World Athletics Reveals LA 2028 Entry Standards

LA 2028

For the first time in Olympic history, running 10.00 seconds in the men's 100m won't be enough. To get to Los Angeles 2028, you have to be faster than an Olympic finalist was in Paris.

Sub-10 Or stay home, LA 2028 100m standard explained...

The bar for the Olympics just got higher literally. World Athletics has released the entry standards for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles, and for the first time ever, you will need to run under 10 seconds to qualify for the men's 100m.

To book a ticket to LA 2028 in the men's 100m, athletes must now clock 9.93 seconds or faster. That's a huge jump from Paris 2024, where the standard was 10.00 flat.

And it continues a clear trend. The qualifying time has been getting faster and faster all century from 10.27 needed for Sydney 2000, to 10.16 for Rio 2016, and now down to 9.93 for Los Angeles.

To put that 9.93 in perspective: that was the slowest time that actually made it into the men's final in Paris run by America's Kenny Bednarek in the semi-finals. And even in the final itself, the slowest time was still faster, with Jamaica's Oblique Seville clocking 9.91.

On the women's side, the bar is now 10.96. To show just how tough that is, only four women managed to run 10.96 or faster in the Paris 2024 final led by gold medallist Julien Alfred, who stormed to victory in 10.72.

Full entry standards for LA 2028

Not everyone gets the same window to qualify. Marathon runners get the longest runway they can post a qualifying time from 1 November 2026 all the way to 30 April 2028. Athletes in the 10,000m, combined events, race walks and relays have from 19 December 2026 to 18 June 2028. Everyone else has a tighter window, from 19 June 2027 to 18 June 2028.

The countdown is already on. The 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, USA, will run from 15 to 30 July.