Sports writer Johanna Garton discusses the U.S. Army's World Class Athlete Program and its impact on soldier-athletes aiming for the Olympics.
Ahead of the 2021 U.S. Olympic Track Trials, sports writer and author Johanna Garton was in the middle of doing book research about the U.S. Army ’s competitive World Class Athlete Program , which allows top-ranked soldier-athletes to compete at the highest level, aiming for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, while also serving in the military.
works and share the misconception that foreign-born athletes who graduate from American universities use it as a quick workaround to gain U.S. citizenship, which Kipchirchir obtained in 2015 and Kibet in 2021. In the book, Kibet and Kipchirchir reflected on the 2016 Olympic Track and Field Trials, in which four
is open to all U.S. athletes and requires them to meet very difficult standards. Distance athletes must run 13:09 in the 5,000 meters, 27:45:00 in the 10,000 meters, or 2:09:55 in the marathon for men, and 15:12, 32:00, or 2:27:00 in the same respective events for women. But above these tough athletic benchmarks, Kipchirchir and Kibet highlight that through the program, and their commitment to the U.S. military, participants are soldiers first and athletes second.
athletes have yearly performance benchmarks, which means athletes who have given birth must meet their respective standards again within a year of delivery. Kibet was unable to compete in the 2022 track season, so she was kicked out of the program.“This made for a lot of stress, pressure, and tears because I was not ready to be done training and competing,” Kibet tells Runner’s World.
Olympic Trials U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program Soldier-Athletes Olympics
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