Jaida Ross, Leo Neugebauer, Maia Ramsdan and Rowan Hamilton
For many US-based collegiate athletes, the NCAA Championships is the pinnacle of their season. But for the select few who also manage to secure national team selection, the Olympic Games quickly becomes an even bigger target.
Last month’s NCAA Championships, as is often the case, had a strong international feel. Just a few weeks after battling it out for collegiate honours in Eugene, Oregon – site of the 2022 World Championships – many of the athletes headed to their respective national championships in a bid to earn a spot on their country’s Olympic team.
A small handful of winners at the NCAA Championships managed to earn Olympic selection – four of whom are featured below – and will soon head to Paris, where the athletics action kicks off on 1 August.
Leo Neugebauer
Age: 24
Country: Germany
College: University of Texas
Event: decathlon
PB: 8961
Collegiate highlights: 2024 NCAA champion, 2024 NCAA indoor champion, 2023 NCAA champion
Before he’d even started his 10 decathlon disciplines at this year’s NCAA Championships, Leo Neugebauer had already made his mark on the collegiate scene. He won the 2023 NCAA title with a collegiate record of 8836, then earlier this year took the NCAA indoor heptathlon title with a German record of 6347.
Leo Neugebauer in the decathlon high jump at the World Championships in Budapest (© Getty Images)
The 24-year-old successfully defended his decathlon title at last month’s NCAA Championships, increasing the collegiate record to a world-leading 8961 – also a German record – to move to sixth on the world all-time list.
He will now head to the Paris Olympics looking to build on his fifth-place finish from last year’s World Championships.
“I had a lot of confidence before (the NCAA Championships) because I knew exactly what I could do,” said Neugebauer, who took a break from competitions between the NCAA Championships and the Olympics to ensure he was as fresh as possible. “Showing that I can do that (score 8961) just proved to myself that I was able to do it. It’s the same mind set I’ll take into the Olympics; it’s going to be a great competition.”
Jaida Ross
Age: 22
Country: USA
College: University of Oregon
Event: shot put
PB: 20.01m
Collegiate highlights: 2024 NCAA champion
Jaida Ross had a strong indoor season, setting an outright shot put PB of 18.84m and finishing second at the NCAA Indoor Championships. But her outdoor campaign was markedly better.
In her first competition of the outdoor season, she smashed through the 19-metre barrier for the first time with 19.71m. She matched that mark just three weeks later, then in May she broke the collegiate record with 20.01m, becoming just the seventh US woman in history to throw beyond 20 metres.
US shot putter Jaida Ross (© Getty Images)
She ended her collegiate campaign by taking the NCAA title with 19.57m, winning by almost a metre, in front of a home crowd in Eugene, Oregon. “I feel the love, I feel the support,” said Ross, whose family hail from southern Oregon and were in attendance at the NCAA Championships. “I can’t even put it into words, it feels amazing.”
Ross has a discus PB of 59.74m and finished 14th in that event at the NCAA Championships, but she focused solely on the shot put at the US Olympic Trials. Her throw of 19.60m earned her third place, behind two-time world champion Chase Jackson and Olympic silver medallist Raven Saunders, and a spot on the US Olympic team.
It will be just the second time Ross has competed outside of the USA; her first being at the 2023 NACAC Championships in San Jose, where she won gold.
Rowan Hamilton
Age: 24
Country: Canada
College: University of California
Event: hammer
PB: 77.18m
Collegiate highlights: 2024 NCAA champion
Rowan Hamilton produced a lifetime best of 77.18m in the hammer at the NCAA Championships to beat defending champion Kenneth Ikeji by just six centimetres. Having achieved his main collegiate goal for the season, three weeks later he turned his focus to his big international target: qualifying for the Olympic Games.
Canadian hammer thrower Rowan Hamilton (© Getty Images)
Competing at the Canadian Trials against world champion Ethan Katzberg – to whom Hamilton bears a striking resemblance – the 24-year-old finished second with 75.83m and secured his place on Canada’s team for Paris.
“I was very excited after last year seeing how deep the competition was,” he said. “I think it definitely bolsters the confidence that I already had from other meets. I think we know what I’m capable of.”
Hamilton will aim to continue a legacy of great throwers to compete for the University of California when he makes his Olympic debut in Paris.
Maia Ramsden
Age: 22
Country: New Zealand
College: Harvard University
Event: 1500m
PB: 4:02.58
Collegiate highlights: 2024 NCAA champion, 2024 NCAA indoor champion, 2023 NCAA champion
Maia Ramsden is no stranger to competing at big meets where the stakes are high.
She recently capped her collegiate career by successfully defending her NCAA 1500m title in a tactical race in 4:06.62. Prior to that, the New Zealander had won the NCAA indoor mile title and set national 1500m records indoors (4:06.51) and outdoors (4:02.58), the latter coming at the Continental Tour Gold meeting in Los Angeles.
Nikki Hiltz and Maia Ramsden after the 1500m at the World Indoor Championships (© Dan Vernon)
Ramsden also made her international championships debut earlier this year, placing 10th at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow and giving her a small taste of what to expect when she steps up to an even bigger stage at the Olympic Games in Paris.
Mark Wang for World Athletics
