Track Trials: When Will the Next Generation of US Men's 100M Sprinters Arrive?

USA Swimming’s Olympic trials saw a changing of the guard, with Natalie Coughlin and Tyler Clary showing no veteran’s spot is safe.

Don’t expect the same at USA Track and Field’s Olympic trials, at least not in the marquee event of the men’s 100 meters, where familiar 30-somethings like Justin Gatlin, Tyson Gay and Mike Rodgers have not yet passed the torch to the new wave. The succession from Carl Lewis to Leroy Burrell to Dennis Mitchell to Maurice Greene to Gatlin and Gay seems stuck in place.

Thirty isn’t ancient by sprinting standards. Usain Bolt turns 30 on the last day of the Games. Kim Collins is still a contender at age 40. But where is the next generation?

The breakthrough sprinters…