Happy New Year, readers! As we take our first steps into 2025, there’s a heckuva lot of exciting track and field on the horizon. There are also a lot of unanswered questions lingering in our minds from the banner year that just wrapped up, setting the stage for a season that could see seismic changes across any number of events.

Many—if not most—of the biggest storylines won’t get resolved in the first month of the indoor season, but before you know it, performances will be coming fast and furious as rivalries are reignited, records are broken, and claims to various crowns are staked.

Without further ado, here are the most intriguing stories to watch in 2025:

The ascent of Letsile Tebogo

The freshly minted Olympic 200m champion carries the hopes of an entire continent on his shoulders. With three global medals to his name and personal bests of 9.86 in the 100m and 19.46 in the 200m, it’s easy to forget he’s still only 21 years old. Tebogo ended the year with a string of Diamond League wins (and one surprising loss in the final to Kenny Bednarek), but the most intriguing takeaway from the back half of his season may be the blazing-fast 43.03 relay split on the anchor of Botswana's 4x400m in Paris. Will Tebogo become unbeatable in his 200m specialty, expand his dominance to the 100m, or move to another distance entirely? All seem like real possibilities, but if there’s one thing you can bet on, it’s that Tebogo isn’t leaving the top of the sport any time soon.

The future of Jamaican sprinting

Paris was not exactly a shining beacon of success for Team Jamaica, particularly given its women’s incredible run of dominance over the last Olympic cycle, which peaked with podium sweeps of the 100m in both 2021 and 2022. Jamaican athletics fans got very used to seeing the ageless Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the clutch Elaine Thompson-Herah, and the insurgent Shericka Jackson dominating the rest of the world, and it didn’t seem like that was likely to change any time soon… until it did. An Achilles injury kept ETH off the Olympic team entirely, SAFP only ran one round of the 100m, and Jackson ultimately withdrew from both sprint events, ceding her global title in the 200m to Gabby Thomas. Is this the end of the road for the trio?

While Fraser-Pryce is the eldest, turning 38 just five days ago, she hasn’t announced any intention to step away, and Jackson, the youngest at 30, surely has the longest runway ahead of her. But while 2025 and/or 2026 may be a rebuilding phase for the Jamaicans, there’s no shortage of talented youth waiting in the wings. 20-year-old Tia Clayton was the sixth fastest 100m performer in the world this year and the men are already being led by 23-year-old silver medalist Kishane Thompson.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone takes on GST

The famous “Formula Kersee” cooked up in Los Angeles by longtime sprint guru Bobby Kersee is designed with one clear goal in mind: performing your best in the final of one or two championships a year. But his star pupil, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, has publicly signed on for eight lucrative, but non-championship races through the Grand Slam Track circuit this season. While SML is unlikely to face a serious challenge from her fellow signed Racers, simply meeting her own high standards over an elongated racing season will be a new test—both for her and the Formula. And there’s always the possibility that someone like Femke Bol could show up to one of the meets as a “Challenger” in hopes of catching McLaughlin-Levrone in cruise control and giving her a true scare down the home stretch.

What does the future hold for Eliud Kipchoge?

Was Eliud Kipchoge’s long walk home after dropping out of the Paris Olympic marathon a metaphorical departure from the sport, or simply a step into a new phase for the great Kenyan marathoner as he officially enters his 40s? It’s probably safe to say that he won’t be reclaiming his world record in the event, but there’s a huge gulf of possibility between 2:00 capability and embarking on a farewell tour/appearance-fee-bonanza. Kipchoge’s fellow Kenyan Edna Kiplagat is proof positive that competing in the master’s category and competing for World Marathon Major titles are not mutually exclusive, but eventually Father Time does catch up to everyone. Kipchoge has yet to share specific plans for his racing future, but it’s hard to imagine he wants to end his career on such a sad note.

Which world records are most likely to fall?

The easy answer to this question is that recently-broken records by stars who haven’t lost a step are not long for this world. That includes the women’s 1500m, the men’s shot put and discus, and of course Mondo Duplantis’s oft-reset pole vault mark. But more intriguing are the records that appear to be living on increasingly borrowed time, like the men’s 800m and 1500m—which have both seen aspirants inching closer and closer over the past year—or the women’s steeplechase, where Winfred Yavi got within a tenth of a second of Beatrice Chepkoech’s mark at the Rome Diamond League last summer.

Adding to the fun is the fact that for some notable records to fall, it may take some barrier-breaking as well. Resetting the men’s 400m world record (43.03) would likely necessitate the first sub-43 performance in history and the women’s 5000m (14:00.21), likewise, sub-14 (on the track). And marks that once seemed unassailable due to their dubious 1980s origin—like the women’s 400m and 800m—don’t seem quite as far off with stars like Marileidy Paulino and Keely Hodgkinson on the rise.

Who can stop Beatrice Chebet?

The best distance runner in the world right now isn’t Jakob Ingebrigtsen or Joshua Cheptegei or even Faith Kipyegon. It’s fairly inarguable at this point that the title belongs to Beatrice Chebet, whose 2024 season included a World XC title (her second), world records at 10,000m and the road 5k, and two individual Olympic titles. In a golden age for women’s distance running where titans like Kipyegon, Gudaf Tsegay, and Sifan Hassan are regularly slugging it out on the track, Chebet has consistently defeated them all. And there isn’t even really an heir apparent to point to as a future threat, in part because Chebet, at just 24 years old, is likely just entering her prime. She’s not in the all-time great conversation quite yet, but another double victory and a successful crack at the 5000m WR could put her at least within comparison range of folks like Tirunesh Dibaba and Vivian Cheruiyot.

Is Joshua Cheptegei the next great marathoner?

The Ugandan nicknamed “the Silverback Gorilla” has little work left unfinished on the track. He’s the reigning world record holder at 5000m and 10,000m, the 5000m Olympic champion in Tokyo, and most impressively, the gold medalist in four of the last five 10,000m championships, his only blemish a silver medal in 2021. Cheptegei has expressed a desire to focus more on the roads moving forward, and while his 2:08:59 marathon debut in Valencia last December would be solid by just about anyone else’s standards, it was considered disastrous for Cheptegei, who only finished 37th overall and slowed mightily in the second half.

A sophomore effort with a little more dedicated focus seems highly likely in 2025, and while others on a similar trajectory have seen mixed results—both Mo Farah and Kenenisa Bekele’s marathoning careers have seen brief highs, but not true dominance—Cheptegei, at 28 years old, has plenty of time to forge his own second act.