World Athletics qualification system published for LA28 Olympic Games with tighter benchmarks

World Athletics has published its qualification system for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, detailing the qualification windows, total quota places per discipline, and its entry standards which have been raised notably. 

Rather than the previous 50/50 model, 40 percent of athletes are expected to qualify through entry standards and the remaining 60% through world rankings. 

If too many athletes meet the standard, only those with the best performances get selected up to the event's quota. In this case, no athletes will qualify via world rankings. 

Based on trends from the last 4 major championships, performance levels and expected improvements were all factored in to determine the entry standards, which also take into account the events where trends clearly require higher entry standards for the future than those used for past championships. This includes the marathon, where trends show that in an Olympic year, times are between 30 to 60 seconds faster than the trends would forecast. 

The men’s marathon standard has been lowered from 2:08:10 to 2:05:00, more than three ​minutes quicker than the Paris benchmark, and World Athletics tightened the women's requirement from 2:26:50 to 2:22:20. 

In the men's 5,000 metres, the standard was cut from 13:05 to 12:50, while the women's equivalent fell from ​14:52 to 14:34. 

The men's 1,500m standard reduced from 3:33.50 to 3:30.00 and the women's from 4:02.50 to 3:57.50. 

Regarding sprint events, the men's 100m standard dropped ​from 10.00 seconds to 9.93, while the women's mark was cut from 11.07 to 10.96. 

The 4x100m mixed relay will be making its Olympic debut in 2028 too. 

Further information can be found on the World Athletics website here.  

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