American runner won't defend Olympic title, officials reject her appeal after fall

Track officials denied an appeal by 800-metre Olympic champion Athing Mu, who got tangled in a pack of runners and fell at the U.S. trials, denying her a chance to defend her title.

Mu's coach, Bobby Kersee, said Mu got clipped by another runner on the backstretch of the first lap, which caused her to veer to her left and tumble to the ground at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.

USA Track and Field officials reviewed footage of Monday night's race deep into the evening but eventually denied the appeal. They did not give details. Normally, protests are granted when there's clear evidence of a runner obstructing another runner. Incidental contact is considered part of normal racing.

Mu, who scrambled to her feet to complete the race, will be eligible for the relay pool. She was part of the gold medal team in the 4x400 at the Tokyo Games in 2021.

Kersee said the 22-year-old from New Jersey got spiked, suffered scrapes from the fall and hurt her ankle.

He acknowledged the unforgiving nature of the U.S. system, which awards spots in the Olympics to the top three finishers at the trials but does not make exceptions for past performances or Olympic champions.

"I've coached it, I've preached it, I've watched it," Kersee said. "And here's another indication that regardless of how good we are, we can leave some better athletes home than other countries have. It's part of our American way."

Mu finished more than 22 seconds behind winner, Nia Akins, who ran one minute 57.36 seconds. Mu was choking back tears as she headed quickly off the track and through the tunnel after the race. She did not do interviews.

Not alone

She was racing on the outside in a tightly bunched pack and looked to be veering to her left toward the eventual third-place finisher, Juliette Whitaker, when she tripped and went tumbling, leaving three runners behind her flailing as they jumped over and around her.

Mu is hardly the first athlete to have this happen. One of the more memorable and heartbreaking moments on this track came eight years ago in the same event, when Alysia Montano, looking to return to the Olympics, got tripped up in the homestretch and stayed down on the track crying.

"I have a little mama bear feeling," said Montano, who is at the track this week doing in-house interviews over the PA system. "But the race is brutal sometimes. It's two laps, a tight race and everyone's feeling scrappy to try to figure out what position they want to get into."

The Olympic trials marked Mu's first meet of the year after dealing with injuries all season. She looked to be in good form in her first two rounds, and Kersee said her season was coming together.

But in the 800 final, she barely made it half a lap.

Despite the fall, Mu could still go to Paris as part of the U.S. relay pool; she was a key part of the team's gold-medal win in the 4x400 three years ago in Tokyo.

After winning NCAA, national, world and Olympic championships all before turning 21, Mu won a bronze medal at the World Athletics Championships last year in Budapest, Hungary and, afterward, conceded she needed a break from all the pressure, social media and other demands that came along with being tagged as one of track's great new stars.

In interviews leading into this week's meet in Eugene, she said she had rediscovered her love for the sport and was looking forward to the quest to become a back-to-back champion.