Women

World Record: 16.23, Shaunae Miller-Uibo, Bahamas, 8/20/2018

American Record: 16.30, Tori Bowie, 4/6/18

Featured Athlete

 

USA

Age: 26

150m Personal Best: 16.89 (2020)

Career Highlights:

• 2020 Olympic Bronze Medalist, 200m
• 2020 Olympic Silver Medalist, 4x100m
• 2018 NCAA Indoor Champion, 200m
• 4th-Fastest Woman in History, 200m (21.61, 2021)

Born in Atlanta, Gabby Thomas lived in Marietta until the age of 11, attending Pace Academy and playing soccer with Cobb FC. Her mother, Jennifer Randall, taught social studies at Campbell High School while studying for her PhD at Emory University; they moved north when she became a professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. After winning 11 New England prep titles (100m, 200m, relays, long jump, triple jump), Thomas went on to compete for Harvard University. There, she became the first female sprinter from the Ivy League to earn an NCAA indoor title when she won at 200 meters in 2018, setting a collegiate record (22.38, since broken) in the process. After her 2018 collegiate season, Thomas decided to forgo the remainder of her eligibility, but went on to graduate with a degree in neurobiology. In 2021, at the Olympic Marathon Trials, she destroyed the 200-meter field in 21.61, still the second-fastest U.S. time in history behind only Florence Griffith-Joyner. Slowed by injury in 2022, she  has come back strong in 2023 – winning both the 100m and 200m at the Texas Relays in early April, then taking the 200m-400m double at the Texas Invitational last weekend in 22.21 in a huge PB of 49.68.

Of Note: After her sophomore year at Harvard, Thomas opted to spend the summer in Senegal on a study program instead of competing at the USATF Outdoor Championships … Wrote on Instagram in 2021 that her long-term career goal is “to transform the healthcare industry through sustainable community efforts, with a focus on mental health resources.”

Current Atlanta Ties: Thomas’s father, Desmond, still lives in Atlanta and owns Groove On Entertainment, a DJ business.

 

Other Notable Athletes

USA

Age: 24

150m PB:  16.53 (2021)

Career Highlights:

• 2020 Olympic Gold Medalist, 4x400m relay
• 2020 Olympic Bronze Medalist, 4x400m mixed relay
• 2022 USATF Indoor Champion, 400m
• 2018 NCAA Champion, 400m

Georgia Connection: Irby-Jackson competed for the University of Georgia.

 

Tynia Gaither

Bahamas

Age: 28

150m PB:  16.65 (2021)

Career Highlights:

• 2016 Olympian, 100m and 200m
• 2020 Olympian, 100m
• 6-time National Champion
   

Men

World Record: 14.35, Usain Bolt, Jamaica, 5/17/2009

American Record: 14.41, Tyson Gay, 5/16/2010

Featured Athletes

 

USA

Age: 25

150m Personal Best: 14.69 (2019)

100m PB: 9.86 (2019)

200m PB: 19.31 (2022, AR)

Career Highlights:

• 3-time World Athletics Champion, 200m (2019, 2022); 4x100m (2019)
• American Record-holder, 200m (19.31, set in winning 2022 World Championships)
• American record-holder, 4x100m relay (2019, set in winning 2019 World Championships)
• 2020 Olympic Games Bronze Medalist, 200m

Noah Lyles burst onto the national scene when, still in high school, he finished fourth in the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials at 200m, just missing out on a spot in Rio but breaking a 31-year-old high school record. At the end of his senior year, he won 100m gold at the World Under-20 Championships. Just days later, Lyles and his brother, Josephus – who is also competing here – were the first male sprinters to turn professional right out of high school when they signed a contract with adidas. A 200m world title in 2019 was followed by a “disappointing” bronze medal at the delayed 2020 Games, after which Lyles acknowledged that his ongoing struggle with depression worsened during the isolation of COVID. A performer needs an audience, he realized through therapy, and his mojo returned along with the fans to stadiums. Last year, before an ecstatic home crowd at the World Championships in Eugene, Lyles broke Michael Johnson’s 26-year-old American Record in torching the 200m field to win in 19.31.

Off-Track Interests: Anime (he wears anime-themed socks in his racing spikes), painting, drawing, creating music, and fashion – including appearances at the Met Gala and walking the runway during Paris Fashion Week.

Notable Quote: “Everybody wants a rival, but my goal is to run so fast I don’t have a rival.”

 

USA

Age: 19

150m Personal Best: N/A

100m PB: 10.04 (2022)

200m PB: 19.49 (2022, U-20 Record)

Career Highlights:

• 2022 World Championships Bronze Medalist, 200m
• 4th, 2020 Olympic Games, 200m
• World Under-20 Record-holder (200m, 19.49, April 30, 2022)

A track and football star at Hillsborough High School in Tampa – he had football scholarship offers from Alabama, Auburn, Florida State and Florida – Knighton signed a pro contract in 2021, when he was just a junior. On May 31 of that year, the 17-year-old set a World Under-18 record at 200 meters (20.11), breaking Usain Bolt's U18 record by two-hundredths of a second. He lowered that to 19.84. in making the U.S. Olympic team in June. He has also demolished Bolt’s U20 record, running 19.49 – so far – to Bolt’s 19.93. That time makes him the fifth-fastest man of any age over the distance. At the Tokyo Olympics, he was the youngest male to represent the U.S. in track and field since Jim Ryun in 1964, and when he earned bronze at last summer’s World Championships, he became the youngest-ever individual sprint medalist in the event’s history.

Notable Quote: Asked by an LA Times reporter last year what question he would ask himself, Knighton replied: “Do you ever get scared? Yeah, that’s a good one. Because I damn sure don’t get scared.”

Other Notable Athletes

Trinidad and Tobago

Age: 29

150m PB: 14.75 (2021)

Career Highlights:

• 2022 Commonwealth Games Champion, 200m
• 2022 Commonwealth Games Champion 4x400m relay
• 2022 World Indoor Champion, 400m
• 2017 World Championships Bronze Medalist, 200m
• 2017 World Champion, 4x400m relay
• 2020 Olympic Games finalist, 200m

  

Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake

Great Britain

Age: 29

150m PB: 14.81 (2018)

Career Highlights:

• 2017 World Champion, 4x100m relay
• 2019 World Championships Silver Medalist, 4x100m relay
• 2022 World Championships Bronze Medalist, 4x100m relay
• 2-time European Championships Silver Medalist, 200m (2018, 2022)
• 2-time Olympian, 200m (2016, 2020)