Atlanta Hosts 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials 2/29

Several dozen American women and men will spend Leap Day 2020 running for the Games, with three competitors earning their tickets to Tokyo as Atlanta hosts the U.S. Olympic Team Trials for marathon.

The Feb. 29 event starts and ends midday around Centennial Olympic Park, with mile markers for the 26.2-mile course set along Peachtree Street from Forsyth Street in downtown to Peachtree Circle near the north end of Midtown.

The route also heads through the Virginia-Highlands neighborhood along Highland Ave. to southbound Jackson Street before turning west onto the Old Fourth Ward's Edgewood Ave.

The journey nears its end when runners, who've completed three loops on the aforementioned course, will bank south from Edgewood onto Piedmont Ave., heading south past the Gold Dome and the Siah Armajani-designed Olympic Bridge and Cauldron (erroneously referred to as the "Olympic Rings and Torch" in event press materials) with a U-turn on Capitol Ave. near Georgia State Stadium.

The final two miles cross west along Mitchell Street, with viaduct views of State Farm Arena's iconic "ATLANTA" grand entrance and Megatron's Butthole, er, Mercedes-Benz Stadium as the thinning pack runs the final stretch back toward Centennial Olympic Park.

Runner's World magazine and event host Atlanta Track Club produced a high-quality and informative video of the route available here:

 

To showcase Atlanta's Olympic spirit on NBC's live national broadcast, fans are encouraged to #showyourgold on race day, with several places to watch designated on the event's official website.

In Midtown, for instance, Hudson Grille, Publik Ale House and City Tap House (each along Peachtree Street) will offer $2.62 beer, tacos or other marathon-inspired specials. With numerous road closures, MARTA is recommended.

Though I cheered runners at Peachtree Road Races many times since 1996, this will be my first Olympic marathon experience and the city's second, which I missed thanks to work shifts at the Atlanta Olympic Village.

Female runners to watch for include two-time Olympic marathoner Desiree Linden, who did not finish in London 2012 but placed seventh at Rio 2016. According to the event site, her all-time fastest marathon (2:22:38) and Trials qualifying time at the 2019 New York City Marathon (2:26:46) put her a few minutes from the top Trials qualifier Jordan Hasay, who set her personal best time at the recent Chicago Marathon (2:20:57).

A hometown runner on which to keep an eye is Georgia native Bridget Lyons Belyeu, who trains on the Silver Comet Trail and near her south Atlanta residence in Newnan, Ga., according to a recent profile in Atlanta Magazine.

In the men's competition, three-time Olympian and Rio 2016 marathon bronze medalist Galen Rupp is the leading 2020 Trials qualifier (with 2:06:07; he is also a three-time Olympic competitor in the 10,000m, earning silver in London 2012). Atlanta marks his fourth Olympic marathon trials, which he won on the Road to Rio.

The entrant with the second-fastest qualifying time (2:07:56) is Leonard Korir, who "ran the fastest-ever marathon debut by an American" in the 2019 Amsterdam Marathon, where he did not have an elite bib but placed 11th. He was a Rio 2016 Olympian and considers Rupp one of his heroes, according to his Team USA bio.

Portland resident Patrick Reaves returns to his hometown Atlanta to compete in his first Olympic trials with a qualifying time of 2:17:45.

As reported in Sports Illustrated on Feb. 13 and in this Yahoo! article on Valentine's Day, the Atlanta event also includes first openly transgender athlete competing in an Olympic marathon trials. Though Megan Youngren's bio is not yet posted on the event website, her qualifying time of 2:43:52 puts her further back in the rankings.

The S.I. article explains how the International Olympic Committee would handle her qualification in Tokyo should Youngren earn a Games berth in Atlanta.

The three top female and male finishers will compete at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games on Aug. 8 and Aug. 9, respectively. The 2020 Olympic marathon course is in Sapporo, Japan, host city of the 1972 Winter Olympic Games and some of the Olympic football competitions this summer.

Marathon site at Sapporo Odori Park

For those heading to Japan, it appears the start and finish in Sapporo Odori Park is just a few blocks from the city's main rail station. Check out the course map below and at this link for more details.

Check out more of the competitor roster on the event website -- with the marathon route along Peachtree Street just a few blocks west of my Midtown residence, I may set up a viewing spot at The Vortex Bar & Grill between Seventh Street and Eighth. They serve some delicious sake!

Images via Team USA, Atlanta2020Trials.com, Atlanta Track Club, MyBestRuns.com and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic website.