Team USA Track and Field "RED HOT"
INDIANAPOLIS USATF – Four reigning Olympic Champions and eight current world champions highlight the Team USA roster nominated to the U.S. Olympic Committee by USA Track & Field. A roster of 127 men and women stands ready represent the U.S. in track competition August 3 – 12 in London.
Notable for its depth across a range of events, the roster features 28 athletes – 16 men and 12 women - who already own individual world or Olympic gold medals. Nineteen are American record holders and one is a world record holder.
2008 Olympic gold medalists set to defend their titles are Lashawn Merritt (400m), Angelo Taylor (400m hurdles), Dawn Harper (100m hurdles) and Stephanie Brown-Trafton (discus).
Fresh off of 2011 world championship titles, eight athletes will look to take their supremacy to the Olympic level: Jason Richardson (110m hurdles), Christian Taylor (triple jump), Jesse Williams (high jump), Trey Hardee (decathlon), Carmelita Jeter (100m), Jenny Simpson (1500m), Lashinda Demus (400m hurdles) and Brittney Reese (long jump).
Amy Acuff is the veteran of the team, as she makes her fifth trip to the Olympics. This will also mark the fourth Olympic Games for Abdi Abdirahman, Bernard Lagat, Aretha Thurmond and Angelo Taylor. Both Acuff and Thurmond have been Olympians since the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
No fewer than 20 athletes on the roster currently own an American record indoors or outdoors, including Tyson Gay, Wallace Spearmon, Bernard Lagat, Galen Rupp, Kerron Clement, Brad Walker, Trevor Barron, Ashton Eaton, Allyson Felix, Sanya Richards-Ross, Molly Huddle, Shalane Flanagan, Lolo Jones, Lashinda Demus, Jenny Simpson, Jenn Suhr, Chaunte Lowe, Jillian Camarena-Williams, Stephanie Brown-Trafton and Kara Patterson.
Ashton Eaton owns the world record indoors in the heptathlon and set the outdoor decathlon world record in spectacular fashion at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials.
Lauren! Happy Birthday! Enjoy your day!