It’s time to start laying out the upcoming Olympic season – who I feel the contenders are as we start the road to London. Before I do that however, I thought it might help if we knew what everyone was gunning for.

Ultimately the goal is gold, as in gold medals in London. Short of gold everyone would like to pick up some sort of medal – silver or bronze. In order to do that you have to get into the finals, but you can’t get into the finals unless you get a spot of the team – and every nation is limited to a maximum of three athletes per event! Some countries have Trials meets, while some others simply make selections. In order to be selected however, whether individually or in a Trials setting, one must meet the Olympic Qualifying Standards. Those standards are listed below.

In addition, there will be sixteen relay teams in each relay event. Regardless of depth, each nation is only allowed one entry, and those entries are based on the top two times turned in by a nation during the twelve month period leading up to the Games. The list of the current top sixteen teams per event is listed below.

Now that we have the goals identified, I’ll tell you who I think the athletes to watch will be as we begin to track progress towards London. I will start with the speed events since they typically get rolling first, and a few athletes are already beginning to show their fitness.

2012 London Olympic Qualifying Standard as per the IAAF

Below is the current list of top 16 qualifiers for the relays with their averages.

Men – 4×1 – Current Qualifiers

Women – 4×1 – Current Qualifiers

Men – 4×4 – Current Qualifiers

Women – 4×4 – Current Qualifiers

Tags: Olympics, Qualifying