Left behind: Lynna Irby, Charity Hufnagel, Kara Winger don't get Paris Olympics calls
INDIANAPOLIS – In other years, Indiana athletes Lynna Irby-Jackson, Charity Hufnagel and Kara Winger would have earned the right to represent Team USA at the Olympic Games.
Instead, they were left off the roster for Paris announced Tuesday by Indianapolis-based USA Track & Field.
Irby-Jackson, 25, a former Pike High School sprinter, was seventh in the 400 meters in the U.S. Olympic Trials at Eugene, Ore. Top six customarily are chosen for Olympic relay pools, especially with introduction of the mixed 4x400 relay.
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Top three make the team, as long as they have met the Olympic standard. USATF selected fourth, fifth and sixth, then skipped over Irby-Jackson to select Shamier Little, who was ninth in the 400 meters.
Irby-Jackson won a semifinal in 50.17. Little won a heat in 50.13 and was second in a semifinal in 50.16.
Seventh place made her chances of selection “iffy,” Irby-Jackson said in Eugene.
“If Team USA calls, obviously, I’ll answer, wherever they want me. If not, no hard feelings. We still have the rest of the season to continue our journey.”
She was sixth at the trials three years ago in 50.35. She went on to win two relay medals at Tokyo.
Irby-Jackson won a gold medal in the mixed 4x400 relay — two men, two women — at the World Relays on May 5. Her relay legs in the two rounds, 50.03 and 50.10, were faster than those of Kendall Ellis, who won at the Olympic Trials.
At the trials, Hufnagel ended the most dominant streak in U.S. women’s high jumping. Vashti Cunningham had won 13 consecutive indoor and outdoor national titles.
Hufnagel finished first by clearing 6 feet, 4 ¼ inches on her first attempt. The 23-year-old from Rushville, who won an NCAA title for Ball State last year before transferring to Kentucky, lacks the Olympic standard of 6-5 ½ and does not have a world ranking to be accepted.
So Team USA is sending the second- and third-place jumpers, Rachel Glenn and Cunningham, but not Hufnagel.
Winger, 38, a Purdue graduate, finished second in the javelin in a bid to make a fifth Olympic team. She threw 206-6 on her final attempt.
She lacks the standard of 210 feet and has not competed in enough meets for a world ranking. Winger retired after a 2022 season in which she won a silver medal at the 2022 World Championships and set an American record of 223-5.
She came out of retirement last month.
“It was a success,” she said. “It just wasn’t enough of a success.”
Those with Indiana ties on the U.S. track and field team will be Cole Hocker, a Cathedral High graduate, in the 1,500 meters; Notre Dame graduate Yared Nuguse, also in the 1,500; Indianapolis resident Allie Wilson in the 800, and Terre Haute resident Erin Reese, an Indiana State graduate, in the hammer throw.
Contact IndyStar correspondent David Woods at dwoods1411@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.