World Athletics opens LA28 marathon qualifying window, cuts field to 70

World Athletics has told athlete agents how marathoners will qualify for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, CITIUS Mag reported this week. The qualifying window opens November 1, 2026, and runs eighteen months, closing April 30, 2028.

The field shrinks from Paris. Los Angeles will take 70 marathoners per gender, ten fewer than the 80 who started in Paris in 2024, and no country can enter more than three athletes in either race. World Athletics wants roughly 40 percent of each field to come through the entry standard, with a top five finish at a Platinum Label marathon counting the same as hitting it. The other 60 percent fills from the Road to LA world rankings.

The actual time standards are not set yet. They go to the World Athletics Council for approval in December. Courses only count toward qualifying if a World Athletics or AIMS grade A or B measurer certified them within the last five years, and the finish line cannot sit more than a metre per kilometre below the start, about 42 metres of drop over a full marathon.

March 19, 2028 is the date that matters most. Whoever sits inside the top 55 on the Road to LA list that day locks in a place that cannot be taken away. The remaining 15 spots per gender stay open until the window closes six weeks later. The US Olympic Marathon Trials, which will settle much of the American team, run March 25, 2028, in St. Louis, five days after that cutoff.

A smaller field and a ranking list frozen six weeks before trials changes how marathoners plan their spring. Expect more runners chasing points at Boston and Chicago rather than waiting on one shot at a standard that is not even published yet.

Sources: CITIUS Mag; Marathon Handbook.