Nia Akins Dominates Women’s 800 at 2024 Olympic Trials after Athing Mu Falls & Misses Team
Allie Wilson & collegian Juliette Whittaker rounded out the team after Mu's devastating fall at the 200m mark
By Jonathan Gault
EUGENE, Ore. — The US Olympic Trials are meant to be fair. If you have the standard and finish in the top three in the final, you are on the Olympic team. No byes, no politicking. The team is picked on the track.
But the Olympic Trials are not always fair, because life is not always fair. And the women’s 800-meter final at the Trials seems especially cursed.
It was not fair in 2016 when Alysia Montaño fell on the final turn. It was not fair in 2021 when Nia Akins fell on the back straight. And it was certainly not fair on Monday night, when Athing Mu, trying to move inside while taking a quick look to her left at the 200-meter mark, fell to the track, her dreams of becoming the first woman to repeat as Olympic 800m champion tumbling away before she could even make it to the bell lap at Hayward Field, let along Paris.
That is the moment that will forever define this final, and that is not fair either. Not fair to Akins who, three years after her own fall, ran a brilliant personal best of 1:57.36 to win her second straight US title and stamp herself as a medal contender in Paris. Not fair to Allie Wilson, who made her first Olympic team at age 28 after taking a huge risk entering 2024. Not fair to the precocious Stanford sophomore Juliette Whittaker, an Olympian age 20. Certainly not fair to Sage Hurta-Klecker, who endured her own fall in the semi-finals at the 2021 Trials (picking up a broken wrist for her trouble). Hurta-Klecker lost so much momentum dodging Mu during her fall tonight that she found herself forced to the infield and eight meters behind the pack by the time she stepped back onto the track.
That is the women’s 800. It is nine women, all running just a bit below top speed, all often trying to occupy the same few square meters of real estate. Falls are bound to happen now and then. For some unfortunate reason, they seem to have been concentrated in the Olympic Trials final.
“Both then and now, what happened, just unfair,” said Akins, reflecting on the low of her 2021 experience and the high of her 2024 victory. “It’s the sport. Crazy and unpredictable.”
Results
| PLACE | ATHLETE | SPONSOR | RESULT | PB/SB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nia Akins | BROOKS Beasts TC | 1:57.36 | PB |
| 2 | Allie Wilson | NIKE | 1:58.32 | SB |
| 3 | Juliette Whittaker | Stanford | 1:58.45 | PB |
| 4 | Michaela Rose | LSU | 1:59.32 | |
| 5 | Sage Hurta-Klecker | OAC | 2:00.38 | |
| 6 | Kristie Schoffield | New Balance | 2:01.04 | |
| 7 | Raevyn Rogers | NIKE/Nike Union AC | 2:01.12 | |
| 8 | Kate Grace | NIKE | 2:02.37 | |
| 9 | Athing Mu | NIKE | 2:19.69 |
A fall in a race like this has long been Mu’s personal nightmare. At 5’10”, Mu is one of the taller runners in her event, and while her stride is gorgeous to watch in full flight, smooth and fluid, her long limbs make her vulnerable to a fall. For much of her career, Mu has been so much better than her competition that she can can comfortably get to the front of the race and stay out of trouble. But even then, the fear of falling remained. Mu runs extra distance on the outside of lane 1 on turns because she believes it makes her less likely to be tripped from behind.
Kevin Morris photo
But Mu went down before she could even get to the lead tonight, and though she picked herself up as soon as she could, the gap was simply too large. Mu hit 400 in 60.27, more than two seconds behind leader Michaela Rose of LSU (57.68) and jogged it in over the final 200 once she realized there was no coming back. Mu finished last in 2:19.69, leaving the track in tears.
Mu is not entered in the 1500 at the Trials and while a relay spot in the 4 x 400 or mixed 4 x 400 is possible, neither is likely. And while Mu was no lock to make the team tonight — she looked shaky in the semis after missing significant time this spring due to an April hamstring injury and said she only resumed running a couple of weeks before the Trials — the sad thing is that we will never know. One of America’s biggest track stars, photographed in her Team USA kit on the cover of this month’s Sports Illustrated, will almost certainly have to wait four years for her next Olympic chance.
While Akins’ heart went out to Mu afterwards, her mind was focused squarely on racing tonight, to the point where she did not even know it was Mu who fell when it happened.
“I just knew somebody went down,” Akins said. “I was tunnel-vision, focused on just finishing the race.”
Akins had to adjust her path only slightly when Mu fell, quickly sliding to the outside and back in again to dodge the carnage, then stalked Rose and passed her into the lead with 240 meters to go. Akins had looked vulnerable in Sunday’s semifinals, finishing second in her heat behind Wilson, but she was at her best when it mattered most. Her final 200 of 29.85 was tops in the field and earned her a dominant winning margin of .96.
“This was the race I cared about the most,” Akins said, who by winning the Trials became the first US Olympian to represent the Brooks Beasts.
Kevin Morris photo
While Akins, a 2020 Penn grad, was free and clear in the home straight, the battle for the final two spots for Paris was far from over, with noted front-runner Rose leading Whittaker and Wilson with 100 meters to go. Just as at the NCAA indoor championships in March, Rose found herself passed by a charging Whittaker on the outside in the home straight. With Rose guarding the rail, Wilson went even wider and passed Rose and then Whittaker in the final 50. Wilson took 2nd in 1:58.32 with the NCAA indoor/outdoor champion Whittaker 3rd in 1:58.45, a personal best and Olympic standard, to boot.
The result was further validation for Wilson, who gave up her contract with the Atlanta Track Club and moved to Indianapolis last winter to continue training with former ATC coach Andrew Begley, who was let go at the end of 2023. Wilson spent a couple of months nannying to make ends meet but landed a shoe deal with Nike after winning the US indoor title in February. One suspects she earned a nice bonus tonight for clinching a spot on the team to Paris. 6th at the Trials in 2021, 4th at USAs in 2022, and eliminated in the semifinals last year, Wilson is an Olympian, now and forever.
“Moving and changing my entire situation was really scary but the reason I did it was because it was such an important time and I didn’t feel like it was right to switch my coaching coming into an Olympic year,” Wilson said. “I trust my coach whole-heartedly.”
If the 2024 Trials signalled a changing of the guard, with US stalwart Ajee’ Wilson failing to make the final, 2021 Olympic medalist Raevyn Rogers just 7th (2:01.12) and 2016 Trials champ Kate Grace 8th (2:02.37), then it was Whittaker who carried the flag for the new generation. Whittaker graduated from Mount de Sales (Md.) Academy in 2022 as the US high school record holder at 1:59.04 and later that summer earned a bronze medal at the World U20 championships in Colombia. She did not make last year’s NCAA outdoor meet after switching to the 1500, but has been phenomenal in the big races this year, winning NCAAs indoors and outdoors in the 800 and running a personal best 1:58.45 tonight (and dipping under the 1:59.30 Olympic standard in the process).
Most athletes are sad when they miss an Olympic team, but Hurta-Klecker felt a different emotion after crossing the finish line: anger. Aside from Mu, no one in the field was affected by the fall as much as Hurta-Klecker, whose 58.54 first lap felt faster given how she was forced to regain her momentum.
“It was a hard 58 first lap with that kind of excitement in the middle,” Hurta-Klecker said. “I’m really pissed how that played out…I think it would have been a little bit of a different story [without the fall]. It was hard feeling like out so far behind the leaders when the kicking started going.”
It is a zero-sum game. Akins was so good tonight that she would have made the team under any scenario. But without Mu’s fall, would Hurta-Klecker and Mu have displaced Wilson and Whittaker? It’s not fair that they’ll have to deal with that hypothetical for the rest of their careers. But that’s the Trials.
Nia Akins post-race interview
Allie Wilson post-race interview
Juliette Whittaker post-race interview
Michaela Rose post-race interview
Sage Hurta-Klecker post-race interview
Discuss this race on the LetsRun messageboard:
MB Athing Mu’s fall: Who was in the wrong?
MB Prediction: Athing Mu Never Races Again
MB JJ Clark, 800 Meter SuperCoach
MB Athing should be DQd
MB ATHING MU was TRIPPED a solo RERUN is NEEDED
