The 1997 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships was organised by

USA Track & Field USA Track & Field (USATF) is the United States national governing body for the sports of track and field, cross country running, road running and racewalking (known as the sport of athletics outside the US). The USATF was known between 1979 ...

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 A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the best team, i ...

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

for the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

and also the trials for the

1997 World Championships in Athletics The 6th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Amateur Athletic Federation, were held at the Olympic Stadium, Athens, Greece between August 1 and August 10, 1997. In this event participated 1882 athletes from 1 ...

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh List ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wit ...

. 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 The Bailey–Johnson 150-metre race was a track and field event that occurred in Toronto, Ontario on Sunday, 1 June 1997. In an effort to settle the dispute regarding who was the "world's fastest man", a 150 metres race not sanctioned by IAAF was ...

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 The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of , usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair di ...

and

50 kilometres walk 5 (five) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number, and cardinal number, following 4 and preceding 6, and is a prime number. It has attained significance throughout history in part because typical humans have five digits on each ...

were incorporated into the discrete national championship meets for those events. Selection for the

relay race A relay race is a racing competition where members of a team take turns completing parts of racecourse or performing a certain action. Relay races take the form of professional races and amateur games. Relay races are common in running, orien ...

s 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 Marion Lois Jones (born October 12, 1975), also known as Marion Jones-Thompson, is an American former world champion track and field athlete and former professional basketball player. She won three gold medals and two bronze medals at the 2000 ...

. In addition USA won the Women's 4 × 100 metres relay, and took silver in the

4 × 400 metres relay The 4 × 400 metres relay or long relay is an athletics track event in which teams consist of four runners who each complete 400 metres or one lap. It is traditionally the final event of a track meet. At top class events, th ...

. 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 Doping may refer to: * Doping, adding a dopant to something * Doping (semiconductor), intentionally introducing impurities into an extremely pure semiconductor to change its electrical properties * Aircraft dope, a lacquer that is applied to fabr ...

by Antonio Pettigrew.

Results

Key:

Men track events

Men field events

Women track events

Women field events

World Championships qualification

Automatic byes

A total of eight American athletes received automatic byes into the

as a result of their being the defending champions from the

1995 World Championships in Athletics The 5th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held at the Ullevi Stadium, Gothenburg, Sweden on 5–13 August 1995. This edition featured 1804 athletes from 191 na ...

.World Championships in Athletics
GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2015-06-27. Michael Johnson qualified in two events and his injury situation largely created the bye rule in the first place. Johnson chose not to defend the 200 metres title, but was able to successfully defend his 400 metres title, a feat equalled by Allen Johnson and John Godina in their respective events.

Dan O'Brien Daniel Dion O'Brien (born July 18, 1966) is an American former decathlete and Olympic gold medalist. He won the Olympic title in 1996, three consecutive world championships (1991, 1993, 1995), and set the world record in 1992. Early life O' ...

also did not defend his title. * Michael Johnson Men's 200 metres * Michael Johnson Men's 400 metres * Allen Johnson: Men's 110 m hurdles *

Derrick Adkins Derrick Ralph Adkins (born July 2, 1970) is a former American track and field athlete who specialized in the 400-meter hurdles. He was an Olympic gold medalist in that event at the 1996 Summer Olympics and World Champion at the 1995 World Champi ...

: Men's 400 m hurdles * Gwen Torrence Women's 100 metres * Gail Devers Women's 100 m hurdles *

Kim Batten Kim Batten (born March 29, 1969, in McRae, Georgia) is an American former 400 meter hurdles champion. She was the 1995 world record holder in the women's 400-meter hurdles. She played basketball at East High School in Rochester, New York. Bat ...

Women's 400 m hurdles * John Godina: Men's shot put *

: Men's decathlon

Non-top three selections

Karl Paranya Karl Paranya (born June 27, 1975) was the first NCAA Division III track and field athlete to break 4 minutes for the mile. He did this in the spring of 1997, running 3:57.6 on Haverford College's outdoor track. Marcus O'Sullivan, one of three m ...

did not participate in the 1500m.

Pascal Dobert Pascal Dobert (born April 8, 1974) is an American steeplechase runner. He finished seventh at the 1998 IAAF World Cup and competed at the 1999 World Championships and the 2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Gam ...

did not participate in the steeplechase.

Dan Middleman Dan Middleman (born October 19, 1969) is an American long-distance runner. He competed in the men's 10,000 metres at the 1996 Summer Olympics. He competed in the 1997 Maccabiah Games The 15th Maccabiah Games are remembered for being marred by ...

and 7th place Brad Barquist were the American representatives in the 10,000. Since Allen Johnson and Bryan Bronson received a bye, 4th place

Mark Crear Mark James Crear (born October 2, 1968) is a double Olympic medalist in the 110 m hurdles from the United States. In 1996 he was second behind Allen Johnson. Four years later he came in third behind Anier Garcia and silver medalist Terrence ...

and Octavius Terry were allowed to compete in their respective hurdle races.

LaMark Carter LaMark Carter (born August 23, 1970 in Shreveport, Louisiana) is an American former triple jumper. His personal best was , achieved in June 1998 in New Orleans. He was the silver medallist at the 1999 IAAF World Indoor Championships and also the 1 ...

and no other American achieved the A standard in the triple jump. Breaux Greer didn't achieve the A standard. 4th place, naturalized British Olympian Roald Bradstock did and took the third position at the World Championships.

References

Results

{{Use mdy dates, date=June 2015 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships USA Outdoors Track, Outdoor Sports competitions in Indianapolis

USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships The USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships is an annual track and field competition organized by USA Track & Field, which serves as the American national championships for the sport. Since the year 1992, in the years which feature a Summer Olym ...

Track and field in Indiana