Men's 100m

Schedule + How To Watch

Heats: Thursday, July 31st at 4:13 p.m. PT (Watch it on USATF.TV)

Semifinals: Friday, Aug. 1st at 3:58 p.m. PT (Watch it on USATF.TV)

Final: Friday, Aug. 1st at 6:50 p.m. PT (Watch it on USATF.TV)

Last year's Olympic team: Kenny Bednarek, Fred Kerley, and Noah Lyles

Who has the World Championship qualifying standard or is in the World Rankings quota: The U.S. has nine men who have run under the World Championships standard of 10.00, four men in the World Rankings quota, and Lyles has already qualified via the defending World champ wildcard.

Top Contenders: Noah Lyles has declared for this event, but he told CITIUS MAG in London he’d only be contesting the 200m. The reigning World Champ will make the team either way via his wild card, but if he does opt to double, he’ll have his hands full with Trayvon Bromell and Kenny Bednarek, the two men who’ve been the most consistently great this year. Bromell enters with the fastest wind-legal time at 9.84 and Bednarek ran a wind-aided 9.79 at GST Miami. Bednarek is 0-4 against Bromell in career 100m finals, but they haven’t raced head-to-head in the event since 2022 and Bednarek is inarguably a better 100-meter runner now than he was three years ago.

Speaking of head-to-head rivalries, Kerley is 7-5 against Bromell in their careers and 5-2 against Bednarek. Even though the 2022 World champion hasn’t quite performed up to his potential thus far this season, he’s got a stellar track record of peaking when the stakes are high and can’t be counted out. Similarly to Kerley, Christian Coleman only has a wind-legal season’s best of 10.06 and hasn’t won a single individual race in nine attempts this year, but his fourth-place finish in 2024 was his lowest he’s finished at a U.S. championships since 2016 (although he didn’t compete in 2018 and 2021 and skipped the final in 2022).

Dark Horses: Brand new pro Jordan Anthony (formerly of Arkansas) and T’Mars McCallum (still at Tennessee) have both shown flashes of brilliance this year. Anthony won NCAA titles over 60m and 100m, running a slightly wind-aided 9.75 (+2.1), and McCallum ran 9.87 (+2.1) in the 100m and 19.73 in the 200m at the Ed Murphey Classic. How they’ll fare over three rounds of professional competition remains to be seen, however.

Others who can’t be counted out include Brandon Hicklin, who finished fourth (second American) at both the Pre Classic and Rome Diamond League, and Courtney Lindsey, who’s stronger over 200m but finished sixth in the 100m last year and should be right there if one of the presumptive favorites falters.

One Good Stat: The last five U.S. 100m finals have produced five different champions: Lyles in 2024, Cravont Charleston in 2023, Kerley in 2022, Bromell in 2021, and Coleman in 2019. Lyles is the only active sprinter with multiple titles in the event (he won in 2018 as well)—will a fellow former champ join him this year?

Men's 200m

Schedule + How To Watch

Heats: Saturday, Aug. 1st at 11:22 a.m. PT (Watch it on USATF.TV)

Semifinals: Sunday, Aug. 3rd at 12:05 p.m. PT (Watch it on USATF.TV)

Final: Sunday, Aug. 3rd at 2:22 p.m. PT (Watch it on NBC, Peacock)

Last year's Olympic team: Kenny Bednarek, Erriyon Knighton, and Noah Lyles

Who has the World Championship qualifying standard or is in the World Rankings quota: The U.S. has 11 men who have run under the World Championships standard of 20.16, one more in the World Rankings quota, and Lyles has already qualified in this event via the defending World champ wildcard, too.

Top Contenders: If Noah Lyles runs all three rounds of the 200m, as he previously indicated he plans to, he’ll be the heavy favorite to win his fifth national title in the event. But he will have to fend off a strong challenge from Bednarek, who as you may remember, has beaten Lyles in two of the last four global 200m finals.

Knighton is a bigger question mark, as he’s only raced one 200m (indoors) this year and hasn’t raced at all since April 19. At his best, he’s certainly capable of finishing top four (as Lyles finishing top three unlocks another spot on Team USA), but who knows what cards he’s holding at the moment. That could open the door for 21-year-old T’Mars McCallum—who’s the second seed at 19.73 but is largely an unproven commodity at this level of competition—or Courtney Lindsey, who made the 200m team with a third-place finish at USAs in 2023.

Dark Horses: The men’s 200m is a fairly static event, all things considered, and one that hasn’t presented many surprises at USAs over the last few years. Their respective performances in the 100m will tell us how realistic a chance Fred Kerley and Christian Coleman have to make the team in the 200m—if they’re not contending for spots in the final of the shorter distance, it’s not likely they will fare any better two days later.

One name to keep an eye on is Robert Gregory. The Florida alum finished fourth in the 200m at Pre (second American) in a season’s best 20.04, and should one or more of the major players falter, getting back to his 19.89 PB could be enough to land on the team this year.

One Good Stat: With McCallum in the mix, it’s likely there will be at least one collegiate athlete who makes the 200m final here—something that’s happened in every U.S. Championship dating back to 2016. That year, however, featured two high school standouts in the eight-man race: Michael Norman and Noah Lyles.

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