World Athletics Sets Tougher Entry Standards for the LA 2028 Olympics

The road to the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games just got steeper for the world's track and field athletes. World Athletics published the qualification system for the athletics competition on Tuesday, November 10, and the headline is simple: the entry standards are faster, and world rankings will carry more weight than they did for Paris.

The athletics program at LA28 is scheduled for July 15 to 30, 2028, with the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum hosting the main track and field action, according to World Athletics and Reuters.

A New Split Between Standards and Rankings

For the Paris 2024 Games, qualification was split roughly evenly between athletes who hit an entry standard and those who earned places through world rankings. For Los Angeles, World Athletics said about 40% of athletes are expected to qualify through entry standards and the remaining 60% through world rankings.

The governing body added an important caveat. Hitting the standard does not automatically guarantee a spot. If more athletes reach the standard than there are quota places in an event, qualification will go to those with the best performances during the qualification period, and in that case nobody will qualify through the rankings.

The Biggest Changes

Reuters reported that the toughest increases came in the endurance events. The men's marathon standard drops from 2:08:10 for Paris to 2:05:00, more than three minutes quicker, while the women's mark tightens from 2:26:50 to 2:22:20.

In the men's 5,000 meters, the standard falls from 13:05 to 12:50, and the women's equivalent moves from 14:52 to 14:34. Middle distance runners face steeper targets as well, with the men's 1,500 meters cut from 3:33.50 to 3:30.00 and the women's from 4:02.50 to 3:57.50.

Sprinters are not spared. The men's 100 meters standard drops from 10.00 seconds to 9.93, and the women's from 11.07 to 10.96, according to Reuters. In the published table, the men's 200 meters standard is 19.95 and the women's is 22.25.

Field Event Marks

In the field events, World Athletics lists a men's high jump standard of 2.32 meters and a women's mark of 1.97 meters. The pole vault standards are 5.90 meters for men and 4.80 meters for women, and the long jump marks are 8.30 meters and 6.90 meters. The decathlon standard is 8,650 points and the heptathlon mark is 6,550.

How the Standards Were Set

World Athletics said it used the qualification periods of the last four global championships, the World Championships in 2022, 2023 and 2025 and the Paris Olympics in 2024, as references. It built top lists limited to three athletes per country, then factored in performance trends and expected improvements.

The body singled out the marathon, saying trends show times in an Olympic year are between 30 and 60 seconds faster than the trends would forecast.

Key Dates for Athletes

The marathon qualification window opened on November 1, 2026, and runs through April 30, 2028. For the 10,000 meters, combined events, race walks and relays, the window runs from December 19, 2026, to June 18, 2028. For all other events, it runs from June 19, 2027, to June 18, 2028.

There are automatic routes, too. The first 14 national teams at the World Athletics Relays in the Bahamas on April 22 and 23, 2028, will qualify for LA28 in each relay, and the top 12 at the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships in Hefei, China, on April 9, 2028, will earn places in the half marathon race walk.

The program will include 23 women's events, 23 men's events and two mixed relays. The 4x100 meters mixed relay will make its Olympic debut in Los Angeles, alongside the 4x400 meters mixed relay.

What It Means

The message from World Athletics is that the Olympics will reward athletes who compete often and well over a long window, not only those who produce one big mark. For distance runners in particular, the new marathon standard puts Olympic qualification by time alone within reach of very few, making rankings and major marathon results more important than ever.

World Athletics said it will publish its Road to LA qualification tracker on its website in the latter part of 2027.