As in previous years, athletes qualified for the men's Olympic Trials by competing in preliminary and semi-final tryouts; the two major collegiate championship meets (the NCAA championship and the IC4A championship) both had semi-final status.
Some events held as part of the national championships did not have Olympic qualifying status (due to those events not being contested at the Olympics), while some Olympic qualifying events were held separately from the Trials proper and did not in all cases have national championship status.