Athing Mu to attempt unexpected rebound at the Holloway Pro Classic

Athing Mu became an Olympic champion at age 19. After a disastrous race on Monday, June 24, there was speculation that she was pondering early retirement at the age of 22.

Nine women lined up for the 800m final at the US Olympic Trials on June 24. Nine finished. With the one-turn staggered start, each woman occupied her own lane before breaking to the rail after the first 100m.

Athing Mu started in lane six, the announcers ogling over her long, loping stride. After the break, the women gradually cut toward the rail. They bunched up just before the 200m mark, the whole field contained between the rail and the outline of lane two. Mu stole a glance to her left, seemingly forgot that there were people running behind her, and tried to merge further. She tripped immediately and took a hard fall.

Though the fall did impede many other women in the race, and though the fall did occur relatively early in the contest, the 800m race was not called back.

Mu picked herself up and continued running. She had lost at least four seconds. Even for the fastest 400m runner in the field, who is also the fastest female 800m runner in American history, the gap proved to be too much. Nine women did finish the race, but sixteen seconds separated 8th and 9th.

This grave disappointment was met by surprised, slightly panicked reactions from the top three finishers in their post-race interviews. The defending Olympic champion and American record holder was not on the podium. USATF does not make discretionary picks in selecting the Olympic team for individual events. The top three finishers in the 800 at the Trials would surely go. Yet—there was a palpable nervousness that there might have been an obscure path for Athing Mu to be named to the team.

She wasn’t named to the team. Her appeal was denied.

Mu had been nursing a hamstring injury during the 2024 season. The first round of the Trials was also her first race. After falling and missing the team, she did not speak to the media, but her team revealed that the injury had been a tear and that she had been running somewhere between “one” and “a couple” weeks leading up to the Trials.

With a heartbreaking fall, a weak training base, and no Olympic spot, nobody would have blamed Athing Mu for quietly ending her season. As someone who had spoken about early retirement and passions outside of track during a 2023 season in which she “didn’t want to run,” she might have considered hanging up the spikes for good.

However, at the Ed Murphey Classic on July 12, American Track League organizer Paul Doyle made a surprise announcement: Athing Mu would be running at the Holloway Pro Classic on July 19.

The Holloway Pro Classic is not the Paris Olympics, but Mu’s racing there would be a seismic event.

Athing Mu set to return to racing after Olympic trials heartbreak

Most directly, a fast time would leave no question that she could have qualified for the Olympic team had she not fallen so early in the race. With the Trials having been won in 1:57.36, a sub-1:57 victory would send a strong message that she is the best woman in the US and is in medal-contending form.

Athing Mu running a humble domestic meet has other implications for her current standing in the sport. Since joining coach Bobby Kersee in 2022, Athing hasn’t raced much. Her 2023 season consisted of just seven races: an 800m opener at the NYC Grand Prix, three races through the final in Budapest, her American record at the Prefontaine Classic, and an experiment consisting of two 1500m races at the US Championships. Her calendar contained race dates circled and then crossed out as she was listed in fields and then did not compete, in one case coyly stating that she hadn’t known she was entered to compete.

Fans want to see Athing run, regardless of the stakes or prize money. By running at the Holloway Pro Classic in Gainesville, Florida, she’ll placate fans, and she’ll challenge the narrative that the woman who raced more than 30 times the year that she won the Olympics has become a reluctant competitor. She’ll support Greg Bishop’s pre-Trials profile, in which the 2024 season is a motivated comeback campaign for someone whose 2023 didn’t meet expectations.

Another exciting implication is that Mu’s trajectory may continue through the rest of the outdoor season. There are a few 800s remaining on the Diamond League circuit, and with the Diamond League final two months away, she has the opportunity to salvage her season and string together a comeback campaign that nobody expected.

Above all, Mu is pegged as the woman with the greatest chance of being able to break the longest-standing world record in the sport: Jarmila Kratochvílová’s 1:53.28 800m. Mu might not yet be in her athletic prime. On top of that, she has spent so little time racing in a pack at the elite level that nearly all of her races tend to occupy the spectrum from tactically cringeworthy to tactically fatal.

More reps will serve Athing Mu well on her quest to establish herself as the best ever. The situation she finds herself in is an unfortunate one. A strong race in Gainesville would be beyond what anyone could have hoped for three weeks ago. A rebound through what remains of the European circuit will keep her in the conversation, a conversation that will surely be fueled by her pre-recorded Olympic advertisements that will be played in her absence in Paris.

Winning against the Olympic medalists on the late-season Diamond League circuit would not be the same as winning the Olympic medal, but would be a powerful statement as to her standing in the sport. In what might be a revenge tour for the ages, Athing Mu is set to take to the track on Friday, July 19 at the University of Florida.