A detail of hurdles is seen at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Track and Field at Hayward Field on July 8, 2016 in Eugene, Ore.
INDIANAPOLIS -- The cities of Eugene, Oregon; Sacramento, California; and Walnut, California are finalists to host the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Track & Field, USA Track & Field announced Tuesday.
USATF, which oversees the Olympic Trials on behalf of the U.S. Olympic Committee, is conducting site visits to all three cities over the next three weeks. The awarding of the Olympic Trials will be made collaboratively by USATF and the USOC. The host city will be awarded no later than mid-July.
“The Olympic Trials is the world’s largest national track & field championship and will be the biggest track & field meet in 2020 outside of the Olympic Games themselves,” USATF CEO Max Siegel said. “To have three qualified and accomplished cities bidding for the right to host the Trials is a reflection of the strength of the sport in our country. We look forward to completing the process and planning a great event in 2020.”
The host city of the 2008, 2012 and 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Track & Field, Eugene in 2021 will host the IAAF World Outdoor Championships. Hayward Field is in the middle of a nine-year run to host the 2013-2021 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Previously, Hayward Field has played host to the USATF Outdoor Championships in 1986, 1993, 1999, 2001, 2009 and 2011, as well as the 2014 IAAF World Junior Championships. It is the home of the Nike Prefontaine Classic, the lone IAAF Diamond League meeting in the United States.
The host of the 2000 and 2004 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Track & Field, Sacramento State’s Hornet Stadium will be the site of the 2017 USATF Outdoor Championships this June. Also home to the 2014 USATF Outdoor Championships and 2016 National Junior Olympic Track & Field Championships, Hornet Stadium played host to the 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2007 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Sacramento State is scheduled to host the NCAA Division I West Preliminary in 2018.
The site of the celebrated Mt. SAC Relays, Hilmer Lodge Stadium has served as the site of the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Track & Field (1968 – women, 1980) and has seen 20 world records eclipsed in its nearly 70 years of existence. Multiple national records have fallen on the campus of Mt. San Antonio College, and Walnut, California has played host to over 30,000 athletes a year between the famed Mt. SAC Relays and the annual Mt. SAC Cross Country Invitational. Hilmer Lodge Stadium was the home of the 1962 and 1979 USATF Outdoor Championships, and is currently undergoing a complete renovation set to be completed in 2019.