Julien Alfred celebrates her 100m win at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (© Getty Images)
As the year draws to a close, we look back at the key moments of 2024 in each area of the sport.
The series begins with a review of the sprints and will be followed over the coming days by reviews of all the other event groups.
Women’s 100m
Season top list
| 10.71 | Sha’Carri Richardson (USA) | Eugene | 22 June |
| 10.72 | Julien Alfred (LCA) | Paris | 3 August |
| 10.77 | Jacious Sears (USA) | Gainesville | 13 April |
| 10.80 | Melissa Jefferson (USA) | Eugene | 22 June |
| 10.84 | Shericka Jackson (JAM) | Kingston | 28 June |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Julien Alfred (LCA) | 1473 |
| 2 | Sha’Carri Richardson (USA) | 1431 |
| 3 | Dina Asher-Smith (GBR) | 1391 |
| 4 | Daryll Neita (GBR) | 1381 |
| 5 | Tamari Davis (USA) | 1367 |
Olympic medallists
| 🥇 | Julien Alfred (LCA) | 10.72 NR |
| 🥈 | Sha'Carri Richardson (USA) | 10.87 |
| 🥉 | Melissa Jefferson (USA) | 10.92 |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
Olympic Games: Julien Alfred (LCA) 10.72
World Indoor Championships (60m): Julien Alfred (LCA) 6.98
Wanda Diamond League: Julien Alfred (LCA) 10.88
European Championships: Dina Asher-Smith (GBR) 10.99
African Championships: Gina Bass Bittaye (GAM) 11.14
Oceanian Championships: Ella Connolly (AUS) 11.41
World U20 Championships: Alana Reid (JAM) 11.17
Season snapshot
- Triple NCAA champion Julien Alfred graduated to become the best female sprinter in the world, winning three major titles this year. She gave the first hint of her progress at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow in March where she won her first international title over 60m.
- Her main course was the Olympic gold medal, where she set a Saint Lucian record of 10.72 to upset the world champion Sha’Carri Richardson, who took the silver (10.87), with Richardson's training partner Melissa Jefferson claiming the bronze (10.92). For dessert, Alfred completed a dominant season by winning the Wanda Diamond League final in Brussels (10.88).
- Alfred became the first athlete from Saint Lucia (population 180,000) to win both an Olympic medal and a gold medal, highlighting the Caribbean region’s position as the global cradle for sprinting.
- The silver medal was Olympic redemption for Richardson and her winning time of 10.71 at the US Olympic trials in Eugene remained the fastest time of the year.
- The world’s most famous sprint nursery, Jamaica, was pushed off the Olympic podium for the first time since 1988. Seventh-placed Tia Clayton (11.04) was the best Jamaican finisher and also the youngest in the final at 19. She set a personal best of 10.86 to win her first national senior title in June.
- Jamaica’s only international women’s 100m title in 2024 came from Alana Reid (11.17) at the World U20 Championships in Lima, Peru. Jamaica will have to look to this new generation for medal contenders at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Men’s 100m
Season top list
| 9.77 | Kishane Thompson (JAM) | Kingston | 28 June |
| 9.79 | Ferdinand Omanyala (KEN) | Nairobi | 15 June |
| 9.79 | Noah Lyles (USA) | Paris | 4 August |
| 9.81 | Fred Kerley (USA) | Paris | 4 August |
| 9.81 | Oblique Seville (JAM) | Paris | 4 August |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Noah Lyles (USA) | 1466 |
| 2 | Akani Simbine (RSA) | 1437 |
| 3 | Fred Kerley (USA) | 1425 |
| 4 | Christian Coleman (USA) | 1414 |
| 5 | Kishane Thompson (JAM) | 1412 |
Olympic medallists
| 🥇 | Noah Lyles (USA) | 9.79 PB |
| 🥈 | Kishane Thompson (JAM) | 9.79 |
| 🥉 | Fred Kerley (USA) | 9.81 |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
Olympic Games: Noah Lyles (USA) 9.79
World Indoor Championships (60m): Christian Coleman (USA) 6.41
Wanda Diamond League: Ackeem Blake (JAM) 9.93
European Championships: Marcell Jacobs (ITA) 10.02
African Championships: Joseph Fahnbulleh (LBR) 10.13
Oceanian Championships: Josh Azzopardi (AUS) 10.33
World U20 Championships: Bayanda Walaza (RSA) 10.19
Season snapshot
- Timing is everything at the Olympics and world 100m champion Noah Lyles got it just right to win the fastest 100m final in history by a tiny margin – just 0.005 of a second – from Jamaica’s new contender Kishane Thompson. They were only separated by the photo finish camera as both men crossed the finish line in 10.79.
- This was the closest Olympic final in history right through the field, with bronze medallist Fred Kerley only 0.02 slower, and all eight men within 0.12 of the winner. It was the first time that all eight men in the final had broken 10 seconds in a wind-legal race.
- However, this was another agonising outcome for perennial contender Akani Simbine, who set a South African record of 9.82 but finished fourth for the second consecutive Games. He has now finished in the top five in the last three Olympic finals (fifth in 2016), a remarkable feat of consistency, but he does not have an individual medal to show for it.
- Tokyo Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs made a decent fist of his title defence, setting a season’s best of 9.85 for fifth place, his fastest time since his surprise victory in Tokyo. He also won his second consecutive European title (10.02) in front of his home crowd in Rome in June.
- Thompson, 23, was the breakthrough sprinter of the year, and ended 2024 with the fastest time of 9.77, recorded as he won the Jamaican title in June. This stands as the quickest 100m since 2022, when Kerley won the world title in 9.76.
- Christian Coleman could not convert his 60m form to the longer straight sprint this year, but had the consolation of winning his second world indoor title, reclaiming the crown in Glasgow.
Women’s 200m
Season top list
| 21.78 | Gabby Thomas (USA) | Eugene | 28 June |
| 21.83 | McKenzie Long (USA) | Eugene | 8 June |
| 21.86 | Julien Alfred (LCA) | London | 20 July |
| 21.90 | Brittany Brown (USA) | Eugene | 29 June |
| 21.92 | Sha'Carri Richardson (USA) | Eugene | 28 June |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Gabby Thomas (USA) | 1439 |
| 2 | Brittany Brown (USA) | 1438 |
| 3 | Julien Alfred (LCA) | 1400 |
| 4 | Daryll Neita (GBR) | 1391 |
| 5 | Dina Asher-Smith (GBR) | 1365 |
Olympic medallists
| 🥇 | Gabby Thomas (USA) | 21.83 |
| 🥈 | Julien Alfred (LCA) | 22.08 |
| 🥉 | Brittany Brown (USA) | 22.20 |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
Olympic Games: Gabby Thomas (USA) 21.83
Wanda Diamond League: Brittany Brown (USA) 22.20
European Championships: Mujinga Kambundji (SUI) 22.49
African Championships: Jessica Gbai (CIV) 22.84
Oceanian Championships: Torrie Lewis (AUS) 23.14
World U20 Championships: Adeejah Hodge (IVB) 22.74
Season snapshot
- Gabby Thomas broke through to claim her first global title as she became the first US sprinter since Allyson Felix in 2012 to win the 200m, ending Jamaica’s recent dominance and upgrading her Tokyo bronze to gold. Thomas went into the Games as the favourite, having recorded the fastest time of the year, 21.78, to win the US Olympic trials in Eugene.
Gabby Thomas wins the 200m at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (© Dan Vernon)
- Newly-minted Olympic 100m champion Julien Alfred carried her career-best form into the longer sprint and won a second medal for Saint Lucia, claiming the silver in 22.08 and confirming her position as the pre-eminent sprinter of the year.
- The consistent Brittany Brown (USA) was rewarded with the bronze medal (22.20) and held her form until the season’s end to win the Diamond League final in Brussels in an identical time. The two British contenders Dina Asher-Smith (22.22) and Daryll Neita (22.23) were almost inseparable in fourth and fifth at the Stade de France.
- As in the 100m, the Jamaican women were kept off the podium, for the first time in the 200m since 1976. No Jamaican woman reached the final. Two-time world champion Shericka Jackson had dominated the event in 2022 and 2023 but an injury-affected season prevented her from mounting a challenge in Paris. She ultimately withdrew from both the 100m and 200m before the heats.
Men’s 200m
Season top list
| 19.46 | Letsile Tebogo (BOT) | Paris | 8 August |
| 19.53 | Noah Lyles (USA) | Eugene | 29 June |
| 19.57 | Kenny Bednarek (USA) | Zurich | 5 September |
| 19.71 | Courtney Lindsey (USA) | Nairobi | 20 April |
| 19.75 | Tarsis Orogot (UGA) | Gainesville | 11 May |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Letsile Tebogo (BOT) | 1511 |
| 2 | Kenny Bednarek (USA) | 1498 |
| 3 | Alexander Ogando (DOM) | 1420 |
| 4 | Erriyon Knighton (USA) | 1418 |
| 5 | Noah Lyles (USA) | 1397 |
Olympic medallists
| 🥇 | Letsile Tebogo (BOT) | 19.46 AR |
| 🥈 | Kenny Bednarek (USA) | 19.62 |
| 🥉 | Noah Lyles (USA) | 19.70 |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
Olympic Games: Letsile Tebogo (BOT) 19.46 AR
Wanda Diamond League: Kenny Bednarek (USA) 19.67
European Championships: Timothe Mumenthaler (SUI) 20.28
African Championships: Joseph Fahnbulleh (LBR) 20.25
Oceanian Championships: Calab Law (AUS) 20.74
World U20 Championships: Bayanda Walaza (RSA) 20.52
Season snapshot
- Letsile Tebogo became the first Olympic champion from Botswana in any sport, blazing to victory in the 200m to deliver on the potential he had shown as a back-to-back world U20 champion in the 100m (2021-2022).
- After setting a national record of 9.86 to finish sixth in the 100m final in Paris, Tebogo took that new speed into the half-lap sprint and dominated in an African record of 19.46 which lifted him to No.5 on the all-time list and remained the fastest time of the year. He was later recognised as both the World Athletics men’s track athlete of the year and the overall men’s World Athlete of the Year.
Letsile Tebogo wins the 200m at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (© Getty Images)
- The ever-reliable Kenny Bednarek delivered again to claim his second consecutive Olympic silver medal (19.62), ahead of 100m winner Noah Lyles (19.70), whose time was the fastest ever to claim the Olympic bronze medal, underlining the overall standard of the event.
- Lyles went into the event as the favourite, having triumphed over the shorter sprint and completed the sprint double at the World Championships in Budapest in 2023. However, he laboured to the finish and then revealed that he had contracted Covid-19 in the lead-up to the race. He ended the year with the second fastest time of 19.53, from the US Olympic trials in June.
- All three US athletes finished in the top four in Paris, with the youngest of the trio, Erriyon Knighton, in fourth (19.99) for the second consecutive Games.
- The end of the year saw the emergence of a new sprint wunderkind as Australia’s Gout Gout became the fastest 16-year-old in history, clocking 20.04 at the Australian All Schools Championships in Brisbane to break the Oceanian senior record, held for 56 years by the late Peter Norman, the 1968 Olympic silver medallist.
Women’s 400m
Season top list
| 48.17 | Marileidy Paulino (DOM) | Paris | 9 August |
| 48.53 | Salwa Eid Naser (BRN) | Paris | 9 August |
| 48.57 | Nickisha Pryce (JAM) | London | 20 July |
| 48.75 | Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (USA) | New York | 9 June |
| 48.90 | Natalia Kaczmarek (POL) | London | 20 July |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Marileidy Paulino (DOM) | 1491 |
| 2 | Natalia Kaczmarek (POL) | 1430 |
| 3 | Salwa Eid Naser (BRN) | 1412 |
| 4 | Rhasidat Adeleke (IRL) | 1406 |
| 5 | Alexis Holmes (USA) | 1383 |
Olympic medallists
| 🥇 | Marileidy Paulino (DOM) | 48.17 OR |
| 🥈 | Salwa Eid Naser (BRN) | 48.53 |
| 🥉 | Natalia Kaczmarek (POL) | 48.98 |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
Olympic Games: Marileidy Paulino (DOM) 48.17
World Indoor Championships: Femke Bol (NED) 49.17
Wanda Diamond League: Marileidy Paulino (DOM) 49.45
European Championships: Natalia Kaczmarek (POL) 48.98
African Championships: Miranda Coetzee (RSA) 51.16
Oceanian Championships: Ellie Beer (AUS) 51.91
World U20 Championships: Lurdes Manuel (CZE) 51.29
Season snapshot
- History was made everywhere as Marileidy Paulino ran the fastest women’s 400m ever witnessed at the Olympic Games to claim her first Olympic gold medal. Paulino, the first woman from the Dominican Republic to win a gold medal in any sport, broke French heroine Marie-Jose Perec’s 1996 benchmark of 48.25, stopping the clock in 48.17.
Marileidy Paulino wins 400m gold at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (© AFP / Getty Images)
- The Tokyo silver medallist, Paulino had moved to the top of the tree at the 2023 World Championships and confirmed her place, leading home the fastest 400m field in history despite a wet track in the Stade de France.
- The 2019 world champion Salwa Eid Naser of Bahrain returned from a ban for whereabouts violations to claim the silver medal (48.53) while Poland’s Natalia Kaczmarek took the bronze in 48.98, the same time she ran to become European champion in Rome two months earlier.
- There was heartbreak for Ireland’s hopeful, NCAA champion Rhasidat Adeleke, who finished fourth (49.28) in a second consecutive global final, after recording the same place at the World Championships in Budapest.
- For the first time, a sub-49 second clocking was required to win a medal, and all eight finalists broke the 50-second barrier. As a measure of the depth of the event, nine women ran faster this year than the gold medal-winning time from Rio eight years ago (49.44), including the 400m hurdles specialists Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Femke Bol.
Men’s 400m
Season top list
| 43.40 | Quincy Hall (USA) | Paris | 7 August |
| 43.44 | Matthew Hudson-Smith (GBR) | Paris | 7 August |
| 43.74 | Muzala Samukonga (ZAM) | Paris | 7 August |
| 43.78 | Kirani James (GRN) | Paris | 6 August |
| 43.78 | Jereem Richards (TTO) | Paris | 7 August |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Matthew Hudson-Smith (GBR) | 1474 |
| 2 | Muzala Samukonga (ZAM) | 1445 |
| 3 | Quincy Hall (USA) | 1434 |
| 4 | Kirani James (GRN) | 1422 |
| 5 | Jereem Richards (TTO) | 1390 |
Olympic medallists
| 🥇 | Quincy Hall (USA) | 43.40 PB |
| 🥈 | Matthew Hudson-Smith (GBR) | 43.44 AR |
| 🥉 | Muzala Samukonga (ZAM) | 43.74 NR |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
Olympic Games: Quincy Hall (USA) 43.40
World Indoor Championships: Alexander Doom (BEL) 45.25
Wanda Diamond League: Charles Dobson (GBR) 44.49
European Championships: Alexander Doom (BEL) 44.15
African Championships: Cheikh Diouf (SEN) 45.23
Oceanian Championships: Luke van Ratingen (AUS) 45.84
World U20 Championships: Udeme Okon (RSA) 45.69
Season snapshot
- Former 400m hurdler Quincy Hall made the flat lap his own, using his hurdler’s strength to run down Britain’s Matt Hudson-Smith and win the Olympic 400m title in one of the fastest races in history. Hall, running in lane eight, was the definition of outside smoke, arriving in the last 10 metres to take the gold medal from the front-running Briton, who never saw him coming.
- The thrilling dual catapulted them both into the all-time top five. Hall set a personal best of 43.40 to slot in at No.4, with Hudson-Smith’s European record of 43.44 lifting him to No.5 on the list. Bronze medallist Muzala Samukonga of Zambia also set a national record (43.74).
Quincy Hall at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (© Getty Images)
- For the first time, five men broke 44 seconds in the same final. Trinidadian Jereem Richards crossed in fourth (43.78) and 2012 Olympic champion Kirani James finished fifth (43.87) in his fourth consecutive Olympic final. Grenadian James ran faster than he did to win his Olympic gold medal in London (43.94), which shows how much the event has progressed in 12 years. The five fastest times of the year were set within 24 hours in Paris.
- In his season progression, Hall put together a beautiful set of numbers, running faster in every final from his debut at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Doha in May (45.98). He then dropped nearly half a second with each run. He recorded 45.52 in Marrakech, 45.02 in Oslo, 44.68 in Stockholm, 44.17 at the US Olympic trials and 43.80 in Monaco on his way to the Olympic pinnacle.
- Belgium’s Alexander Doom was the standout in the first half of the year, winning the world indoor title in Glasgow and then the European title in Rome.
Nicole Jeffery for World Athletics
