Top Three Run Under 22 Seconds, With Thomas Leading The Way In 21.81; Brittany Brown Second In 21.90; NCAA Champion McKenzie Long Delivers Inspired Performance Dedicated To Her Late Mother, Runs 21.91

By David Woods for DyeStat

Tim Healy photos

EUGENE, Ore. – There was something otherworldly going on Saturday night in the women’s 200 meters, and not because of a reordering of the world list.

Gabby Thomas had a dream McKenzie Long would join her on the Olympic team. Long, as she crouched in the blocks, kissed her hand and pointed to the sky in honor of her late mother. Brittany Brown’s thoughts drifted, recalling when she was going to quit altogether.

Maybe it was providential. Maybe it was evidential. No maybe: It was consequential.

INTERVIEWS | PHOTOS

There is your team for Paris: Thomas, Brown and Long, out of lanes 8, 9, and 7, respectively, at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials.

“I knew I that I was going to have to bring it,” Thomas said. “I don’t think the conditions were as conducive to fast times as we planned for. But we had to fight for that.”

How tough was the fight?

Sha’Carri Richardson – reigning world champion and  winner in the 100 meters, world bronze medalist and ranked No. 3 in the 200 worldwide this year – was beaten out of a spot.

Thomas finished first in 21.81 seconds, followed by Brown in 21.90 and Long in 21.91.

Richardson was fourth in 22.16. Tamara Clark and Abby Steiner were fifth and sixth in 22.20 and 22.24, respectively.

That’s right, 22.24 was sixth. That would have gotten Steiner fifth at the 2021 Olympics, and Tokyo had one of the fastest collective races ever at 200 meters.

Long’s story has been as compelling as any at these Olympic Trials.

In February, she lost her mother, Tara Jones, a psychiatric travel nurse in Hawaii. She went to sleep one night and never woke up. She was 45.

“I could hear her voice even before I went out there. ‘You got this, baby girl,’ “ Long said. “That got me through this race.”

Long, 23, a native of Ironton, Ohio, has gone through one comeback after another. She had hip surgery in May 2020 to repair an injury so severe she was evaluated for a hip replacement. While at North Carolina State, she never placed higher than ninth in an ACC sprint final.

She transferred to Mississippi, where she built trust with sprint coach Holland Sherrer, a former Ole Miss 800-meter runner. The 2023 outdoor season opened with a wind-aided time of 10.80 in the 100 meters at the Texas Relays and ended with a second-place finish behind Bowerman Award winner Julien Alfred in the 200 at the NCAA Championships.

Long won a 100/200/4x100 triple at the NCAAs June 8 at Hayward Field. Then she failed to get out of semifinals of the 100 at Olympic Trials.

Poignantly, she was encouraged before the race by Richardson, whose mother died a week before the 2021 Trials. Long said Richardson told her she knew what she was going through.

“That was really empowering in myself,” Long said. “It was just like a weight lifted off my shoulder.”

In Lane 8, she was between Thomas and Richardson, who were 2-3 in last year’s World Championships behind Shericka Jackson of Jamaica. Just what Long wanted, she said.

“I wanted to stay on top of Gabby’s hip,” she said.

Nearly unnoticed was Brown, and not just because she was out there in Lane 9.

Brown, 29, a former Iowa sprinter from Claremont, Calif., won a silver medal at the 2019 World Championships but was seventh at the 2023 worlds.

This year, she said, she developed a sports hernia and endured painful injections in her pelvis.

“I cried every time,” she said. “I felt my own body fighting against me.”

She won a Diamond League race May 30 at Oslo, Norway, beating Jackson badly. Brown was on her way.

All three Olympic sprinters are, in fact. 

Thomas, 27, and Brown have global medals. Long’s 21.83 from NCAAs has been bettered this year only by Thomas, so the Ole Miss sprinter is a threat to medal – if not win.

“The job’s not finished,” Thomas said. “It’s easy to look at this and celebrate because this is an incredible accomplishment for U.S. athletes. But now I’m way too focused on Paris Olympics.”

Long visited her mother in Hawaii over winter break, and they spoke about the Paris possibility. Therapy has helped with the grief process, the sprinter said. She continues speaking to her mother out loud or listening to her mother's workout playlist on Spotify.

“It helped me in a way of letting me feel her and letting me include her,” she said. “It pushed me through.”

Pushed her all the way to Paris.

Final Set Of Semifinals Set Fields For Sunday

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone ran a sensational time of 52.48 in the semifinal round of the women's 400-meter hurdles. That final is set to be the climax of the entire meet, which concludes Sunday afternoon. 

Anna Cockrell ran a personal best time of 52.95 for the second-fastest time in the semifinals. Shamier Little, Jasmine Jones, Rachel Glenn and Dalilah Muhammad all advanced for what should be a blockbuster final. 

Speaking of blockbusters, the women's 100-meter hurdles final lineup is set too, and could offer even more fireworks. 

Seven women ran under 12.6 in the semifinals, led by Masai Russell, Alaysha Johnson and Tonea Marshall -- at 12.36. 

Contact David Woods at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.