WHEN CONFRONTED WITH a series of great competitions capped by a World Record to complete an Olympic Trials there is an immediate temptation, swept up in the emotion of the moment, to call it the greatest OT of all.
Comparing Trials before ’76 with the current era can be invidious — From ’28 to ’72 the Women’s Trials was a separate meet, and comparisons since then can also be problematic. The pole vault and hammer for women only appeared as “guest” events in ’96, finally included in ’00, while the steeplechase didn’t get past guest status until the ’08 edition.
Determining the greatest Trials depends on your viewpoint. If the principal criterion is the number of World Records, then it’s difficult to beat ’56 — The WR for the 100 was equaled by 3 men, and the 100 winner Bobby Morrow also equaled the 200 record. Lou Jones beat his altitude 45.4 with 45.2 in the Coliseum, and 2 significant barriers were broken — Glenn Davis under 50 with his 400H WR of 49.5, and Charles Dumas with the first-ever 7-foot high jump. If you were looking through a wide-angle lens there were clear weaknesses that year— particularly in distance events. (Continued below)
A dispassionate look at 2024 and the three previous Eugene-based Trials shows that with or without including the 20K walks, based on the number of personal or seasonal bests achieved in finals, ’24 edges ’21 and ’12 and is well ahead of ’16, as the table below shows.
While there is no certain method for definitively ranking the Trials, the statistics suggest ’24 ranks at or very close to the top, and attendees of this most recent version of the try-outs will likely agree and long remember the many superb competitions.
Personal Or Seasonal Bests Achieved In Recent Trials Finals
| Men | ||||
| 2012 | 2016 | 2021 | 2024 | |
| 100 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 3 |
| 200 | 7* | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 400 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| 800 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 6 |
| 1500 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 10 |
| Steeple | 2 | |||
| 5000 | 4 | 2 | 3 | |
| 10,000 | 9 | 9 | 6 | 4 |
| 110H | 4 | 4 | 4 | 6 |
| 400H | 3 | 3 | 5 | 3 |
| HJ | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 |
| PV | 4 | 9 | 5 | |
| LJ | 3 | 5 | 5 | 7 |
| TJ | 2 | 4 | 3 | 4 |
| SP | 4 | 2 | 7 | 2 |
| DT | 1 | 2 | ||
| HT | 4 | 4 | 4 | 6 |
| JT | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| Dec | 8 | 7 | 10 | 7 |
| 20K Walk | 6 | 5 | 9 | 14 |
| Totals | 84 | 65 | 85 | 96 |
| *=2012 men’s 200 final was wind-aided | ||||
| Women | ||||
| 2012 | 2016 | 2021 | 2024 | |
| 100 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 7 |
| 200 | 4 | 1 | 6 | 1 |
| 400 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 3 |
| 800 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 3 |
| Steeple | 5 | 9 | 7 | 10 |
| 1500 | 4 | 6 | 8 | |
| 5000 | 8 | 7 | 1 | 7 |
| 10,000 | 9 | 10 | 15 | 4 |
| 100H | 6 | 2 | 5 | |
| 400H | 3 | 6 | 3 | 5 |
| HJ | 6 | 6 | 5 | 6 |
| PV | 7 | 4 | 4 | 5 |
| LJ | 4 | 5 | 5 | 2 |
| TJ | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| SP | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| DT | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| HT | 3 | 5 | 3 | 1 |
| JT | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Hept | 9 | 9 | 8 | 7 |
| 20K Walk | 10 | 8 | 6 | 13 |
| Totals | 89 | 97 | 93 | 98 |
| Men/Women Combined | 173 | 162 | 178 | 194 |
| Excluding walks | 157 | 149 | 163 | 167 |
