ST. LOUIS — USA Track & Field announced St. Louis will host the U.S. Olympic marathon trials for men and women on March 25, 2028. St. Louis was selected over Phoenix to host the trials.

This event will serve as the first U.S. Olympic team selection for any sport for the 2028 Los Angeles Games. Three men and three women will qualify for the U.S. Olympic team from this competition, which covers a distance of 26.2 miles. A national broadcast network will telecast the marathon trials live.

The race will begin at Washington University's Francis Olympic Field. The venue previously served as the primary venue during the 1904 Olympic Games. Olympic gold medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee co-chairs the local organizing committee for the event. The course route will pass through downtown St. Louis, Forest Park, the Gateway Arch, and Busch Stadium, concluding inside Energizer Park, which hosts a Major League Soccer franchise. The final course layout will be announced later in 2026.

St. Louis previously hosted the U.S. Olympic trials for the women's marathon in 2004. Marc Schreiber, President of the St. Louis Sports Commission, said, "As America's first Olympic city that hosted the 1904 Games, that Olympic legacy is really important to us."

USA Track & Field lowered the qualifying standard for the men's marathon trials from 2:18:00 to 2:16:00. The qualifying standard for the women's marathon trials remains at 2:37:00. One hundred thirty-four men and 139 women have qualified for the 2028 trials. Ben Rosario, Director of athlete experience for the St. Louis organizing committee, said, "I think that was a reasonable and fair change, and I think it was in line with what was happening in terms of how much faster people were running." Frank Shorter won the last American gold medal in the Olympic marathon in 1972, and Joan Benoit won the last American women's gold medal in the Olympic marathon in 1984. The most recent Olympic marathon medal for a U.S. man was awarded in 2016, and the most recent Olympic marathon medal for a U.S. woman was awarded in 2021. Emily Sisson set the American women's marathon record in 2022. Conner Mantz broke the 23-year-old American men's marathon record in 2025 with a time of 2:04:43.

No independent assessment of St. Louis’s claims was available.