Around 5,000 fans filed into New York’s Icahn Stadium this weekend for the USA Track & Field national outdoor championships, the first such meet in five years without a major international competition looming.
Absentees and a dress rehearsal
After five consecutive years with either an Olympics or world championships, 2026 is the first without a major international outdoor track and field competition – lowering the stakes of this meet, without global qualification on the line.
“There was nothing to lose,” Gabbi Jennings said after finishing second, behind Lexy Halladay-Lowry, in the women’s steeplechase final on Saturday afternoon. “Bit of a dress rehearsal.”
More than a few stars did not make rehearsal. Absent Olympic champions included hurdler and sprinter Rai Benjamin; 1500m gold medalist Cole Hocker; 100m hurdles gold medalist Masai Russell; and sprinter Gabby Thomas.
“I know not everyone is doing it this year, for various reasons, but I value a national championship, and I want to compete at it,” said Grant Fisher, Olympic bronze medalist in both the 5,000m and 10,000m at Paris 2024. “And I think, you know, people deserve seeing good athletes and performances.”
Big names deliver
Olympic gold and silver medalist Sha’Carri Richardson stormed the women’s 100m final to win in 10.77 seconds. Her training partner, Olympic gold and bronze medalist Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, steamed through the 200m final in 21.69 seconds.
“I’m in a really good spot,” said Jefferson-Wooden, telling reporters she had wanted to set a new personal best this weekend – but that she is “absolutely” confident more will come. “Today told me everything I need to know.”
Noah Lyles, Olympic gold and two-time bronze medalist, equalled his lifetime best of 9.79 seconds in the men’s 100m final, seeing off Olympian Ronnie Baker, two-time Olympic silver medalist Kenny Bednarek and former world champion Christian Coleman.
But Lyles pulled up before finishing the 200m final. “Not how I wanted that,” said Garrett Kaalund, of the University of Southern California, who won in 20.04 seconds.
After the race, Lyles blamed cramp in his hamstring, which he suggested was the result of his performance in the 100m. “I wanted to push myself, to make sure that I knew what it felt like to try and get up the next day,” he said. “If this happens at the Olympics, I need to be ready for it. This does show me what it takes to keep going, which, y’know, kinda puts a perspective on how kinda great Bolt was.”
In the field, Chase Jackson – who won the 2022 and 2023 world titles and came second in 2025 – won her 11th national title, clinching the women’s shot put by more than a meter.
Tara Davis-Woodhall, who won gold in Paris, initially prevailed in the women’s long jump, only for her final attempt to be ruled a foul after review. She ended up in third place, a day after also coming third in the 100m hurdles. Olympic silver medalist Anna Cockrell won the women’s 400m hurdles, her first national title.
Ones to watch
High school phenom Cooper Lutkenhaus, 17, blazed through the men’s 800m final in 1:43.48, winning by the biggest margin in a US men’s outdoor 800m final since 2014 – ahead of Wes Ferguson and Hobbs Kessler, who ran a season’s best. (Donavan Brazier, who staged a fairytale comeback in 2025 after years of injury woes, unexpectedly failed to qualify in the heats.)
“When you run 1:42 at 16 years old, you’re expecting that … there’s going to be a lot of pressure,” said Lutkenhaus, still holding the finishing tape. “There’s people thinking you should run this, run that. I’m not really focused on that. I’m just focused on what I can do.”
Two-time Olympian Woody Kincaid outkicked Fisher in the final stages of the men’s 10,000m, winning by a second. “When the race got slow, I was ready, ready for it to take off,” said Kincaid. “I’m sure there were some doubters saying, ‘He’s 33,’ but I didn’t feel that when I finished the race.”
Olympic men’s 400m champion Quincy Hall did not make it through the heats, setting the stage for one of the biggest upsets of the meet. Justin Robinson, an unsponsored athlete, was first across the line in the final, narrowly ahead of Chris Bailey, who won gold in the 4x400m relay at Paris 2024.
Last year was “pretty difficult”, said Robinson, who had worked at Costco and a landscaping company to make ends meet. “I’m waking up at 2 o’clock in the morning just to get to work and practice at 3 in the evening, and not getting home until sometimes 7, 8 at night.”
With a gold medal around his neck, Robinson expressed hope that a national title would help him land a sponsor. Within minutes, however, his victory was scratched from the record over a lane violation.
“I mean, I get rules are rules,” said Bailey, who took the 400m title following Robinson’s disqualification. “But I don’t agree with it.”
“I’m proud of him,” Bailey added, of Robinson. “This is a guy who was beating me all throughout college, and y’know, to see him finally making that transition, into the shape he was in college, is truly an honor to watch.”
Looking ahead to LA 2028
The opening ceremony of the LA Olympics, scheduled for 14 July 2028, is less than two years away. “I think about that almost every single day,” laughed Wiley.
“It comes up so quick,” said Hiltz, who said they were trying to take things day by day. “In the back of my mind, like, it is this big looming thing – not in a bad way, but in a really, really exciting [way]: this is my main character moment. I want to see if I can medal on home turf.”
