only thing an Olympic coach is remembered for is if the batons get around the track.”

INDIANAPOLIS – The U.S. Olympic Track & Field roster is in place for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games featuring a bevy of veterans combined with a legion of 81 first-time Olympians set to don the red, white and blue as the Olympic Games take place July 23 – August 8.

NBC has announced a robust coverage schedule, ensuring fans will have access to athletics events whether live or on-demand. Click here for the broadcast and streaming schedule.

Team USATF boasts 13 defending medalists from the 2016 Rio Games, six defending 2019 World Champions, and eight 2021 NCAA Division I Champions. Experienced headliners include five-time Olympians Allyson Felix (400m) and 44-year-old Abdi Abdirahman (marathon) combined with 19 collegiate first-timers. Team USATF’s youngest athlete is 17-year-old Erriyon Knighton, the prep star from Riverview, Florida who turned pro in 2021 after his junior year of high school. Knighton set two world junior records last month at Hayward Field in Oregon. Athing Mu is the second youngest athlete at age 19. Mu dominated NCAAs and the U.S. Olympic Team Trials last month, and is considered a medal contender in the women’s 800m. She turned pro after one year at Texas A&M.

Perhaps the most anticipated events for Team USATF are the women’s 400m hurdles and the men’s shot put. Defending Olympic and world champion Dalilah Muhammad will once again go up against fellow American Sydney McLaughlin, who broke Muhammad’s world record at the Olympic Trials final, crossing the line in 51.90. McLaughlin is now the only woman in history to run the event in under 52 seconds.

Americans dominated the men’s shot put in recent international team competitions and the Games will be no exception. Reigning Olympic champion Ryan Crouser made his stated intentions a reality by setting the world record while winning the Olympic Trials (23.37m/76-8.25), and defending World Champion Joe Kovacs will provide ample exciting competition when he takes to the ring in Tokyo.

LSU’s JuVaughn Harrison, the Olympic Trials champion in both events, is the first man in nearly 100 years to double in the men’s high jump and long jump and is expected to double in Tokyo. Two-time Olympic silver medalist Will Claye is a contender in the men’s triple jump returning from a near-career-ending Achilles injury from 2019.

Gabby Thomas, a neurobiology major from Harvard who is getting her masters in epidemiology, qualified for the team in the 200m clocking a Trials record and equaled the third-fastest time in history to win in 21.61, taking over the No. 2 spot on the all-time world performer list behind only Florence Griffith-Joyner.

Brittney Reese, the Olympic gold and silver medalist, four-time world champion and eight-time USATF Champion in the women’s long jump, heads to her fourth Olympic Games after claiming her fourth consecutive Trials title.

There are three current outdoor world record holders: Crouser, McLaughlin, and women’s 100m hurdler Keni Harrison; while Grant Holloway and Crouser hold World Indoor records. At the Olympic Trials, Holloway came just .01 shy of breaking Aries Merritt’s 110m hurdles 12.80 world record.

In addition to world records, reigning American record holders competing in their events at the Tokyo Olympic Games include: DeAnna Price (women’s hammer throw), Rudy Winkler (men’s hammer throw), Ajee’ Wilson (women’s 800m), Sam Kendricks (men’s pole vault), Sandi Morris (women’s pole vault), Tori Franklin (women’s triple jump), Valarie Allman (women’s discus), Kara Winger (women’s javelin) and Courtney Frerichs (women’s 3,000m steeplechase).

Athletics is set to begin on Friday, July 30 at 9:00 a.m. JST in Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium. For the full schedule, visit here. USA Track & Field’s Olympic Games hub on usatf.org will provide recaps, athlete bios, TV schedule and more.

USATF Olympic Team Roster