INDIANAPOLIS — Three Olympic gold medalists from Tokyo and 17 defending champions will headline the return of the USATF Indoor Track & Field Championships presented by BD on February 26-27. The Championships return after a COVID-19 hiatus that saw the meet canceled in 2021 for the first time in its lengthy and storied history. Hosted at The Podium, the brand new and sparkling facility in downtown Spokane, Washington, the meet is also the qualifying event for the 2022 World Athletics World Indoor Championships, to be held March 18-20 in Belgrade, Serbia. The meet was last held in 2018 as the 2020 edition scheduled to be held in Nanjing, China was postponed to 2023. World indoor and outdoor men’s shot put record-holder and reigning Olympic champion Ryan Crouser will be one of the marquee attractions as he tries to improve on the 22.82m/74-10.5 he threw indoors last year to break a 30-year-old global standard. Crouser set a meet record at Albuquerque in 2020 with a 22.60m/74-1.75 toss. In the women’s pole vault, Katie Nageotte will go head-to-head against reigning champion Sandi Morris in a matchup of two of the best vaulters in the world. Nageotte captured Olympic gold at Tokyo last summer, while Morris is the reigning USATF Indoors champion. The other gold medalist from Tokyo, 4x400m relayist Trevor Stewart, will contest the men’s 400m. Undefeated in more than 50 consecutive indoor 60m hurdles races, world record holder Grant Holloway is seeking his first USATF Indoors gold. Holloway, the 2019 110m hurdles world champion and Olympic silver medalist, won three straight NCAA indoor 60H golds for Florida and is almost invincible over five barriers. He tops the world list this season with a 7.35, just 0.06 off the WR he set at Madrid last March. World record holder and two-time USATF Indoors champion Christian Coleman heads a men’s 60m field that promises fireworks. 2017 champion Ronnie Baker is the third-fastest man in history in the event and Marvin Bracy won three straight indoor titles from 2014-16. Veteran Mike Rodgers also has three national 60m golds in his trophy case, the first dating back to 2008. Winner of six women’s 800m crowns, including the past three in a row, Ajee’ Wilson is the American indoor record holder and will toe the line against U.S. list leader Olivia Baker and high schooler Sophia Gorriaran, along with Brooke Feldmeier. That trio have all run faster than 2:01 this year and will provide a strong challenge for Wilson. Not to be outdone, the men’s 800m features American indoor and outdoor record holder and reigning world outdoor champion Donavan Brazier battling 2020 champion Bryce Hoppel. Those two can’t overlook newcomer Shane Streich, who bettered Hoppel’s American indoor record in the 1,000m this season, or veteran Erik Sowinski, twice a U.S. indoor champion in this event. Three members of the 6-meter club are slated to compete in the men’s pole vault, where Tokyo silver medalist Chris Nilsen hopes to improve on his 6.02m/19-9 jump three weeks ago in France that bettered the existing AR, held by Sam Kendricks, by one centimeter. Kendricks, the two-time world outdoor champion and outdoor American record holder, won three straight U.S. indoor titles from 2015-17 and would love to reclaim the top spot. KC Lightfoot was fourth at the Olympic Games last summer after winning the NCAA indoor crown for Baylor and cleared 6.00m/19-8.25 last February. The first man since Jim Thorpe in 1912 to qualify for the Olympics in the high jump and long jump, JuVaughn Harrison will compete in both here. He leads the U.S. list in 2022 with a 2.32m/7-7.25 in the high jump and his 8.45m/27-8.75 last March made him the third-best performer in U.S. indoor history. Vashti Cunningham has ruled the American women’s high jump scene since claiming her first national indoor title in 2016, winning five in a row and also taking the gold at the 2016 World Indoor Championships. Whether tactical affairs or flat-out footraces, the 1,500m and 3,000m are always fan favorites at this meet. That should be the order of the day again in Spokane with a bevy of top distance stars vying for Belgrade berths. Elle Purrier St. Pierre, who set an American indoor record in the women’s mile two years ago, leads the national list in the 1,500m this year at 4:02.13, a time set en route to her 4:19.30 mile victory at the Millrose Games. She is also entered in the 3,000m, where she will likely face USATF Cross Country Championships winner Alicia Monson, who is atop the U.S. list with an 8:31.62 clocking. Defending men’s 1,500m champion Josh Thompson is up against a very strong group that includes Tokyo 10th-place finisher Cole Hocker and his former Oregon teammate Cooper Teare. Those two both came close to cracking the 3:50 barrier in the mile earlier this month, and added pressure will come from Colby Alexander, who had a stellar start to 2022 with a pair of top-three finishes at Millrose and the New Balance GP. Johnny Gregorek can’t be overlooked, sporting the second-fastest indoor mile time in U.S. history at 3:49.98. Both multi-event competitions have the top Americans slated to compete, with Garrett Scantling already putting himself in line for an invitation to Belgrade in the men’s heptathlon on the basis of his 8,647 decathlon score in 2021, and Kendell Williams holding an invite due to her win in the World Athletics Combined Events Tour last year. Other events of interest include the women’s triple jump, where Keturah Orji and three-time champ and reigning gold medalist Tori Franklin will face off again after a 2020 competition that saw the American indoor record trade hands during the event. Orji finished in the top five at the last two World Indoor Championships and is the outdoor American record holder. In the men’s triple jump, three-time winner Donald Scott and two-time World Indoors champion Will Claye have won the last four titles between them. Fans can view a full schedule of events here, while live results can be found here. The 2022 USATF Indoor Championships presented by BD will be streamed live on USATF.TV+ from noon to 5:00 p.m. ET on Saturday, February 26 and from 12:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, February 27 and will be broadcast live on CNBC and Peacock from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. ET both days. USATF.TV+ will have unprecedented coverage of field events with individual live feeds of each event. Additional viewing information can be found here. Join the conversation with USATF on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook using the hashtag #USATFIndoors.