Qualifying Standards

The Sport Committee Chair will, and only where necessary, adjust the standards no later than 45 days prior to the competition, based on entries received up to that time.

As required, USATF may have no “Automatic” standard that is superior to the Olympic / World“A” standard.

The Men’s and Women’s T&F Chairs will handle all entry appeals.

There is NO LATE ENTRY to the Championships.

For each event, the Maximum field size and number of rounds are shown.

All verified entries who have met the “Automatic” standard within the prescribed period and at a bona fide meet (see guidelines below), shall be qualified. Additional verified entries from the rank order list, of those who have entered and declared may be invited to participate in the USATF Outdoor Championships; only to the extent that the indicated field size has not been filled by those with the “Automatic” standard. Additional athletes may be accepted based on Verified, Declared entries in their performance rank order.
 

2023 QUALIFYING GUIDELINES

1. All qualifying performances for the Championships must be attained during the following time periods:
   1. 10,000 meters, 20km Race Walk, & Combined Events: Monday, January 31, 2022 – Sunday, June 25, 2023
   2. All other events: Thursday, June 23, 2022 – Sunday, June 25, 2023
2. Qualifying marks must be made in accordance with USATF Rule 149 and verifiable in one of the following:
   1. USATF Sanctioned events
   2. Events which are included on the World Athletics Global Calendar
   3. Marks that are recognized by World Athletics for their statistical purposes
3. Hand times are acceptable only for those events in which the distance is greater than 800 meters. No timing allowance factor for qualifying shall be made for hand times. Hand times will be adjusted using USATF Rule 166.7 for the purposes of seeding.
4. Wind-assisted performances will not be accepted for 2023 USATF Outdoor Championships qualifying (maximum allowable wind is 2.0m/s).
5.  There will be no adjustment for marks made at altitude.
6. Qualifying marks must be attained in a 2023 USATF Outdoor Championships event. No qualifying marks will be allowed using alternate events, except for the Mile run as follows: An appeal to use a Mile qualifying mark for the 1,500m will be accepted only if the mile mark was made during the 2023 season, from Wednesday, December 1, 2022 through Sunday, June 25, 2023, and the mark is 3:54.00 or better (men) and 4:24.25 (women).
7. An Athlete must be U.S. citizen and eligible to represent the United States in international competition, as well as being a U.S. citizen on the date of Declaration for the 2023 USATF Outdoor Championships in that event.
8. Athletes who have earned Automatic Qualification into the meet under USATF Rule 8 must follow all entry procedures, and declaration procedures, and will be counted in that event’s field sizes by the seeding committee.
9. At the USATF Outdoor Championships, the mark used for qualifying and the mark used for first round seeding might not be the same, as described per USATF Rule 166.2.(d).i. Each qualified entrant in each event should submit a 2023 season best (December 1, 2022 – June 25, 2023) performance, if one exists, whether it meets the qualifying standard or not. Seeding for the first round of competition is based, first, on all 2023 season performances in rank order, followed by any 2022 season performances, even if they do not meet the qualifying standard (Rule 166-2.(d) i ). Note that a 2022 season mark may qualify an individual into the competition, but will not be used for seeding purposes when a 2023 season mark exists.