She Ran the Olympic Marathon Trials Qualifying Time, But She Can’t Compete in Atlanta

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Erin Gregoire crossed the finish line of the Houston Marathon, looked at her watch, and smiled. In her debut at the distance, she ran 2:42:55—well under the qualifying time of 2:45:00 she needed for the Olympic Marathon Trials. In what has become a complex case, however, Gregoire was denied entry into the Trials, because the differential between her gun time (2:54:54) and chip time (her 2:42:55) was too large. And the day of the Houston Marathon (January 19) was the final day of qualifying, so it was her last shot at getting into the race. “Obviously it was an incredible experience to just get to run the marathon, but I knew in the back of my head that the [Olympic Trials qualifier] was what I wanted,” Gregoire told Runner’s World. “To get that, and then in some sense feel like it was taken away from me, it was heartbreaking.”

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When determining who makes it into the Trials, USA Track & Field officials, who govern the sport, considered only gun times. They only looked at chip times or “net times” if those times were “extremely close” to the qualifying standards.

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But Gregoire, 22, had nearly 12 minutes between her gun time and her chip time—not close enough for USATF rules. That’s because she had to start the marathon from Houston’s B corral, a second wave of runners that goes off 12 minutes after the A corral.

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She had run track and cross country at Columbia University, and during her final outdoor year in 2019, she ran 16:17 for 5,000 meters

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On November 11, Gregoire registered for the race and asked to be placed in the A corral, putting down a goal time of 2:44:00. As proof of her fitness, she provided her track personal bests from Columbia and her Strava data. Nine days later, Houston Marathon officials denied her request to be placed in the A corral because the results she submitted could not be verified.

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Houston officials look only at road race times when deciding who gets into the A corral. Those time standards are 4:00 for the marathon, 1:56:00 for the half marathon, and 52:00 for the 10K.

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Her chip time put her in results as the 21st overall woman.

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On social media, Gregoire received an outpouring of support. Coach Kevin Hanson of the Hansons-Brooks Distance Project offered to pay for Gregoire’s travel expenses so she can compete in the Georgia Marathon, the community race the day after the Trials.

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