Marathon officials in Boston and New York are already eager to bring the 2012 Olympic trials back to their cities, as long as the sport's governing body helps them recoup the $1 million it cost to piggyback another event on their races.

"There's no going back at this point," said Mary Wittenberg, the president of the New York Road Runners, which organizes the New York Marathon. "We've taken the trials to a whole new level. I think we're shortchanging everybody if we don't find a way to build on it."

Although trials are common in most Olympic sports, including other running events, the nature of the 26.2-mile marathon makes it difficult to add another race into the athletic calendar. Virtually every other country picks its marathon team by committee; Boston men's winner Robert Cheruiyot of Kenya and women's winner Dire Tune of Ethiopia hope their efforts on Monday will earn them a trip to Beijing.

"That is complicated," said Cheruiyot, a four-time Boston winner who was left off the Kenyan team for the Athens Olympics. "I may be there; I may not. But I hope to be there."

Less complicated is a race where the top three finishers make the team. And that's the allure of the trials.

After decades of holding distinct, but largely ignored, marathons to choose the Olympic teams -- for the 2004 Games, the trials were in St. Louis and Birmingham, Ala. -- USA Track and Field assigned the Beijing qualifiers to the country's most prestigious races.

But the men didn't traverse the five boroughs along the traditional New York route; nor did the women head from Hopkinton to Boston on Patriots Day as thousands of runners have done for a century. Instead, the would-be Olympians followed specially designed courses, a day before the traditional races.

"I think it put American distance running in a whole new light," Boston Athletic Association executive director Guy Morse said Tuesday. "U.S. athletes deserve this sort of stage."

Deena Kastor, Magdalena Lewy Boulet and Blake Russell qualified for Beijing on Sunday with their 1-2-3 finish in Boston. Ryan Hall, Dathan Ritzenhein and Brian Sell earned spots on the U.S. men's team with their top-three finishes in New York in November.

Both courses were lined with fans, many of them runners in town for the next day's race. But the extra event cost New York and Boston officials more than $1 million each.

"We don't believe it should be incumbent upon the local organizing committee to have to support it 100 percent," Morse said. "We knew that going in, and we made that commitment. But we won't do it again" under those conditions.

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The Americans (3-0) have outscored their opponents 17-2 at the six-team event, which they must win in order to advance to the Beijing Olympics. By winning this event, the U.S. would compete in the Olympics for the first time since 1996, when it qualified as the host country.

MANAUDOU OUT: World-record holder Laure Manaudou won't compete in the 200-meter freestyle at the Beijing Olympics after pulling out of the event at the French national trials Tuesday.

Manaudou was fourth in the heats to qualify for the semifinals but decided not to swim, forfeiting a chance to compete in the race at the Aug. 8-24 Games.