Last one, fast one?!

The final day of the Olympic Trials was one for the history books. In every. single. event. that took place on the tracks yesterday afternoon, the Olympic Trials meet record was broken. In multiple events, simply qualifying for Team USA meant you had to produce a performance that ranked in the U.S. top-10 of all time.

12.37 in the 100m hurdles, 3:56.75 in the women’s 1500m, and 1:44.12 in the men’s 800m were only good enough for fourth place. The mantra of “iron sharpens iron” normally applies to training groups, but it certainly also applies to American track and field right now. When being top 10 in the world is not a guarantee of being top 3 in the U.S., the choice is simple: you elevate your game or you go home.

The afternoon began with the 5000m final, where last year’s U.S. champ Abdi Nur and this year’s 10,000m champ Grant Fisher treated the fans to an epic duel over the final few laps. It took a sub-4 1600m to break the rest of the field, and in the final strides, Fisher was able to re-pass Nur and get his second title of the week, the first time he’s completed the 10/5 double. Behind them, it was a similar battle for third between collegians Parker Wolfe and Graham Blanks, and it’s still not clear whether Wolfe or Blanks will end up on Team USA. Wolfe needs a few scratches in the world rankings ahead of him, and Blanks has the auto standard.

In the men’s 800m, Bryce Hoppel won his sixth straight U.S. title (counting indoors), but he did it in the fastest time of his career, a 1:42.77. His training partner Hobbs Kessler snagged third and qualifies for both the 800m and 1500m, the first time an American man has done that since 1976. In the women’s 100m hurdles, you could throw a blanket over the whole field with two hurdles remaining, but it was Masai Russell who closed the best and clocked a 12.25, the good for #4 on the world all-time list.

Rai Benjamin did Rai Benjamin things in the men’s 400m hurdles, cruising to a 46.47 world lead and meet record well ahead of the competition. The women’s 1500m was an absolute battle — more on that below. And then we closed the weekend with Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone.

McLaughlin-Levrone is used to being the star of the show, and honestly her biggest competition is usually the shadow of her past self. In the 400m hurdles final she had the benefit of a fast-starting Anna Cockrell on her outside, who stayed even with the Olympic champ for the first three hurdles and kept the pressure on early. But the real difference was that, coming around the final turn, McLaughlin-Levrone didn’t shut it down like she normally does through the rounds, instead powering down the homestretch to an incredible new world record 50.65.

For those keeping score at home, that’s the fifth time McLaughlin-Levrone has lowered the world record. When she started, the world record she was breaking was Dalilah Muhammad’s 52.16 from 2019, and now it’s an incredible 1.51 seconds faster.

Full results of the Olympic Trials can be found here. As we wrap up the weekend, a huge thank you to everyone who tuned into a live show or came out to a group run — or just stopped by Prince Puckler’s to say hi or cheered alongside us in Hayward Field. It takes a village to bring you all these hours of track and field, from our photographers and videographers to our interviewers and on-camera personalities, to the social media and graphics team. And the biggest thanks of all goes to our team of CITIUS MAG interns who’ve hustled all week to keep our lights on and keep the content coming.

We’re done with our daily GOOD MORNING TRACK AND FIELD shows, where Mitch Dyer, Eric Jenkins, and Karen Lesiewicz kept us entertained and amused all week. CITIUS MAG LIVE was jam-packed yesterday with an all-star lineup of interviews from Galen Rupp to Grant Holloway and many, many more. And we ended the whole thing with one last TRIALS TALK live show and podcast, reminiscing on the week and . You can catch up with any episode of any show you missed on the CITIUS MAG YouTube channel or by subscribing to the CITIUS MAG Podcast.

If you liked our daily newsletter and want to stay in the loop with weekly updates on everything track and field, make sure you’re subscribed to both this newsletter and The Lap Count to get all the best of CITIUS MAG in your inbox. Without further ado, here’s our takeaways from one last day of Trials action!

Race Of The Day: Women's 1500m

The 1500m final was, on paper, shaping up to be one of the best in history. The entrants themselves predicted it would take something historically fast — Elise Cranny said 3:57 — just to make the team.

Turns out, even that bold prediction was an underestimation. When the dust settled, third placer Elle St. Pierre had to run 3:55.99 to make the team and Sinclaire Johnson, at 3:56.75, clocked the 6th fastest time in U.S. history and finished a heartbreaking fourth. The top 8 finishers all broke 4 minutes; the top 8 finishers all set lifetime bests. You’ve really got to feel for runners like Cory McGee and Helen Schlachtenhaufen, who’ve been knocking on the door of sub-4 for years and finally got it done — only to fall short of qualifying.

The fast times were helped in large part by Elle St. Pierre taking the race from the front, like she did in 2021, and setting a merciless pace: 61 seconds through 400m and 2:05 through 800m. That kind of fearless running is exactly what it takes for a dairy farmer from Vermont to contend with the best distance runners in the world, and that bravery is exactly what she’ll need in Paris.

But the rest of the field was still right there with her in the final lap, and with 200m to go there were five runners vying for three spots: St. Pierre, Emily MacKay, Nikki Hiltz, Heather MacLean, and Sinclaire Johnson. In the home stretch, the first three separated from the field and then Hiltz did what they’ve done at every one of the last four U.S. 1500m finals: unleash blazing finishing speed and separate from the field in the final strides, crossing the finish line first in 3:55.33, the #2 U.S. all time performance. MacKay, who has had a meteoric rise to the top of the U.S. distance running ranks, crossed second in 3:55.90, just ahead of her training partner St. Pierre who made her second team after winning the 5000m.

All three qualifiers were medalists at World Indoors, and all three head into Paris with a legitimate shot at an Olympic medal. 3:55.86 made the podium in Tokyo, and with St. Pierre already showing the ability to outkick runners like Gudaf Tsegay on the world stage, Team USA should be aiming for serious hardware in this event.

Athlete Of The Day: Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone

Even though she’s only 24 years old, it can feel like Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone has been around forever.

That’s because the New Balance superstar has been a fixture on the global racing scene since she was barely out of high school (she actually made her first Olympic team, in 2016, at age 16). Starting with her World silver medal in 2019, McLaughlin-Levrone has picked up six global medals including two Olympic golds. She’s reset the 400m hurdles record five times in four years. And even in her “off” events she’s able to lay down incredible performances like her 48.74 U.S. 400m title last year. It truly seems like there’s nothing she can’t do.

The biggest disappointment whenever McLaughlin-Levrone steps on the track is something entirely outside her control: it’s a foregone conclusion — at least in the 400m hurdles — that she won’t be seriously challenged for the win. Now that she’s twice run sub-51, the question of “how close to 50 seconds can she gets” will loom over every championship. But until someone (whether it’s reigning World champion Femke Bol or somebody else) can knock off a serious chunk of time, she simply doesn’t have the competition necessary to push her all the way through the race.

It’s a great problem to have. And it underscores the growing thirst from the track fan community for the powers that be to rearrange the Olympic schedule for 2028 to make a 400H/400m double attractive, if only to give McLaughlin-Levrone the chance to face a real challenge. But in the meantime, we can just sit back, relax, and enjoy the Sydney show.

Photo Of The Day

An emotional Alaysha Johnson makes her first Olympic team in the 100m hurdles in a lifetime best 12.31.

Social Moment To Remember

Team USA 200m qualifier Brittany Brown boils down the beauty of the Olympic Trials journey in one heartwarming tweet.