The 2026 USATF Outdoor Championships Preview

When she's firing on all cylinders, few athletes are more electrifying than Sha'Carri Richardson. Since she first captured the public's attention through her commanding victory - which was subsequently overturned after a positive drug test for THC, the psychoactive compound in marijuana - at the 2021 Olympic Trials, Richardson has cemented herself as one of team USA's brightest talents and biggest personalities.

She enters this U.S. Championship with a 10.77 season best - the third-fastest mark posted in the world this year - and was a lean away from taking the win at the Prefontaine Classic. A win here would establish even more momentum for Richardson, heading into the backstretch of the Diamond League season and the World Ultimate Championships.

Which means a lot, given how the past couple of seasons have wrapped up for Richardson. Since winning the 2023 World Championship 100m - she also grabbed gold in the 4x100m relay and bronze in the 200m that year in Budapest - she hasn't won an individual gold medal at a global championship. For most athletes that'd be a totally fine outcome - she still finished second in the 100m at the Paris Olympics and collected a pair of 4x100m golds in that time - but most athletes aren't Sha'Carri Richardson.

Richardson's training partner-slash-rival Melissa Jefferson-Wooden is opting to contest the 200m, so we won't get that world podium-caliber matchup here, but that's okay. Any opportunity to watch Richardson race is not one to miss!

And should Richardson's occasionally dicey start put her in an insurmountable deficit at the halfway mark, there are still potential spoilers in the field as well. University of Georgia Bulldogs Jassani Carter and Kaila Jackson have the third and fourth fastest seed times. And seasoned pros Jenna Prandini, Brittany Brown, and Tamari Davis shouldn't be discounted either.

Melissa Jefferson-Wooden is the class of the field. Any time out of the blocks, she's among the top 100m and 200m sprinters in the world, and at her best, she's the World champ at both. She's only raced the 200m once this season, though, and got beat by the 2024 Olympic silver medalist in the event. Should Jefferson-Wooden have an uncharacteristically off day, keep an eye on Brittany Brown (the 2024 Olympic bronze medalist), Anavia Battle (fourth at Worlds last year), and McKenzie Long (who has the second fastest PB in the field).

2025 NCAA champ Aaliyah Butler comes in with the most momentum and the quickest seed time. She'll be tough to beat. The only other entry with a sub-50 seed time, Sanaria Butler (no relation) ran her 49.86 way back in April. Alexis Holmes finished sixth at the 2024 Olympics but has had a relatively quiet 2026 - if you value experience at U.S. champs, keep an eye on her.

Two U.S. athletes sit high enough in the global rankings to currently be in line for World Ultimate Championship selection: Roisin Willis and Addy Wiley. Despite being high school, college, and pro standouts in the same event, within a year of each other age-wise, the two have actually very rarely squared off. This year, Willis has gone 1:57.56. Wiley's best on the year is 1:57.70.

They've both had high highs, and races they've quickly moved on from this season. Across Willis's three outdoor races, she's won once and finished as far back as ninth. For Wiley, the spread is similar: she's won once and placed 12th as well. But Wiley's one victory came on the Diamond League circuit, so if you're inclined to read into DL victories as being more meaningful, then she's probably the favorite by the slimmest of margins.

However, going off of the last data point in terms of how they perform at U.S. championship settings, the edge goes to Willis. She won the 2025 U.S. title whereas Wiley got into a tough spot with 200 to go and wound up nearly hitting the track, losing all momentum.

Of course, this isn't a two athlete race. Valery Tobias has made a couple of U.S. teams indoors. Makayla Paige won the NCAA 800m indoors last year and is coming off an impressive 1:58.14 PR and win at the Sunset Tour. Juliette Whittaker placed seventh at the 2024 Olympic 800m final, and has focused more on the 1500m this outdoor season, taking second at NCAAs last month. The 800m is inherently a high variability event, with lots of potential for falls and plenty of athletes simply crossing the red line a bit too early in the race. There are probably a dozen other runners who could surprise the field and podium.

But one athlete whose presence at the front shouldn't come as a surprise - despite their relative lack of 800m pedigree - is Nikki Hiltz. Hiltz has run exactly one 800m race this year - a 1:59.14 win at the USATF Grand Prix. In that race, Hiltz took down a who's-who of U.S. middle distance talent. But the real reason to believe Hiltz has a shot at winning the 800m, despite also racing the 1500m this weekend, is that they have proven themselves to be a winner. They haven't lost a race on U.S. soil in 2026, and are coming off the ultimate confidence boost: a win in the mile at the Pre Classic against the entire 2025 podium from the 1500m. Hiltz has a ridiculous close, so unless one of the more experienced 800m athletes in the field wants to push from the gun and run the kick out of Hiltz's legs, their presence in the race is gonna leave everyone else feeling footsteps.

Let's talk about momentum for a second. If you were an athlete competing in the 1500m this weekend, what would you hope your last race looked like? Something akin to beating the world record holder in front of a raucous home crowd, at the biggest invitational meet on American soil, employing a devastating kick? You'd feel pretty confident after that, right? And that's exactly what Nikki Hiltz did. Despite there being some very legit milers in this field - Emily Mackay and Gracie Morris being chief among them - this feels like Hiltz's race to lose. Annika Reiss and Rachel McArthur have been running well, and Heather MacLean has proven to be a worthy championship racer in the past as well. They'll be hoping to kick their way onto the podium.

One of the most wide open races of the meet, the women's steeple is possibly the distance event that most closely reflects the 2026 rankings. The top dogs are just about all here, and there are about 50 different outcomes that all feel plausible. If you feel like doing so, write down the following names on little scraps of paper: Gabi Jennings, Kaylee Mitchell, Lexy Halladay, Courtney Wayment, Emma Coburn, Gracie Hyde, Angelina Ellis, and Marisa Howard. Now crumple them up, put them in a bowl, and draw three names at random. That might be your podium! There's an interesting mix of steady risers, past champions on the way back to being healthy, relative newcomers, and established veterans who just haven't had their best day at past USAs.

It's gonna be about 80 degrees in New York City on Sunday when this race goes off. Being New York in the summer, you've gotta assume the humidity will be short of oppressive, but well above comfortable, too. Icahn Stadium tends to get a bit breezy, being surrounded by the tidal estuary somewhat misleadingly called the East River.

This is all to say, whoever leads the majority of the women's 5000m's 12 and 1/2 laps... ah let's just say it: Parker Valby is going to take the race out hard from the gun. It's what she does. Particularly in races where she's the class of the field, which her 14:39.88 PB from last month qualifies her as. Valby is many things as a runner - a fierce competitor, an aerobic machine, absolutely willing to stick her nose into any pace and hang on for dear life - but there's one thing she has yet to prove herself capable of: outkicking a professional field in a tactical affair. Which - again - means that she will almost certainly try to run the legs out of everyone in the field.

Based solely on recent form and PRs, the only name in the field likely to strike fear into Valby is Shelby Houlihan. Houlihan's fastest times all come - more or less - from either 2019 or 2020. But she is hardly washed, to borrow from the modern parlance. This outdoor season, she's just focused on racing. She won the TEN 10,000m (in a PB) to kick things off, mixed it up in much shorter races, and very nearly won the two-mile at Pre. All this speaks to the fact that Houlihan is above all else, a racer. Her kick is perhaps a bit dulled from her presumptive peak six years back, but it's still enough to make Valby want to ensure she's not in kicking distance when the race is being settled in the final 200m.

So which do you prefer? The brazen front-runner in the style of Pre, even if she winds up on the losing end of a well-executed and more strategic close? Or the kicker, who sat back and let her competitor carry the brunt of the pacing duties for 14 or so minutes on a muggy New York afternoon? Your answer says a lot about you as a track fan!

The 10,000m is not on the schedule for World Ultimates, and accordingly, it just hasn't been a priority for most runners this season. Those predisposed to the longer stuff have dabbled in road racing or stepped down to the 5000m for a little speed work. So we have a field that is fairly evenly matched, with no clear favorite. That means the race itself is liable to play out in fascinating ways. Will Allie Buchalski or Chloe Scrimgeour take the lead and press, as the only entries with sub-32-minute seed times? Will Vanessa Fraser or Katie Izzo throw in big surges late, given they've got the most championship-style racing experience? Will a lesser-known name shock the stadium and secure an out-of-left-field U.S. title?

The women's 100m hurdles is probably the most competitive event in American track and field. You can run a national championship final 100 times and never get the exact same outcome. There's just that many world-class superstars on the scene currently - most notably, Masai Russell, who is on a historic run, winning all of her attempts in her signature event this season, which includes four Diamond League outings. With all that said, Russell, who has a bye to the World Ultimate Championships, is sitting out USAs.

However... from a fan's perspective, that's maybe a good thing? If Russell is as close to a lock for the podium in WUCs as they come, this should give us a better look at several other athletes who undoubtedly have realistic medal aspirations there, too.

Kendra Harrison is a veteran performer, the former world record holder, and a multi-time global medalist. Grace Stark, an up-and-comer, is the 2024 NCAA champ in the event and placed fifth at that year's Olympics. Stark, along with Alaysha Johnson, is also in a two-way tie for fourth-fastest athlete in the event this year. Rayniah Jones is having a career season and is ranked 13th in the world by World Athletics. Aaliyah McCormick won NCAAs this year and the year before. Alia Armstrong finished one spot off the podium at Worlds in 2022. Amber Hughes has raced 26 times in 2026 and never finished worse than third.

Then there's Tara Davis-Woodhall. Yes, the same Tara Davis-Woodhall who won the long jump at the last Olympics and World Championships. Turns out she's also a very good 100m hurdler, dating back to high school. She more or less stopped competing in the event in 2021 - the year she first made the Olympics in the long jump. But with this being an unconventional season, she's decided to double back from the long jump with her former secondary event. She's run 12.47 this year - a massive PB - into a headwind this year, making her the 11th fastest woman in the world over the hurdles. As she continues to shake off the rust in this event, there's no telling what her ceiling is for this meet.

Coming into the 2026 outdoor season, there were two primary storylines in the women's 400m hurdles. The first was that Femke Bol-Broeders, the second best 400m hurdler in history, was going to dabble in the 800m. The second was that Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone was sitting the season out to have her first child.

Instead of those two topics continuing to dominate the event, we've enjoyed a refreshing parity in the event, with Slovakia's Emma Zapletalova assuming the mantle as the top dog. And of the Americans entered in the event at USAs, three are ranked inside the top-15 by fastest times run in 2026.

Anna Cockrell has run faster than anyone not named Zapletalova this year, and based on season's best, should finish about half a second clear of the field at USAs. She's the fourth fastest ever in the 400m hurdles, and the closest to her top performances of any of the favorites. The 2024 Olympic silver medalist has placed second at a pair of Diamond League meets but last raced over a month ago - a win at the USATF Grand Prix in Los Angeles. She's a safe bet to make World Ultimates regardless of outcome here.

10 years ago, Dalilah Muhammad won the 400m hurdles at the 2016 Olympic Trials, two spots ahead of a prodigious high schooler. That teenager's name was Sydney McLaughlin, and while Natalie Dumas hasn't run quite as quick as McLaughlin-Levrone at that point in her career, the Arkansas-bound runner scrapping her way onto the podium would surely make for some poetic symmetry as far as the arc of Muhammad's career is concerned. This weekend, she will line up, looking for her sixth U.S. title, having won her first back in 2013. But regardless, her world ranking likely assures her entry to World Ultimates.

The athlete with the most at stake here is Shamier Little. The Texas A&M product has been a stalwart performer on Team USA 4x400m relays, and is a two-time World Championship silver medalist in the 400m hurdles, most recently in 2023. But she hasn't raced this event enough - at eligible events - this year to rank into WUC. A top-three finish here would go a long way toward her qualifying.

A win for any of these women would be a statement victory, one that lets the rest of the world know that they're in the hunt for not just any medal, but gold.

Vashti Cunningham has won seven U.S. outdoor high jump titles since 2017. She's not the top-ranked high jumper in the country this year - that's Charity Hufnagel - but from a pure championship experience standpoint, she's still probably the favorite, with Hufnagel right behind her. Things get a little murkier after that. And you actually have to go down to Valentina Fakrogha - seeded fifth here - to find who has the third best outdoor mark in 2026. We're inclined to factor in the recency of top performances, and suspect she may surprise people.

Tara Davis-Woodhall has won three consecutive U.S. long jump titles. In that timeframe, she's also won the Olympic and World crown. There is no such thing as a lock to win in track and field. But she comes pretty darn close to being one at U.S. championship meets, at least when healthy. Which is saying something! Because there are a lot of exceptional long jumpers in this country.

This year, for instance, she'll face off against Alyssa Jones (this year's NCAA champ, with a recently set 7.09m PB, which ranks third in the world), Monae' Nichols (whose 6.95m season's best ranks seventh in the world, and who has won five competitions this outdoor season, including one on the Diamond League circuit), and Claire Bryant (the 2025 Indoor World champion, who has jumped 6.94m in 2026, which ranks her eighth globally).

Ordinarily, even with that slate of accolades to clear, Davis-Woodhall would be a pretty safe bet. But this year she'll be splitting time between the long jump runway and a potential three rounds of the 100m hurdles. With the added fatigue in her legs, a switch to flip in her brain between competition styles, and way more opportunities for something to go just a little bit wrong, can Davis-Woodhall still prevail?

A week ago, this event was widely viewed as a formality for Valarie Sion - nee Valarie Allman. The two-time Olympic champion and reigning World champ is generally considered the best discus thrower on the planet, and very rarely loses. So it was not just an upset, but an outright shock, that she placed second at last week's Diamond League meet in London to her compatriot, Cierra Jackson, who threw a massive 3-meter-plus personal best to take home her first Diamond League win. Allman didn't have a bad day, necessarily. Jackson just had a better one. Appropriately, Jackson is also in the field here at USAs, so we'll get a chance to see whether this is an active rivalry, or if London was more of a warning shot by Jackson.

Photo credits: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile, Andy Cheung, Emilee Chinn, Ginnie Coleman, Matthias Hangst, David Lidstrom, Alex Pantling, Christian Petersen, Hannah Peters, Patrick Smith, Lintao Zhang, Chris Swann and Isaac Wasserman/NCAA Photos, AFP, British Athletics, Corbis, Image Photo Agency, NCAA Photos and Sportsfile, all via Getty Images. Additional photos: MileSplit.