Steve Roland "Pre" Prefontaine was an American long-distance runner who competed in the 1972 Summer Olympics. While running for the Oregon Track Club, Prefontaine set American records at every distance from 2,000 to 10,000 meters, as he prepared for the 1976 Olympics. Prefontaine's career, alongside those of Jim Ryun, Frank Shorter, and Bill Rodgers, generated considerable media coverage, which helped inspire the 1970s "running boom." He died at age 24 in an automobile accident near his residence in Eugene, Oregon. One of the premier track meets in the world, the Prefontaine Classic, is held annually in Eugene in his honor. Prefontaine's celebrity and charisma later resulted in two 1990s feature films about his short life.
USA Track & Field (USATF) is the United States national governing body for the sports of track and field, cross country running, road running and racewalking. The USATF was known between 1979 and 1992 as The Athletics Congress (TAC) after its spin off from the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), which governed the sport in the US through most of the 20th century until the Amateur Sports Act of 1978 dissolved its responsibility. Based in Indianapolis, USATF is a non-profit organization with a membership of nearly 130,000. The organization has three key leadership positions: CEO Max Siegel, Board of Directors Chair Steve Miller, and elected President Vin Lananna.
Reynaud Syverne "Rey" Robinson is a former American athlete, one of the world's top sprinters in the early 1970s.
Daniel Dion O'Brien is an American former decathlete and Olympic gold medalist. He won the Olympic title in 1996, three consecutive world championships, and set the world record in 1992.
Hayward Field is a track and field stadium in the northwest United States, located on the campus of the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon. It has been the home of the university's track and field teams since 1921, and was the on-campus home of the varsity football team from 1919 through 1966. Track and field competitions at the stadium are organized by the not-for-profit organization TrackTown USA.
George L. Young is an American former track athlete and college coach. He won a bronze medal at the 1968 Summer Olympics in the 3000 meter steeplechase and held several American records in events ranging from the two mile to the 5000 meter race. He broke two world records, in the indoor two and three mile events.
Nicholas Boone Symmonds is a retired American middle-distance track athlete, from Boise, Idaho, specializing in the 800 meters and 1500 meters distances. Symmonds signed with Brooks Running in January 2014 after a 7-year sponsorship with Nike. In college at Willamette University he won seven NCAA Division III titles in outdoor track. Symmonds is a 6-time US National 800 meters champion. He has competed in the 800m at two Olympic Games, reaching the semi-finals in Beijing 2008, while in London 2012, he finished fifth in the final, running a personal best of 1:42.95 behind David Rudisha's world record. He won a silver medal in the 800 meters at the 2013 World Championships, having previously finished sixth in the 2009 final and fifth in 2011.
The USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships is an annual track and field competition organized by USA Track & Field, which serves as the American national championships for the sport. Since the year 1992, in the years which feature a Summer Olympics, World Athletics Championships or an IAAF Continental Cup, the championships serve as a way of selecting the best athletes for those competitions.
The United States Olympic trials for the sport of track and field is the quadrennial meet to select the United States representatives at the Olympic Games. Since 1992, the meet has also served as the year's USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Because of the depth of competition in some events, this has been considered by many to be the best track meet in the world. The event is regularly shown on domestic U.S. Television and covered by a thousand members of the worldwide media. As with all Olympic sports, the meet is conducted by the national governing body for the sport, currently USA Track & Field (USATF), which was previously named The Athletics Congress (TAC) until 1992. Previous to the formation of TAC in 1979, the national governing body for most sports was the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU).
The Oregon Ducks track and field program is the intercollegiate track and field team for the University of Oregon located in the U.S. state of Oregon. The team competes at the NCAA Division I level and is a member of the Pac-12 Conference. The team participates in indoor and outdoor track and field as well as cross country. Known as the Ducks, Oregon's first track and field team was fielded in 1895. The team holds its home meets at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon. Robert Johnson is the current head coach and since the program's inception in 1895, there have only been seven permanent head coaches. The Ducks claim 32 NCAA National Championships among the three disciplines.
Kelly Blair LaBounty is a retired American track and field Olympic athlete.
The 2008 United States Olympic trials for track and field were held at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon. Organised by USA Track and Field, the ten-day competition lasted from June 27 until July 8 and served as the national championships in track and field for the United States.
Mary Cecilia Cain is an American professional middle distance runner from Bronxville, New York. Cain was the 2014 World Junior Champion in the 3000 meter event. She is the youngest American athlete ever to represent the United States at a track and field World Championships meet after competing in the 2013 World Championships in Athletics in Moscow aged 17 and 3 months.
Albert Ralph Spearow was an American pole vaulter. He placed 6th in his speciality at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris; later that year, he exceeded Charles Hoff's world record in Tokyo, but his mark was never ratified.
Grant Fisher is a Canadian-born American distance runner. As a high-schooler, he was named Gatorade Player of the Year for cross country for the 2013–2014 and 2014–2015 seasons. He committed to Stanford University on November 16, 2014. On June 4, 2015, he became the seventh American high school student to run a mile under four minutes. Fisher represented the United States at the 2014 World Junior Championships in Athletics in the 1500-meter race.
The 2022 World Athletics Championships, the eighteenth edition of the World Athletics Championships, are scheduled to be held in 2022 in Eugene, Oregon, United States. It was originally scheduled for August 6–15, 2021. However, the postponement of the 2020 Summer Olympics prompted the need for postponement into 2022. On April 8, 2020, World Athletics announced that the event would take place from July 15–24, 2022.
The 1932 United States Olympic trials for track and field were held on July 15 and July 16, 1932 and decided the United States team for the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The trials for men and women were held separately; men competed in Stanford Stadium in Stanford, California, while women competed in Dyche Stadium in Evanston, Illinois. Both meetings also served as the annual United States outdoor track and field championships. For the first time, only the top three athletes in each event qualified for the Olympics; until 1928, every nation had been allowed four entrants per event.
The 1980 United States Olympic trials for track and field were held at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon. These were the first such trials organized by the new national governing body for the sport of track and field, The Athletics Congress formed one year earlier as required by the Amateur Sports Act of 1978. Previous trials had been organized by the AAU. The eight-day competition lasted from June 21 until June 29.
The 1976 United States Olympic trials for track and field were held June 19–27 at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon. These were the last organized by the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU); the Amateur Sports Act of 1978 was passed two years later which formed the new national governing body for the sport of track and field, The Athletics Congress. The 1970s was a transitional period where amateur athletes were seeking ways to be paid for their athletic efforts. Many athletes had sacrificed their eligibility to run professionally, others made the attempt and were in transition to regain their amateur status.
1989 World Masters Athletics Championships is the eighth in a series of World Masters Athletics Outdoor Championships that took place from 27 July to 6 August, 1989, in Eugene, Oregon, known as the "Track Capital of the World" and as TrackTown USA. Athletes from the Soviet Union participated for the first time in this series.
