“Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together” is the Olympic Games’ official motto and while World Athletics is seeking to represent this in its new qualifying standards for the Paris Games next year, there may be a new-found challenge in achieving that togetherness.

Faster times, higher distances, and stronger throws will now be required for qualification for athletics at the Paris Games but it could make it even more difficult for less traditional athletics nations to compete.

These new standards are the toughest ever set by World Athletics, the sport’s global governing body, whose aim is to have 50 per cent of the entrants qualifying by these standards, while the others who fall short can seek eligibility through the world ranking system.

Mathue Tapper, who coaches his wife Megan, the Olympic 100m hurdles bronze medallist Megan Tapper, says Jamaican athletes have little to fear as many expected to qualify for Paris will face little challenge meeting these standards.

“To be very honest, 12.77 seconds [the time required for the women’s 100m hurdles] will be hard to make our finals at national trials,” Tapper told the Jamaica Observer. “For countries that might be a little less competitive than Jamaica, I’m kinda concerned, but I’m sure if they have the systems in place to get one or two athletes registered, then maybe.”

Tapper says the new standards will heighten the entertainment value, if anything, as competition for places will now be fiercer. This is especially so in the women’s sprint hurdles.

“This sprint hurdles year will be so much more competitive than last year,” he said. “What a lot of people don’t realise is we never saw Daszay Freeman at trials, Ackera Nugent was hurt – those are two college girls that are flying. Then, of course, you have the three national contenders, Danielle [Williams], Britany [Anderson], Megan, and Janeek Brown at MVP Track Club, Amoi Brown who’s there too, Crystal Morrison, who ran 12.69 last year, she’s at Racers Track Club now, so it should be an exciting year.”

While the Jamaican perspective of the qualifying criteria remains unfazed, many smaller nations in athletics are concerned.

Kesswin Anthony is entering his seventh year coaching Antigua and Barbuda’s junior athletes, many of whom took part in the Carifta Games in Kingston last April. He has also coached Antiguan sprinter Darion Skerritt, now based at the Titans Track Club in Kingston.

Anthony says the new qualifying standards are in contradiction with the Olympic motto, which speaks to togetherness.

“When we look at Tokyo 2020 and we saw the preliminary rounds of the 100m sprints, we from Antigua had Joella Lloyd there, and the whole of Antigua was tuned into that,” Anthony told the Observer. “If you’re taking that away now, then there’s no togetherness. You’re risking the opportunities of certain countries not even being at the Olympics, but getting to tune in to see the athletes compete, to give them that support. The togetherness of which they speak is contradictory to what they’re doing.”

Indian stakeholders share that sentiment. India’s Amiya Kumar Mallick is concerned about how he and his compatriots will fare, especially with the qualifying time for the men’s 100m now set at 10.00s. Mallick’s personal best is 10.26s, which is also India’s national record.

“It will be tough for Indian male sprinters to crack the qualification time,” Mallick said in a Sportskeeda article recently. “Even qualifying through the world ranking system will be tough for Indian sprinters as they don’t get the opportunity to compete in quality races to improve their rankings.”

For those athletes who will have to rely on world rankings, they will likely have to travel to more meets across the world to improve their standing. That may be a challenge for those athletes without the funding or sponsorship to do so.

“With the exception of one athlete for us that is actually sponsored, unless you’re in school in the US, where you compete frequently, other normal athletes like Skerritt training in Jamaica that are not under contract will find it very difficult to get the resources to go to these meets,” Anthony says. “With the exception of the All-Comers Meet in Jamaica, it will be costly to get outside competition to try and get these times. Whereas, the bigger competitions in Jamaica like the Racers Grand Prix, and so forth, if you’re not up to a certain standard, you’re not gonna get into those meets. It will be very costly for the average athlete to get the number of meets they need to hit these standards.”

As Anthony says, those athletes may use the US college circuit to gain the opportunity to compete often and raise their rankings, but getting a scholarship to these schools is also a challenge. Unlike the top Jamaican student-athletes who earn full scholarships, usually with Division 1 schools, athletes in other parts of the world, like in Antigua and Barbuda, sometimes only obtain part scholarships, where they are expected to pay a portion of the tuition.

“You have to look at it from two perspectives,” he said. “Our athletes here don’t have the quality of performance at a junior level that you would see coming out of Jamaica and even Trinidad sometimes, to basically even decide to go pro. Whereas you will find some very outstanding athletes out of Jamaica at the junior level like the Claytons [Tia and Tina], Sachin Dennis, a lot of companies will be looking to grab them early because they see the talent there. We don’t have that on our end. Our mantra here is to get the athletes into school.

“On the flip side, if the opportunity arises, where athletes here can get that sort of endorsement given to the Jamaican athletes based on their performances, a lot of times these decisions come down to the parents, and it all depends on the financial situations that they’re in at the time. We as the coach can say, ‘Listen, it’s best to go to school and have something to fall back on.’

“But the parent will be looking and saying, ‘If you get an injury, this whole scholarship is gone’.”

Anthony says the US-based National Collegiate Athletic Association now allowing athletes to earn while in college, may also influence whatever decision parents make with regard to their children’s future.

The Paris Games start on July 26, 2024, but athletics take place from August 1-11, 2024.

Men’s standards

Event 2020 Olympics 2023 Worlds 2024 Olympics

100m 10.05 10.00 10.00

200m 20.24 20.16 20.16

400m 44.90 45.00 45.00

800m 1:45.20 1:44.70 1:44.70

1500m 3:35.00 3:34.20 (3:51.00) 3:33.50 (3:50.40)

5000m 13:13.50 13:07.00 (13:07 road) 13:05.00

10,000m 27:28.00 27:10.00 (27:10 road) 27:00.00

Marathon 2:11:30 2:09:40 2:08:10

3000m SC 8:22.00 8:15.00 8:15.00

110m h 13.32 13.28 13.27

400m h 48.90 48.70 48.70

High jump 2.33m 2.32m 2.33m

Pole vault 5.80m 5.81m 5.82m

Long jump 8.22m 8.25m 8.27m

Triple jump 17.14m 17.20m 17.22m

Shot put 21.10m 21.40m 21.50m

Discus 66.00m 67.00m 67.20m

Hammer 77.50m 78.00m 78.20m

Javelin 85.00m 85.20m 85.50m

Decathlon 8350 pts 8460 pts 8460 pts

20k race walk 1:21:00 1:20:10 1:20:10

Women’s standards

Event 2020 Olympics 2023 Worlds 2024 Olympics

100 11.15 11.08 11.07

200 22.80 22.60 22.57

400 51.35 51.00 50.95

800 1:59.50 1:59.80 1:59.30

1500 (Mile) 4:04.20 4:03.50 (4:22.00) 4:02.50 (4:20.90)

5k 15:10.00 14:57.00 (14:57 road) 14:52.00

10k 31:25.00 30:40.00 (30:40 road) 30:40.00

Marathon 2:29:30 2:28:00 2:26:50

3k SC 9:30.00 9:23.00 9:23.00

100m h 12.84 12.78 12.77

400m h 55.40 54.90 54.85

High jump 1.96m 1.97m 1.97m

Pole vault 4.70m 4.71m 4.73m

Long jump 6.82m 6.85m 6.86m

Triple jump 14.32m 14.52m 14.55m

Shot put 18.50m 18.80m 18.80m

Discus 63.50m 64.20m 64.50m

Hammer 72.50m 73.60m 74.00m

Javelin 64.00m 63.80m 64.00m

Heptathlon 6420 pts 6480 pts 6480 pts

20k race walk 1:31:00 1:29:20 1:29:20