On the southwest coast of Greece around 776 B.C, the popular sport of track and field was created. Although it didn’t look anything like it does now, it was still an important starting point for the sport. Now, track and field is one of the most predominant sports. This year, the World Championship was held in Budapest, Hungary from August 19th-27th. Many world class athletes competed in hopes of proving themselves good enough for a shot at the 2024 Paris Olympics next summer. 

Even though the U.S. didn’t have some of their strongest athletes, we still had some amazing performances. The U.S. dominated all other countries by winning 29 medals. The next closest competitor was Jamaica with 12 medals. The only relay the U.S. didn’t win gold in was the women’s 4×400m, in which they were disqualified. One standout relay was the mixed 4×400m. The U.S. was near the lead the whole time, but the Dutch team had their superstar woman as anchor, Femke Bol. No one thought the U.S. stood a chance, but our anchor, Alexis Holmes didn’t give up and stayed right with Bol. In the final few meters of the race, Bol went into the lead but took a hard fall and Holmes ran the U.S. through to a victory.

Here are some major highlights from the championships…

Sha’carri Richardson (USA) was not even in the picture when talking about a medal in the women’s 100m dash. She was an extreme underdog, failing to qualify in previous world championships. In spite of all of this, she blew past the competition to a gold victory.

Noah Lyles (USA) crushed all three of his races, winning gold in all of them–100m, 200m, and 4×100m relay. 

Faith Kipyegon (Kenya) won both the 1500m and the 5000m run for women. This woman is incredible, setting 3 world records within 2 months in the 1500m, 5000m, and one mile.

The men’s 1500m was crazy. Jakob Ingebrigtsen (Norway) was favored for an easy victory; however, Josh Kerr (Great Britain) gave him a run for his money. Kerr barely pushed past Ingebrigtsen at the very end to win the 1500m title. The crazy thing is that Kerr ran a 3:29.38. Ingebrigtsen ran a 3:29.65. Last year at the Worlds, Ingebrigtsen got second also to a Brit who ran a 3:29.23 while Ingebrigtsen ran a 3:29.47. 

In a shocking women’s 800m, Mary Moraa (Kenya) won against Keely Hodgkinson (Great Britain) and Athing Mu (USA). This was the first time in her professional career that Athing Mu has gotten beaten in an 800m race. Moraa was able to gut it out the last 100m leaving Hodgkinson (2nd) and Mu (3rd) in her dust. At the championships last year, Hodgkinson also won the silver with Mu claiming gold and Moraa with bronze.

This year, the Track and Field World Championships were very entertaining and fun to watch. Next summer during the Paris Olympics, be sure not to miss track and field!