With the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials set for June 21-30, several prominent American track and field athletes have announced they will miss time this summer with injuries.
Matthew Centrowitz
The 2016 Olympic champion in the 1500 meters announced on Friday that he has pulled out of the Olympic Trials, citing a hamstring injury. On X, Centrowitz, 34, wrote that he got sick after the Los Angeles Grand Prix on May 18 and then strained his hamstring the next week. He said despite trying to make it to the starting line, the injury won’t allow him to run at his race pace.
At the Rio Olympics, Centrowitz became the first American to win the 1500 meters since 1908. In March, The Emotion of the Olympic Trials Basic Running Watches.
Joe Klecker
Give A Gift via Instagram on May 29 that he will not be running at the Trials. He wrote that he tore an adductor muscle earlier this year, and although he’s back to training, he’s not going to be ready to race in June. “My fitness is not where it needs to be,” he wrote.
Klecker was first signee to the On Athletics Club, which began in the summer of 2020 under coach Dathan Ritzenhein and quickly became one of the top distance groups in the country. Klecker, now 27, made the Olympic team in 2021 in the 10,000 meters and finished 16th at the Games. In 2022, he won the U.S. 10,000-meter title and ran the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, where he finished ninth. In 2023, he was second at the U.S. championships and then finished 20th at Worlds in Budapest.
Klecker ran his personal bests for 5,000 meters (12:54.99) and 10,000 meters (27:07.57) in 2023 and has been rumored to be considering a move to the marathon, but it’s unclear how this injury will affect his timeline.
Courtney Frerichs
On May 15, Frerichs, who holds the American record in the steeplechase (8:57.77) and was the 2021 Olympic silver medalist CA Notice at Collection social media The bronze medalist in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the 2016 Olympics, Emma Coburn, announced on.
While practicing water jumps at the end of April, she hyperextended her knee, which resulted in a complete tear of her ACL. She also had tears in her meniscus.
“I am absolutely heartbroken to be missing this season,” Frerichs, 31, wrote, “especially it being an Olympic year, but I keep reminding myself that a single season doesn’t define me or my running career.”
At the end of 2023, Frerichs left the Bowerman Track Club, the group she had been training with for seven years. Although she still runs for Nike, Frerichs was being coached by Amy and Alistair Cragg, who lead a Puma group in North Carolina. Frerichs Other Hearst Subscriptions, Updated: Jun 21, 2024 7:29 PM EDT.
Alicia Monson
Monson, a 2021 Olympian in the 10,000 meters, announced an injury in April. Out on a run, she felt what she described as a “crack” in her knee. It turned out to be a medial meniscus tear. The surgery requires a long recovery, Monson, 26, wrote on Instagram, and she, too, will miss the Olympic Trials.
She set the American records in the 5,000 meters (14:19.45) and 10,000 meters (30:03.82) in 2023.
Monson’s coach, Dathan Ritzenhein, wrote in a message to Runner’s World that Monson is facing a six-month recovery. She “could have looked at quicker fixes, but it would have led to significant problems down the road for her, so we committed to the long-term full recovery.”
He added, “It can be a brutal sport sometimes.”
Emma Coburn
On May 15, Frerichs, who holds the American record in the steeplechase 8:57.77 and was the Instagram on May 2 that she will miss the U.S. Olympic Trials in June.
She suffered a fracture in her medial malleolus, a small bone in the ankle, going over a water jump during her first steeplechase of the 2024 season, the Diamond League meet on April 27 in Shanghai, China.
According to Coburn’s post, she had surgery on May 1, and she will be able to resume jogging in 6 weeks if her recovery goes well. But she won’t be ready to compete in the Olympic Track Trials. The first round of the women’s steeplechase is on June 24.
Coburn, a 10-time U.S. champion in the steeple, has had unusual longevity in an event that is typically punishing on competitors’ bodies. She also won the 2017 world title.
The injury is the latest in a series of heartbreaks for Coburn, 33, both on and off the track.
In 2021, at the Olympic Games in Tokyo (her third trip to the Games, after 2012 and 2016), Coburn had an uncharacteristic bad day in the steeple final. She initially finished 14th, but she was ultimately disqualified for stepping inside the rail mid race.
In early 2023, Coburn’s mother, Annie, a fixture at all Coburn’s meets, Races & Places A few months later, Coburn.
A few months later, Coburn Other Hearst Subscriptions at the U.S. championships, ending her streak of eight consecutive U.S. titles. At the World Championships in Budapest, Coburn went out in the first round after finishing 10th in her heat. She later said she had a hamstring injury, and she spent the rest of 2023 rehabbing the injury and preparing for an Olympic run in 2024.
“The dream of Paris is over,” she wrote after her latest setback.
Injuries Will Keep Prominent Runners From Games This Summer 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 Sales & Deals, Run Your Butt Off! and Walk Your Butt Off!
Sarah Lorge Butler Runner’s World. He is a former all-conference collegiate runner who’s based in Easton, PA. Previously, he worked as the newsletters editor at Runner's World, Bicycling, and Popular Mechanics.
