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U.S. Championships Women's 100m/200m Preview: Melissa Jefferson-Wooden Takes On The Best

By David Melly

July 28, 2025

Buckle up track and field fans. The most high-octane four-day stretch of sprinting and hurdling imaginable is set to get underway Thursday at increasingly historic New Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon. If you just can’t get enough track and field coverage, there’s plenty more where that came from:

- Each day before the meet begins, tune in to Good Morning Track and Field (presented by Beekeeper Coffee), where Eric Jenkins and Aisha Praught-Leer give their takes on the action and happenings in Eugene. (Also available on the Off The Rails Podcast feed.)

- After each day at the track, tune in for CHAMPS CHATS—Chris Chavez, Eric, Aisha, Anderson Emerole, and Paul Hof-Mahoney will break down all of the results and offer up their analysis from each day’s competition. (Also available on the CITIUS MAG Podcast feed.)

- The CITIUS MAG Newsletter will be hitting your inbox daily with a recap of results and a round-up of the best content from the day.

- And for those in Eugene, we’ll be hosting two group runs with New Balance, Saturday and Sunday at 8 a.m. PT, meeting in front of Agate Alley on 1461 E. 19th Avenue. There will be coffee, treats, free “I Love Track and Field” t-shirts and the chance to try out the new FuelCell Rebel v5 and FuelCell SuperComp Elite v5. It’s going to be a great time!

Without further ado, here’s your full preview of the top storylines and athletes to watch in the women's 100m and 200m at the U.S. Championships:

Gabby ThomasGabby Thomas

Gabby Thomas | Photo by Kevin Morris / @kevmofoto

Women’s 100m

Schedule + How To Watch

Heats: Thursday, July 31st at 3:47 p.m. PT (Watch it on USATF.TV)

Semifinals: Friday, Aug. 1st at 4:20 p.m. PT (Watch it on USATF.TV)

Final: Friday, Aug. 1st at 6:36 p.m. PT (Watch it on USATF.TV)

Last year's Olympic team: Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, Sha’Carri Richardson, and TeeTee Terry

Who has the World Championship qualifying standard or is in the World Rankings quota: The U.S. has a whopping 28 women who have run under the World Championships standard of 11.07, one more in the World Rankings quota, and Richardson has already qualified via the defending World champ wild card.

Top Contenders: After the way this spring has gone, all signs point to Melissa Jefferson-Wooden winning her second—and possibly third—national title this weekend. Jefferson-Wooden, the 2022 U.S. 100m champ, has only gotten better in the three years since, following up an Olympic bronze in 2024 with a stellar start to 2025, running PBs in both the 100m and 200m, winning five of her six Grand Slam Track races, and defeating Olympic champ Julien Alfred at the Prefontaine Classic. She’s the fastest woman in the world this year, and the fastest American by over a tenth of a second as she enters with a 10.73 SB, well ahead of Tee Tee Terry and Jacious Sears, both at 10.85. Her biggest threat would likely come from a top-form Sha’Carri Richardson, but we haven’t seen that yet this season. Richardson has only run two races and didn’t run faster than 11.19 or finish higher than fourth in either. Plus, given she has a bye into Worlds, Richardson may not even contest the event and may choose to focus on just the 200m instead.

The other two spots will likely come from some combination of Sears, Terry, Aleia Hobbs, and Tamari Davis. Sears and Hobbs both have the talent to make the team but have occasionally struggled with injuries, so for them the biggest challenge may be getting to the finish line healthy, three rounds in a row. Terry and Davis have a great record of performing well at U.S. Championships: Davis finished fourth, third, and fourth at the last three USAs, and Terry has finished third, sixth, and third.

Dark Horses: In some sense, it feels wrong to call the top two finishers from NCAAs “dark horses,” but USC’s Samirah Moody is only ninth on the entry list and South Carolina’s JaMeesia Ford has a stronger resume as a 200m runner. But either has a shot to make the team if not too burned out by a long collegiate season.

The other name you shouldn’t sleep on in both the 100m and 200m is Anavia Battle. Battle doesn’t have the shiniest SBs of anyone on the list (10.98 and 22.27), but she has done nothing but win so far this year, going undefeated in all seven of her individual races, including four Diamond League victories.

One Good Stat: 2011. That was the last time the U.S. Championships didn’t feature either Jenna Prandini, English Gardner, or both. Gardner, 33, will be contesting her 12th USAs and Prandini, 32, is at her 11th, an incredible string of consistency from the beloved former Oregon Ducks, who are sure to get enormous cheers from the Hayward faithful.

Women's 200m

Schedule + How To Watch

Heats: Saturday, Aug. 1st at 11:48 a.m. PT (Watch it on USATF.TV)

Semifinals: Sunday, Aug. 3rd at 12:32 p.m. PT (Watch it on USATF.TV)

Final: Sunday, Aug. 3rd at 2:13 p.m. PT (Watch it on NBC, Peacock)

Last year's Olympic team: Brittany Brown, McKenzie Long, and Gabby Thomas

Who has the World Championship qualifying standard or is in the World Rankings quota: The U.S. has 23 women who have run under the World Championships standard of 22.57 and five women in the World Rankings quota.

Top Contenders: Bet against Olympic champ Gabby Thomas at your own peril… BUT Thomas has lost to two other women in this field in the last year: Melissa Jefferson-Wooden at the Philly GST meet, and Brittany Brown at last year’s Athlos NYC event. Brown has been ramping back up throughout the season after undergoing laparoscopic surgery for endometriosis this winter, but the Olympic bronze medalist is rounding into form nicely with a season’s best 22.17 in her most recent race at the Ed Murphey Classic.

McKenzie Long won that race in 21.93, and she also seems to be finding her best form of the year at just the right time. But the women’s 200m is a crowded field this year, with four Americans under 22 seconds already in 2025, plus Sha’Carri Richardson, who finished fourth in this event after winning the 100m at last year’s Trials. Will racing the 200m fresh be what she needs to land on the podium?

Dark Horses: JaMeesia Ford has a better shot at making her first U.S. team in this event than the 100m, but unfortunately for her and NCAA runner-up Madison Whyte, the competition is way stiffer here than the last time they came to Eugene.

And much like in the 100m, Anavia Battle could surprise a lot of people. She also could make the team for Tokyo without finishing top three. This is one of the events where the U.S. doesn’t have a reigning World champion but Battle has a legitimate shot of winning the Diamond League final to secure a wildcard entry that way.

One Good Stat: Eight out of 10 of the fastest 200m runners in the world this year are American. The sole exceptions are Julien Alfred and Favour Ofili, who both came through the NCAA system and still train in the U.S.

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David Melly

David began contributing to CITIUS in 2018, and quickly cemented himself as an integral part of the team thanks to his quick wit, hot takes, undying love for the sport and willingness to get yelled at online.