Louis Luchini is putting his Olympic dreams to rest for another four years. The former Ellsworth High star has decided not to make another attempt to run the Olympic A standard (13 minutes, 21.50 seconds) over 5 kilometers.

Luchini’s ongoing Achilles injury forced him to cut short an attempt at the standard on July 31 in Belgium. That was enough to convince him that another race would neither be successful; nor contribute to the speedy healing of his injury.

USA Track & Field, the sport’s governing body, nominated four athletes for the U.S. team after last month’s Olympic trials. Those athletes did not automatically make the team because all of them had not run the A standard. Countries are not allowed to send more than one athlete to the Olympics unless they have all achieved the A standard.

No athletes ran the A standard at the trials, and only one – Jonathon Riley – had achieved it in the past year. That meant that trials winner Tim Broe, Riley, Jorge Torres and Luchini were placed on the list for consideration. Only three athletes may compete at the games.

Those athletes have until Monday to run the A standard. Broe did that on July 30 in London, securing his and Riley’s places on the team. Torres fell short of the standard on July 31 in Belgium and it is not clear if he will race again.

Luchini injured his Achilles near the end of the 2003 outdoor track season. He managed to hold the pain at bay throughout most of his final year at Stanford University, earning All-American status in cross country and outdoor track and helping his team to the NCAA cross country title.

Luchini even ran a Stanford school record of 13.25.19 at the Mount San Antonio College Relays in April. But a 10-kilometer race a few weeks later aggravated the Achilles, and he was not able to train at full strength after that.

At just 23 years old and with sponsorship from Nike, Luchini has a promising future in American distance running.