The road to LA28 just narrowed and heated up. Over 10,000 runners attacked the 26.2 miles from Folsom to Sacramento at the California International Marathon, where the fastest found more than a finish line. Well over a hundred athletes left with something bigger, a place in the next Olympic trials. Let’s break down what made this race a turning point.

A total of 107 athletes strengthened the 2028 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials field at the California International Marathon, with 52 American men meeting the 2:16:00 standard and 55 women running under 2:37:00. Futsum Zienasellassie led the men in 2:09:29, while Molly Born topped the women’s division with a 2:24:09 finish. This shift follows the reinstatement of the ‘A’ and ‘B’ standards after the Paris Olympics, reshaping how athletes qualify for the Trials.

What does it mean?

Athletes who meet the ‘A’ standard will receive travel funding to the Olympic Trials, an amount that will be finalized later with the local organizing committee. In contrast, athletes who meet the ‘B’ standard will not receive funding but will be guaranteed entry into the Trials. For the women, the ‘B’ standard remains 2:37:00 for the marathon or 1:12:00 for the half-marathon.

For men, the ‘B’ standard is now 2:16:00, two minutes faster than the 2024 timings, or 1:03:00 for the half-marathon. Last year, 139 of the 220 male qualifiers ran under 2:16:00. Regardless, all the qualifying marks will be verified using chip time instead of the gun time. The qualification for the marathon opens on September 1, 2025, and will close 45–60 days before the Trials once the host city and date are finalized.

Athletes who have competed on the last three U.S. Olympic marathon teams will automatically have the ‘A’ standard. In addition to that, the ‘A’ standard will also be offered to the 2025, 2026, and 2027 U.S. Marathon champions and the 2025 and 2027 World Championship marathon teams. With the competition set to be stiff, let’s have a look at the rules.

Eligibility criteria for the LA28 marathon trials

Rule 8 remains in effect; athletes stay eligible if they have:
• earned an individual Olympic or World Athletics Championship medal,
• won a U.S. Marathon Championship, or
• secured a U.S. Olympic team selection.

At the 2024 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in Orlando, 117 women and 150 men finished the race, while 33 women and 50 men did not due to tough conditions.

The tighter 2024 qualifying standards drastically reduced the field:
• Women dropped from 512 qualifiers (2020) to 173 (2024) when the standard shifted from 2:45 to 2:37.
• Men fell from 260 to 227 after the change from 2:19 to 2:18.

The major shift extended into this year’s men’s field as well, yet participation remains impressively strong.

Since World Athletics has not yet released the Olympic qualifying standards for LA28, the Paris 2024 marks — 2:08:10 for men and 2:26:50 for women — serve as the latest benchmark. The date and venue for the trials will be announced soon, but what’s already clear is that the competition is shaping up to be incredibly intense.