2028 USA OLYMPIC TEAM TRIALS - MARATHON AWARDED TO ST. LOUIS
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2026 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved - Used with permission.

(04-Jun) -- The 2028 USA Olympic Team Trials - Marathon will take place in St. Louis on March 25, 2028, USA Track & Field (USATF) announced today.  St. Louis beat out a competing bid from Phoenix, the only other city which competed for the event.  This will be the second time the Trials will be held in the Gateway City and the first time for both men and women.  

"We are proud to name St. Louis as the host of the 2028 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Marathon," said USATF CEO Max Siegel through a press release.  "Throughout the bid process, the local organizing committee demonstrated the professionalism, vision, and passion necessary to host one of the most important events on the road to Los Angeles. We are confident this event will provide an exceptional experience for the entire running community and ensure the top runners are prepared to face the world's best in LA."

St. Louis also hosted the 1904 Olympic Games which featured the first Olympic Marathon in the United States.  In 2004 the city hosted the women's Trials with 123 starters and 107 finishers.  Officials said today that keeping their connection with the Olympic Games was fundamentally important to the city.

"As America's first Olympic city, host of the 1904 Games, that legacy is really important to us," said St. Louis Sports Commission president Marc Schreiber on a video conference with reporters.  "Any time we have a chance to connect with the Olympic Movement and partner with one of our NGB's, it's really meaningful for us.  We're always on the lookout, every Olympiad, to see what strategically makes sense for St. Louis."

In 2004 athletes ran 3.65 laps of Forest Park in the city center, and 39 year-old Colleen De Reuck got the win in 2:28:25.  For 2028 organizers have chosen a city-wide course which will still include the park, but will take athletes through some of the city's most iconic locations, including Washington University (site of the 1904 Olympic stadium), the Gateway Arch, and Busch Stadium.  The finish line will be inside of Energizer Park, home of St. Louis CITY SC, the local Major League Soccer franchise.  The final course layout has not yet been determined, and the race will be coupled with the mass-participation Greater St. Louis Marathon which will take place the following day.

GO! St. Louis, a not-for-profit which "encourages individuals and families in the St. Louis region to adopt a healthy and active lifestyle year round" according to the group's website, has the responsibility for executing the event.  GO! St. Louis organizes the Greater St. Louis Marathon which took place on April 11, 2026, with 1410 finishers (another 5977 athletes finished the companion half-marathon, 10-K and 5-K).

Although the Olympic Trials are a small marathon by modern standards --the 2024 Trials in Orlando had 349 starters-- they are very expensive to stage.  Organizers cannot use sponsors which conflict with any of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee sponsors, greatly limiting their potential sources of commercial revenue.  They also cannot collect entry fees from tens of thousands of runners like the big commercial marathons.  Schreiber addressed that with reporters today.

"It is a challenging event for a city to produce financially," Schreiber said plainly.  "We knew that fully, eyes wide open, going in.  That comes back to that community support we have in St. Louis.  In our bid process we had several partners come forward that made significant commitments.  It's not getting us the whole way there; we have a long way to go."

A big part of the cost of staging a Trials is transportation, housing, and meals for athletes.  USATF has not yet announced the "A" qualifying standard, the higher of two qualifying times which guarantees athletes that all of their expenses will be paid.  Only the lower "B" standard (2:16:00 for men and 2:37:00 for women) has been established.  Two hundred and seventy-three athletes (134 men and 139 women) have already achieved those standards.  It is not yet known how many of them will get their expenses paid.

Prize money, which totaled $600,000 in 2024, should be similar, officials said, but a final figure had not been worked out.

The Trials are much more than a race.  It's the most important gathering of American distance runners every Olympic cycle where athletes represent nearly every state.  It has live network coverage on NBC and makes a statement about where the United States is in the world of marathon running.  It also makes a statement about the host city.

"It's a big deal for us to grow the sport in St. Louis," Schreiber said.  "We have the chance to raise the profile of the sport of running, and raise the profile of the Greater St. Louis Marathon and GO! St. Louis, all that comes together to give us a push to go after this event."


PHOTO: The Gateway Arch in St. Louis (photo courtesy of USA Track & Field)