Team USATF announces roster for 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games

INDIANAPOLIS - The U.S. Olympic Track & Field roster is in place for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games featuring a bevy of veterans combined with a legion of 81 first-time Olympians set to don the red, white and blue as the Olympic Games take place July 23 - August 8. 

NBC has announced a robust coverage schedule, ensuring fans will have access to athletics events whether live or on demand. Click here for the broadcast and streaming schedule. 

Team USATF boasts 13 defending medalists from the 2016 Rio Games, six defending 2019 World Champions, and eight 2021 NCAA Division I Champions. Experienced headliners include five-time Olympians Allyson Felix (400m) and 44-year-old Abdi Abdirahman (marathon) combined with 19 collegiate first-timers. Team USATF’s youngest athlete is 17-year-old Erriyon Knighton, the prep star from Riverview, Florida who turned pro in 2021 after his junior year of high school. Knighton set two world junior records last month at Hayward Field in Oregon. Athing Mu is the second youngest athlete at age 19. Mu dominated NCAAs and the U.S. Olympic Team Trials last month, and is considered a medal contender in the women’s 800m. She turned pro after one year at Texas A&M.

Perhaps the most anticipated events for Team USATF are the women’s 400m hurdles and the men’s shot put. Defending Olympic and world champion Dalilah Muhammad will once again go up against fellow American Sydney McLaughlin, who broke Muhammad’s world record at the Olympic Trials final, crossing the line in 51.90. McLaughlin is now the only woman in history to run the event in under 52 seconds. 

Americans dominated the men’s shot put in recent international team competitions and the Games will be no exception. Reigning Olympic champion Ryan Crouser made his stated intentions a reality by setting the world record while winning the Olympic Trials (23.37m/76-8.25), and defending World Champion Joe Kovacs will provide ample exciting competition when he takes to the ring in Tokyo.

LSU’s JuVaughn Harrison, the Olympic Trials champion in both events, is the first man in nearly 100 years to double in the men’s high jump and long jump and is expected to double in Tokyo. Two-time Olympic silver medalist Will Claye is a contender in the men’s triple jump returning from a near-career-ending Achilles injury from 2019.

Gabby Thomas, a neurobiology major from Harvard who is getting her masters in epidemiology, qualified for the team in the 200m clocking a Trials record and equaled the third-fastest time in history to win in 21.61, taking over the No. 2 spot on the all-time world performer list behind only Florence Griffith-Joyner.

Brittney Reese, the Olympic gold and silver medalist, four-time world champion and eight-time USATF Champion in the women’s long jump, heads to her fourth Olympic Games after claiming her fourth consecutive Trials title.

There are three current outdoor world record holders: Crouser, McLaughlin, and women’s 100m hurdler Keni Harrison; while Grant Holloway and Crouser hold World Indoor records. At the Olympic Trials, Holloway came just .01 shy of breaking Aries Merritt’s 110m hurdles 12.80 world record. 

In addition to world records, reigning American record holders competing in their events at the Tokyo Olympic Games include: DeAnna Price (women’s hammer throw), Rudy Winkler (men’s hammer throw), Ajee’ Wilson (women’s 800m), Sam Kendricks (men’s pole vault), Sandi Morris (women’s pole vault), Tori Franklin (women’s triple jump), Valarie Allman (women’s discus), Kara Winger (women’s javelin) and Courtney Frerichs (women’s 3,000m steeplechase). 

Athletics is set to begin on Friday, July 30 at 9:00 a.m. JST in Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium. For the full schedule, visit here. USA Track & Field’s Olympic Games hub on usatf.org will provide recaps, athlete bios, TV schedule and more.

USATF Olympic Team Roster