Sam Whitmarsh and Isaiah Harris finish a heat in the men’s 800-meter run during the U.S. Track and Field Olympic trials on June 27 in Eugene, Ore. Charlie Neibergall/Associated Press
Few sporting events are more cruel than the U.S. Olympic track and field trials.
Years of build-up with the hope of becoming an Olympian can be dashed by a few seconds, a subpar effort or not finishing in the top three of an event.
Two of Maine’s top candidates for making the Paris Games – 2021 Olympian Rachel (Schneider) Smith of Sanford and Isaiah Harris of Lewiston – felt the trials pain in Eugene, Oregon, last week.
On her Instagram page, Smith wrote, “It’s not lost on me what a gift it is to feel heartbroken by this sport again.”
Without a track and field competitor advancing, it appears Maine will not be represented at the Olympics in Paris, from July 26-Aug. 11.
In 2021, Smith and sailor David Hughes, a former Yarmouth resident and 1999 University of Southern Maine graduate, competed at the Tokyo Summer Games.
Clara Brown of Falmouth was a member of the U.S. Paralympic Games cycling contingent that also competed in Tokyo. Brown is seen as a strong candidate to make her second Paralympic Games team. The Paralympics will also be in Paris, from Aug. 28-Sept. 8. The U.S. Paralympic cycling trials will be held Friday and Saturday, with the team scheduled to be announced Saturday.
Smith, 32, who is sponsored by shoe company Hoka and lives in Flagstaff, Arizona, dropped out of Saturday night’s women’s 10,000 meters with less than seven laps to go after finishing ninth in the 5,000 meter finals earlier in the week.
Harris, 27, who lives in Seattle, was back at the trials after finishing fourth in the 2021 800 meters – one spot shy of making the Olympics. On Friday, he faced a different type of disappointment. He was eliminated in the semifinals of the 800, finishing third with a relatively slow time when a top-two finish guaranteed a spot in the final.
“Obviously I’m bummed. The goal was to make the Olympic team, and I didn’t even make the final,” Harris told LetsRun.com. “I feel I should be in the final. I’ve been in every single final since 2016, when I started doing this sport.”
On the first day of the trials, Harvard junior Victoria Bossong of Cumberland competed in round one of the women’s 800 meters. Bossong, who entered as the 24th seed among 36 competitors, was ninth in her heat, with the top six advancing to the semifinal. It was Bossong’s first trip to the U.S. Olympic Trials.
Smith and Harris have been among the top Americans in their events for several years. Smith was third at the 2021 Olympic trials and barely missed advancing to the Olympic final. Earlier this year, she won the USATF 15-kilometer road race title. Harris, a member of the 2017 U.S. World Championships team, has been ranked as high as No. 10 in the world in the 800 meters and had the Olympic time standard covered before this year’s trials.
But only the top three finishers at the trials can make the Olympic team (if they have the Olympic standard or the required world ranking). That means the likelihood of disappointment is great.
Harris, sponsored by Brooks and running for the Brooks Beasts Track Club, finished third in the first of three semifinals. The top two finishers in each semifinal plus the next three fastest times advanced to the final. Harris said he couldn’t find the extra surge needed in the final 100 meters and came across in 1:46.21, nearly two seconds slower than his personal best.
When the second semifinal was significantly faster (seven runners were faster than Harris), his Olympic hopes ended.
Smith, who made the Olympic team in 2021 in the 5,000 meters, reportedly suffered a hamstring strain in the lead-up to the trials. She also had been away from competition for most of 2022 and 2023, and didn’t race on the track at all during that time because of the birth of her daughter Nova in April 2023 and a miscarriage the year before. That left Smith well back in the world rankings and she did not have the Olympic standard in the 5,000 or 10,000 meters.
Saturday’s finals-only 10,000-meter race was Smith’s third on the Hayward Field track in nine days. Earlier in the trials she advanced in the heat races of the 5,000 meters on June 21, then finished ninth in the 5,000 final on Monday.
In the 10,000 meters, Smith ran in a tightly bunched lead pack for the first two-thirds of the 25-lap race, usually in sixth place with the eventual top three of winner Weini Kalati, 2024 NCAA champion Parker Valby, and 2021 Olympian Karissa Schweizer in front of her. When the pace picked up with eight laps to go, Smith did not respond, slipping to ninth. She pulled off the track with six-plus laps remaining, about 24 minutes into the race that Kalati won with a time of 31 minutes, 41.07 seconds.
“It’s been a really challenging 3 years since my last US Outdoor Champ start line and to get her feeling competitive and with a fighting chance to make another Olympic team was a victory in itself,” Smith wrote on Instagram, adding that just being able to compete was possible only because of her family, friends and sponsor. “I’ve really cherished getting to be back doing what I love with people that I love (and a daughter by our side being the biggest joy of all)!”
Smith, Harris and Bossong could not be reached Monday for comment.
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