Dalilah Muhammad, the 2019 world champion in the 400 hurdles and the former world record holder, will not compete in this week’s USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships at Hayward due to a hamstring injury.
In a press conference in Eugene on Wednesday, Muhammad said she “kind of stretched out her hamstring” and “tweaked it” a couple of weeks ago. She and her team decided it wasn’t worth “pushing it.”
As the defending world champion, Muhammad has a bye into the world championships. Normally, athletes need to compete in at least one round or attempt at the USATF championships to use that bye, but USATF said she and the other 14 automatic qualifiers were informed they could apply for a waiver to not compete. Muhammad said she received one.
The USATF’s statement said, “According to the current USATF High-Performance Executive Committee rules, athletes can be granted a waiver from this requirement in exceptional circumstances, only for those athletes with a World Championships bye to ensure the best interests of those athletes in light of those exceptional circumstances. Exceptional circumstances can include a variety of situations, such as medical/mental health, unavoidable travel delays, deaths in the family, etc.”
Muhammad, 32, won gold at the Rio Olympics 2016 and silver in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics last year. She broke the 400 hurdles world record twice in 2019, at the U.S. championships and world championships in Doha.
Muhammad’s last race was the Birmingham Diamond League event on May 21.
The USATF Outdoor Championships is at Hayward Field Thursday to Sunday, June 26, and the top three finishers in each event get to compete at the world championships later in July.
Despite Muhammad’s circumstances, she remains excited to watch the events this weekend and see her fellow competitors. She still remains “a fan of the sport.”
In addition, Muhammad is hopeful since she said she was in ideal shape before this recent setback; she fared much worse when she was battling COVID and injuries before Tokyo.
“I feel like I’m getting back to prime fitness level,” she said. “Unfortunately, we’re probably just going to have to wait until worlds to see.”
The other 13 athletes who have byes as the 2019 world champions or as the 2021 Diamond League champions are all still listed as competing on the start lists released Wednesday. They are Christian Coleman, 100 meters; Noah Lyles, 200 meters; Donovan Brazier, 800 meters; Nia Ali, 100 hurdles; Grant Holloway, 110 hurdles; Sam Kendricks, pole vault; Christian Taylor, triple jump; Joe Kovacs, shot put, Deanna Price, hammer throw; Michael Cherry, 400 meters; Quanera Hayes ,400 meters; Maggie Ewen, shot put; and Valarie Allman, discus throw.
