Hello everyone and welcome to Kicking For Home’s Guide to Eugene, your home for everything U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials. Today marks the start of Ten Newsletters in Ten Days, one newsletter for every day of competition. Every day, I will break down the schedule, determine the Race of the day, discuss big news and headlines of the past day's events (which won’t be in today’s newsletter), and finally, I will give you some athletes to watch for. I will also make sure you know how to watch the day’s action. 

The Schedule of Day One:

Rotd=Race of the day 

All times in PDT

Decathlon: Men’s 100m at 10:00 am (Noon CDT)

Qualifying: Women’s Hammer Throw at 11:00 am (1:00 pm CDT)

Decathlon: Men’s Long Jump at 11:01 am (1:01 pm CDT)

Decathlon: Men’s Shot Put at 12:11 pm (2:11 pm CDT)

Round One: Men’s 400m at 3:20 pm (5:20 pm CDT)

Qualifying: Men’s Javelin Throw at 3:30 pm (5:30 pm CDT)

Round One: Women’s 400m at 3:48 pm (5:48 pm CDT)

Round One: Women’s 800m at 4:17 pm (6:17 pm CDT)

Decathlon: Men’s High Jump at 4:30 pm (6:30 pm CDT)

Round One: Men’s Steeplechase at 4:49 pm (6:49 pm CDT)

Round One: Men’s 1500m at 5:22 pm (7:22 pm CDT)

Qualifying: Men’s Pole Vault at 5:50 pm (7:50 pm CDT)

Round One: Women’s 100m at 5:53 pm (7:53 pm CDT)

Qualifying: Men’s Shot Put at 6:15 pm (8:15 pm CDT)

Round One: Women’s 5000m at 6:22 pm (8:22 pm CDT)

Qualifying: Women’s Triple Jump at 6:50 pm (8:50 pm CDT)

Decathlon: Heats of Men’s 400m at 7:05 pm (9:05 pm CDT)

Rotd/Final: Men’s 10000m at 7:27 pm (9:27 pm CDT)

The Race of The Day

The race of the day today is the Men’s 10000m Final, and this race is going to be great. It is the first Final in this competition and the only one of the day that will end with people securing their spot in Paris. Another thing that will make this even better is how fast the people are in this race. For Example, the top ten fastest times are all within one minute, and the top three are spread out by less than five seconds. In this race there are multiple college athletes one of which being the incredible runner, Nico Young of Northern Arizona, who ran 26:52.72 which is good for the second-fastest time in the field by .7 seconds. Another college runner I would like to mention is Chandler Gibbens a runner for Kansas, who I am mentioning because he went to my high school. This race will be great and certainly one you need to watch. 

Athlete Spotlight  

Athing Mu

Athing Mu is the reigning Olympic Champion in the 800m and today is the start of her title defense. Mu will be competing in the first round of the 800m, an event where she holds the fastest-seeded time by three seconds! Her path because of this and her incredible fitness, is somewhat made easier because everyone is looking to her and she almost always calls the shots. For these reasons and just for the fact that she is so fun to watch, is why you need to watch her today. 

Parker Valby

Parker Valby being among the other two on this list is a non-negotiable because she is so good. If you haven’t heard of Valby before, she was an incredible NCAA standout at Florida winning multiple NCAA titles and breaking records while doing so. She is also such an entertaining runner. Valby is definitely a runner you need to watch for and if you would like to more about why you need to watch her or the runner come read my newsletter from yesterday. 

Yared Nuguse

Yared Nuguse is the best American middle-distance runner in the U.S. right now and today he will begin his quest of trying to win an Olympic title. Today, he will be competing in the 1500m prelims, where he, like Mu, will have a somewhat easy path to the final. Eventhough, it may be easy, that along with Nuguse running the 5000m as well is one to watch for. 

How to watch

TV: USA Network: 3:30-6:00 pm PDT (5:30-8:00 pm CDT), NBC: 6:00-8:00 pm PDT (8:00-10:00 pm CDT)

Streaming: Peacock