Olympic champion Athing Mu’s hopes for a repeat came crashing down on the first lap of the 800m final at the US Olympic trials on Monday.
Racing in the middle of the pack, Mu tangled with a bunched group of runners and went crashing to the ground before rolling on to her back. She got back to her feet and finished the race, but was more than 22 seconds behind the winner, Nia Akins, who took first place with a time of 1 minute 57.36 seconds.
The 22-year-old Mu was choking back tears as she headed quickly off the track and through the tunnel after the race. She did not immediately come through the media area for interviews.
The Olympic trials were Mu’s first meet of the year after dealing with injuries all season. She looked to be in good form in her first two rounds, but was out of the running in the final before the first 200m.
It was Exhibit A of the unforgiving format of the US trials, where the top three finishers make the Olympic team and past performances mean nothing. Mu could still go to Paris as part of the US relay pool; she was a key part of America’s gold-medal win in the 4x400m three years ago in Tokyo.
After winning college, national, world and Olympic championships all before turning 21, Mu won a bronze medal at worlds last year and, afterward, conceded she needed a break from the pressure and demands that come with being tagged as one of track’s new stars.
“For sure, I wasn’t really happy to be there,” she told the Guardian when asked about her 2023 season. “Mentally, I just wasn’t really there. I just wasn’t present. I didn’t appreciate being there. I didn’t really enjoy what was happening to me.”
She has dominated the 800m thanks, in part, to a long, loping stride, and that may be what cost her in a race in which she came in as the favorite. Mu was racing on the outside in a tightly bunched pack and looked to be veering to her left toward Juliette Whitaker when she tripped, leaving three runners behind her flailing as they jumped over her.
Mu is hardly the first athlete to suffer such misfortune. One of the more memorable and heartbreaking moments came eight years ago in the same event, when Alysia Montano, looking to return to the Olympics, was tripped up in the homestretch and stayed down on the track crying.
There was drama elsewhere on a busy night that included six finals.
The women’s 5000m came down to a 0.02sec difference with Elle St Pierre finishing in 14:40.34, just ahead of Elise Cranny. Both are going to the Olympics.
Vashti Cunningham, who had a combined 13 straight US indoor and outdoor titles coming into the week, won a jump-off for third to make her third Olympic team.
Meanwhile, 16-year-old Quincy Wilson finished sixth in the 400m final with a time of 44.94, his third sub-45 race in three tries at the trials.
Now, he will wait to see if the US track team calls on him to be part of the relay pool.
“All I know is I gave everything I had,” he said. “I can’t be too disappointed. I’m 16, and I’m running grown-man times.”
