U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials unveil huge prize pool

We are less than a week away from one of the most exciting pre-Olympic qualification events: the 2024 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials (on Feb. 3). Not only will the top three men and women have the opportunity to represent Team USA in the marathon at the 2024 Paris Olympics, they will also share a large portion of the USD $600,000 prize pool.

The winners of the men’s and women’s races will each take home $80,000, while the second and third-place finishers will receive prizes of $65,000 and $55,000, respectively. The total prize purse for Orlando 2024 has increased by $120,000 from the $480,000 that was at stake in the 2020 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in Atlanta four years ago.

Beyond the top three, the prize money is distributed as follows: $25,000, $20,000, $15,000, $13,000, $11,000, and $9,000 for the fourth through ninth positions. The 10th-place finisher will receive $7,000. The 2024 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials will be broadcast live on Saturday, Feb. 3, at 10 a.m. ET on Peacock, with additional coverage on NBC at noon from Orlando. The NBC broadcast will also stream on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app (subscription required).

Last year, USATF and the City of Orlando organizing committee faced some criticism when they initially announced the race would start at noon. Eventually, after pressure from athletes and coaches who were concerned about the heat, the start time was adjusted to 10:10 a.m. ET for the men and 10:20 a.m. for the women. There was also some scrutiny for not announcing prize money earlier. In previous editions, the prize purse was released at least a year before the event.

According to a Runners World article, agents and coaches had feared that the lack of news about the prize purse indicated a potential reduction in payouts for top finishers compared to previous years, but that proved not to be the case.

More than 225 men and 173 women qualified for the 2024 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. However, the total number of participants will be lower, since only 380 have registered. Since the registration deadline, several qualified athletes have withdrawn due to injury or for other reasons.

posted Tuesday January 30th
by Marley Dickinson