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OLYMPIC TRIALS RETURN TO SACRAMENTO - NOV 15, 2003 After a 32-year absence, the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials returned to Northern California in 2000. It was a meet for the ages – eight days of sellout crowds at Sacramento State, one world record, three American records, unforgettable performances by the likes of Stacy Dragila, Marion Jones, Allen Johnson and Gail Devers. The wait’s considerably shorter this time around. The overwhelming success of the 2000 event led USA Track & Field to award the 2004 Trials to Sacramento, the first time in 24 years that a city has hosted the event twice in a row. The world’s most powerful track nation will once again select its Olympic team from July 9-18 in Sacramento. The anticipation is such that more than 11,000 eight-day ticket packages have already been sold. The bar is set extremely high for the local organizing committee, just as the stakes couldn’t be any higher for the U.S. athletes trying to qualify for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. It’s a good bet that both sides will deliver. The 2004 event will be an exciting mixture of familiar
and fresh faces. Marion Jones, the winner of three Olympic gold
medals in Sydney, Australia, returns from a one-year maternity leave.
Jones will be challenged by the new kid on the sprint block, Kelli
White. Dragila was the dominant female pole vaulter in 1999-2001, setting a world record on the final day of the 2000 Olympic Trials en route to an Olympic championship. The local favorite – she attended Placer High School in nearby Auburn – will be eager to reclaim her position as the world’s best. Tom Pappas, a promising young talent when he won the decathlon in 2000, is now the world champion. He hopes to make Sacramento a steppingstone on the way to Olympic glory in Athens. Should he succeed, he’ll join a pantheon of U.S. decathlon champions that includes Jim Thorpe, Bob Mathias, Rafer Johnson and Dan O’Brien. Allen Johnson was the defending Olympic champion when he won the 110-meter high hurdles at the 2000 Trials in a blazing 12.97 seconds. Nobody has run faster since, and Johnson is coming off a superb 2003 season in which he won his third world outdoor title. John Capel was the answer to a trivia question in 2000. The University of Florida football player won the 200-meter dash final when Greene and Michael Johnson suffered leg injuries in their much-hyped showdown. Now Capel is the world champion, and he’ll be challenged by Darvis Patton, J.J. Johnson and several others. Devers set an American record (12.33) in winning the 100 hurdles at the 2000 Trials. She’ll be 37 years old when she toes the starting line in July 2004, looking for the one missing link in her remarkable career – an Olympic gold medal in the hurdles. She’ll be trying to qualify for her fifth Olympic team. Northern California fans who watched the 2003 NCAA Division I Track & Field Championships at Hornet Stadium will be eager to see if some of the talented young collegians who visited Sacramento last June are ready for prime time. Texas sprinter Sanya Richards set a U.S. junior record in winning the 400 at the NCAA meet and anchored the Americans to a gold medal in the 4x400 relay at the 2003 World Championships in Paris. Arkansas distance runner Daniel Lincoln won the 3,000 steeplechase and 10,000 meters at the NCAA meet. Other countries choose their Olympic teams by committee, or by taking into account years of meritorious service. Not the United States. Here, it’s trial by fire. If you’re an American, you can’t compete in the Olympics unless you finish in the top three at the U.S. Trials. No other world power takes such a rigid approach to selecting its Olympic team. Heartless? Maybe. But it makes for one of the greatest shows in track and field. The U.S. Olympic Trials have produced 55 world records over the years. You don’t want to miss it. Tickets are
available by calling (916) 566-6560. Don’t wait until July,
because there won’t be any seats left. |
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