Carmelita Jeter, Nick Symmonds to miss Olympic Trials due to injury
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Olympians Carmelita Jeter and Nick Symmonds have pulled out of the 2016 U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials due to injury, which means they will miss out on competing at the Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Jeter, the “fastest woman alive,” has been dealing with a quad injury over the past two seasons. She holds a personal best of 10.64 seconds, which makes her second fastest woman of all-time behind Florence Griffth-Joyner’s world record of 10.49. (Griffith-Joyner has also run 10.61 and 10.62 in her career.) At the London Olympics, Jeter won gold in the women’s 4x100-meter relay, silver in the women’s 100 meters and bronze in the women’s 200 meters. Jeter has not broken 11 seconds in the 100 since 2013.
Symmonds, a two-time U.S. Olympian in the 800 meters, has been bothered by an ankle injury and Achilles injury during the outdoor season. He has won six U.S. national titles, including the 2008 and ’12 U.S. Olympic Trials, and finished fifth at the London Olympics. A year later, he brought home a silver medal in the men’s 800 at the world championships in Moscow.
• A viewer’s guide to the first week of U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials
Symmonds still plans to be at the trials because he will lead a protest for athlete sponsorship rights. Symmonds surrendered his spot on the U.S. national team for the 2015 world championships since he refused to sign a statement of conditions that he believes violated his sponsorship rights.
The Olympic trials begin on Friday and run through July 10 in Eugene, Ore.
