1997_USA_Outdoor_Track_and_Field_Championships
1997 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships
International athletics championship event
The 1997 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships was organised by USA Track & Field and held from June 20 to 24 at the IU Michael A. Carroll Track & Soccer Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana. The four-day competition served as the national championships in track and field for the United States and also the trials for the 1997 World Championships in Athletics in Athens, Greece.
It was the third time that the stadium in Indianapolis had held the combined gender national track and field event. The USA Junior Championships were held in conjunction with the event.
Athletes that finished in the top three of their event and held the IAAF qualifying standard were eligible to represent the United States at the 1997 World Championships. The United States was able to send three athletes per event to the competition, provided they all met the A qualification standard. In addition, this was the first year to also allow the reigning world champions an automatic qualification separate from the national selection. That new rule was essentially created to allow Michael Johnson to qualify even though at the time of these championships he was unable to compete (and thus qualify) due to the injury he received in the Bailey–Johnson 150-metre race just two weeks earlier. Johnson did recover in time for the World Championships and did successfully defend his world championship. The World Championships national selection for the marathon and 50 kilometres walk were incorporated into the discrete national championship meets for those events. Selection for the relay races were made by committee.
Five Americans went on to win an individual gold medal at the 1997 World Championships; Johnson, Maurice Greene, Allen Johnson, John Godina and Marion Jones. In addition USA won the Women's 4 × 100 metres relay, and took silver in the 4 × 400 metres relay. The Men's 4 × 400 metres relay crossed the finish line in first, but was disqualified in 2009 following the admission of long term doping by Antonio Pettigrew.