Matthew Centrowitz Withdraws from 2024 Olympic Trials Due to Hamstring Injury
The 2016 Olympic 1500m champion had been seeking to make a fourth straight Olympic team
By Jonathan Gault
EUGENE, Ore. — 2016 Olympic 1500-meter champion Matthew Centrowitz withdrew from the 2024 Olympic Trials on Thursday night, officially ending the 34-year-old’s dream of qualifying for a fourth Olympic team.
Centrowitz’s longtime agent Ricky Simms told LetsRun.com that Centrowitz injured his hamstring three days before last month’s Prefontaine Classic. Centrowitz withdrew from that meet and the NYC Grand Prix on June 9 but retained some hope that the injury might improve ahead of the Olympic Trials, where the men’s 1500 meters begins today. Centrowitz traveled to Eugene but ultimately opted to withdraw after giving it one last go on Thursday.
“He’s able to run but he hasn’t had any workouts,” Simms said. “…This thing won’t let him do the quality work he needs to do to be competitive. If he was 85% or even 90% he’d try. He tried to do some strides yesterday, but it’s just not letting him go.”
Simms did not say whether Centrowitz would compete again in 2024 or whether this would affect Centrowitz’s plans to retire from professional running at the end of the season.
“We haven’t discussed that yet,” Simms said. “This was a big one.”
Kevin Morris photo
Centrowitz made his first Olympic team as a 22-year-old in 2012 and finished 4th at those Olympics in London. He won the Trials in 2016 and went on to win the United States’ first Olympic 1500m gold medal in 108 years a month later in Rio de Janeiro. Centrowitz made his third team in 2021, finishing second at the Trials after a memorable home-straight duel with Cole Hocker. He failed to make the Olympic final that year in Tokyo.
Centrowitz was the most successful American miler of his generation, winning five US outdoor titles (2011, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018), two World Championship medals (2011 bronze, 2013 silver), and the 2016 World Indoor title in addition to his Olympic gold. He made eight straight US World/Olympic teams from 2011-21 but missed the entire 2022 season due to a torn ACL.
He returned to racing in 2023 and finished 10th in the US final, and had been making progress in 2024 before the Trials. His 3:35.16 at the LA Grand Prix on May 18 was his fastest time since the 2021 Olympic semifinals. Getting the chance to compete for a fourth Olympic team in Eugene would have been a fitting farewell for the University of Oregon alum. But the badly-timed hamstring injury ultimately denied one of America’s greatest ever distance runners the chance to show his quality one last time.
“He was training right up until this,” Simms said. “But it’s pulling when he runs at race pace so he just made the decision that he can’t do himself justice.”
Centrowitz posted the following statement on his Instagram story on Friday morning:
