Record-Breaking Extreme Heat Forced Suspension Of Sunday’s Olympic Track & Field Trials

“It’s crazy. I wasn’t expecting it to be this humid,” a high jump competitor at the US Olympic track and field trials in Eugene, Oregon told the Associated Press over a blistering weekend of record Pacific Northwest temperatures. 

At about 3pm on Sunday event officials declared the trials postponed for the day as temperatures soared past 105° F, causing at one point an athlete to be removed from the stadium in a wheelchair. 

US Olympic Track & Field Trials in Eugene, Ore. get pushed to tonight as outside temperature gets as high as 110 degrees, track temperature approaches 150. pic.twitter.com/jaXptYYyfF

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) June 27, 2021

“The AP notes that due to the humidity, the temperatures felt closer to 113° F by the mid-afternoon,” The Hill wrote. “Portland has reached 112 degrees, marking the hottest day recorded since 1940.”

Spectators were actually asked to evacuate the premises once the call was made to pause events, which later resumed in the evening once the temperature fell. 

This after Heptathlon competitor Talyah Brooks passed out during a warm up as surface temperatures on the track reportedly reached 150 degrees. According to one report:

After Brooks was assisted off the track in a wheelchair and received medical treatment, her request to re-enter competition for the javelin and 800 meters Sunday night was granted by the USATF Games Committee.

But Brooks, who fainted while warming up for the javelin, eventually decided to withdraw from the competition.

“Taliyah Brooks, an NCAA champion at the University of Arkansas, fainted in the heat while warming up to throw the javelin in the heptathlon during the US Olympic Track and Field Trials. The temperature hit 112° in Eugene on Sunday afternoon when Brooks was overcome by the heat.” pic.twitter.com/CVNRMGsahq

— Peter Flax (@Pflax1) June 28, 2021

One sports reporter recorded an unprecedented surface temperature, showing what track competitors are up against as they get into their blocks on a scorching surface…

Temperature of track at US Olympic Trials today in Eugene, Ore. (📸 by @jeffcohenphoto) pic.twitter.com/dEuKVwGnyF

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) June 27, 2021

Sunday was the tenth and final day of the US Olympic track and field event trials, which have now been concluded. 

A “historic” heat wave transformed the US Pacific Northwest into a furnace this weekend, as we previously detailed, with the record temperatures set to continue into Monday.

This weekend’s heat advisory “Red Flag warning”:

Heat waves such as this one have been impacting much of the western half of the US this year, sparking a megadrought, fallow lands, and soon-to-be grasshopper plague that may decimate crops further.