Matthew Centrowitz out of his final Olympic track trials with injury

Centrowitz had declared in March that 2024 would be his final year, timed for one last run in the 1,500 meters at the Paris Olympics. In recent weeks, two ailments derailed him. After racing at the Los Angeles Grand Prix in May, Centrowitz became sick and missed a week of training. When he returned, he strained his hamstring.

Centrowitz tried to recover in time for the trials, which begin Friday at Hayward Field. He healed to the point where he can jog, but he said he can not run at a pace that would allow him to compete.

“It’s been equally difficult physically and mentally the last three weeks staying optimistic that I’d be able to still compete,” Centrowitz said. “Unfortunately, I ran out of time.”

Centrowitz grew up in Arnold, Md., learning under his father, Matt, an Olympian and for years the track coach at American University. He became a mainstay of American distance running for more than a decade, authoring one of the great American running careers through both speed and tactical brilliance.

Centrowitz dominated the 1,500 meters domestically. He won the 2011 NCAA championship at Oregon, claimed five national championships, earned silver and bronze at the world championships, raced in three Olympics and ran perhaps the most indelible race in recent U.S. distance running history.

At the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, Centrowitz entered as a long shot to win. “I thought on the best day I could maybe get a silver medal,” Centrowitz said at the time. In a display of his racing guile, Centrowitz jumped to the lead and lured the world’s fastest runners into slowing down. He set a pace that would make it the slowest Olympic 1,500 meters in 84 years, then used the energy he had conserved for a finishing kick that gave the United States its first 1,500 meters gold medal since 1908.

Centrowitz found his father in the stands and shouted, “Are you kidding me?”

“Are you [expletive] kidding me?” Matt Centrowitz shouted back.

Centrowitz had hoped for one more moment. He would not have been favored to finish in the top three this week and claim an Olympic spot, but his strategic prowess would have given him a chance. His body did not cooperate, and on Friday he was still struggling to find the proper words.

“How do you say goodbye to a sport you’ve competed at obsessed over all your life?” Centrowitz said.