It wasn’t just that Noah Lyles and Sha’Carri Richardson won their third U.S. 100m titles on Friday night. It was how they did it.
Lyles, the 2024 Olympic gold medalist, stormed past the field in 9.79 seconds at Icahn Stadium in New York City — matching his personal best from those Paris Games and setting the world’s fastest time of 2026.
“I think I made that I’m still the world’s fastest man statement,” Lyles said, adding that he ran a hand-timed 9.6 in practice last week.
Richardson, the 2023 World champion and 2024 Olympic silver medalist, powered home in 10.77 seconds — matching her best time in two years. Only one woman in the world has run faster in 2026 — Adaejah Hodge of the British Virgin Islands ran 10.63 at the NCAA Championships.
USATF OUTDOORS: Results | Broadcast Schedule
Both Lyles and Richardson dealt with injury setbacks in 2025.
Lyles followed his 2024 Olympic 100m gold by placing third at last September’s World Championships behind Jamaicans Oblique Seville and Kishane Thompson.
Lyles, slowed by an ankle injury in spring 2025, was beaten in a global championship 100m for the first time at any age level.
On Friday night, he supplanted Seville as the world’s fastest man of 2026.
They could go head-to-head at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest in September, but Lyles’ sights are also set further — to the 2027 Worlds in Beijing and the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, when he’ll turn 31 years old two days after the 100m final.
“I am now on the other side of my career; I have spent a good 75% preparing for my exit,” he said without divulging when that exit might be. “Whether that’s how am I going to be making my money, how am I going to be running my business, who’s going to be helping me to run my business and then just how I’m going to have kids, have a family, grow and a lot of that stuff. So that’s what I’d say I’ve been focusing on.”
Richardson, 26, has twice run 10.77 this season. That’s after a best 2025 time of 10.94 from her fifth-place finish at September’s worlds in Tokyo. She was set back early in 2025 by injury.
“It just feels phenomenal to be back in a better place healthy — mentally, physically, emotionally,” she told NBC Sports’ Lewis Johnson. “It shows that hard work pays off.”
Unlike Lyles, Richardson is not entered in the 200m this weekend.
So she could next look ahead to the World Ultimate Championship and a possible 100m showdown with 2024 Olympic gold medalist Julien Alfred of Saint Lucia and 2025 World champion Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, who trains with Richardson but is racing strictly the 200m at nationals.
USATF Outdoors continue Saturday, highlighted by the women’s 100m hurdles and men’s and women’s 400m and 1500m finals. Coverage airs on NBC and Peacock from 2-6 p.m. ET.
Also Friday, favorites advanced out of first-round heats in the men’s 800m (17-year-old Cooper Lutkenhaus), women’s 400m (Aaliyah Butler) and men’s 400m (Chris Bailey and Khaleb McRae).
Notably, Donavan Brazier missed Saturday’s men’s 800m final, one year after a fairytale national title after being out of the sport for nearly three years.
In Para Nationals action Friday, Jaydin Blackwell broke his own world record in the T38 400m — lowering it from 48.00 seconds to 47.23. Blackwell swept the T38 100m and 400m titles at the Paris Paralympics and at the World Championships in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
Hunter Woodhall, the 2024 Paralympic T62 400m gold medalist, was disqualified from that distance on Friday. A World Para Athletics official on site learned that Woodhall’s starting block was not approved for competition, according to a USATF statement.
“Hunter elected to run under protest,” the statement read. “The rules set by the international governing body do not allow for the results to be official, so our officials were left with no choice but to disqualify him from the final results. Of course, this is never the outcome we want for any athlete who has worked hard to get to this stage. We also recognize that it’s disappointing for all of Hunter’s many fans. We will work with athletes to fully understand the rules around equipment so together we can make sure these incidents don’t happen in the future.”
Para Nationals are being held concurrently with the USATF Outdoor Championships for the second consecutive year.
Sha’Carri Richardson matched her fastest 100m time since 2024 — a 10.77 — as she powered to a third national title in the 100m.
Richardson pulled away from training partner Kayla White, the runner-up in 10.90. Tamari Davis was third in 11.00.
SHA'CARRI'S GOT SPEED. 💨
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 24, 2026
Sha'Carri Richardson earns her THIRD NATIONAL TITLE in the women's outdoor 100m!
📺 USATF National Championships on Peacock & NBCSN pic.twitter.com/08YpBRy4fa
Richardson had a difficult 2025 after an early season injury set her back. Her fastest time last year was the 10.94 she recorded to finish fifth at the World Championships in September.
“It just feels phenomenal to be back in a better place healthy — mentally, physically, emotionally,” she told NBC Sports’ Lewis Johnson after Friday’s win. “It shows that hard work pays off.”
Richardson became the second woman since 2000 to win a third U.S. 100m title after Carmelita Jeter.
Next, Richardson is expected to have a showdown at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship with 2025 World champion Melissa Jefferson-Wooden (her training partner who is racing strictly the 200m at nationals) and 2024 Olympic gold medalist Julien Alfred of Saint Lucia.
True to form, Noah Lyles authored a comeback 100m victory — winning his third U.S. title in 9.79 seconds, the world’s best time this year and equaling his personal best from taking Olympic gold in Paris.
Out of the blocks, Lyles was behind Christian Coleman to his left and Kenny Bednarek to his right.
He zoomed past them and everyone else.
“In my head, the distance was already made up,” Lyles told NBC Sports’ Lewis Johnson. “Coach said put my hand in their pocket. Don’t let them get away. I saw where Christian was, and I said, my hand is all the way in there. I just pulled him back, and I did what I do.”
A WORLD-LEAD 100M 9.79. 🔥
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 25, 2026
Noah Lyles equals his personal BEST for the men's outdoor 100m NATIONAL TITLE!
📺 USATF National Championships on Peacock & NBCSN pic.twitter.com/m1x98UV7gf
Ronnie Baker was second in 9.88, followed by Kenny Bednarek also in 9.88, but five thousandths slower upon closer review.
Next, Lyles will race the 200m starting on Saturday, bidding for a 100m-200m sweep at nationals, just like he did at the 2024 Olympic Trials.
There are no World Championships or Olympics this year, but Lyles is expected to face the world’s best in September at the new World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest.
“Shoot, I was just playing around this year,” Lyles said. “I’m scared for y’all next year. I’m real scared because y’all ain’t going to have this nice Noah who goes around and just thinks that it’s all lollygagging good. Next year I got plans. I got places to run fast. So you better pray, go to sleep and don’t get scared when I run up on you.”
Garrett Scantling outdueled defending champion Kyle Garland in the decathlon for his third title in the 10-event crucible.
Scantling, also the national champ in 2021 and 2022, totaled 8,526 points, topping the 2025 World bronze medalist Garland by 95 in the two-day competition.
Scantling was fourth at the Tokyo Olympics, then served a three-year ban from June 2022 until June 2025 after what the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency called “a tampering violation” as well as three drug-testing whereabouts failures in a 12-month span. He provided an altered email during an investigation into his third whereabouts failure, constituting the tampering violation.
Defending champion Roisin Willis was the only woman to break two minutes in the first round of the 800m.
She’ll bid for a repeat national title on Sunday against a field including Addy Wiley (2026 U.S. indoor champion) and Nia Akins (2023, 2024 U.S. champion).
Donavan Brazier’s fairytale story from 2025 will not have a happy sequel in 2026.
Brazier was eliminated in the first round of the 800m in defense of his comeback U.S. title in 2025.
After an underwhelming regular season, he faded to fourth in his heat at nationals with the 16th-best time overall.
That opens the door further for 17-year-old Cooper Lutkenhaus to claim his first U.S. outdoor title in Sunday’s final.
Cooper Lutkenhaus, the 17-year-old Texan, won his 800m heat to reach Sunday’s final, where he will bid for a sweep of this year’s U.S. indoor and outdoor 800m titles.
Lutkenhaus clocked an easy 1 minute, 45.83 seconds, edging 2024 Olympian Hobbs Kessler by one tenth.
Lutkenhaus’ primary competition in the final is expected to be Donovan Brazier, who won the 2025 U.S. title over Lutkenhaus.
Already this year, Lutkenhaus became the youngest person to win an individual world track and field title (the 800m at March’s Indoor Worlds), then beat Olympic gold and silver medalists Emmanuel Wanyonyi of Kenya and Marco Arop of Canada in Diamond League races.
NBC Sports’ Lewis Johnson visited Lutkenhaus at his high school outside Dallas. Below is a video feature from that shoot.
Noah Lyles had the fastest time of the men’s 100m semifinals -- a 9.76 with a 2.1 meter-per-second tailwind, just above the legal limit of 2.0.
Lyles’ wind-legal personal best is 9.79 from winning the 2024 Olympic final. If he gets a favorable wind in tonight’s final (7:53 ET), he could be in line for another PB.
The fastest men in history:
Usain Bolt (world record 9.58)
Tyson Gay (American record 9.69)
Yohan Blake (9.69)
Asafa Powell (9.72)
Justin Gatlin (9.74)
Kishane Thompson (9.75)
The next-fastest qualifiers into tonight’s final were 2025 U.S. 100m champion Kenny Bednarek (9.82 with a 3.2 m/s tailwind), Ronnie Baker (9.85), Courtney Lindsey (9.86) and 2019 World champion Christian Coleman (9.90).
As expected, 2023 World champion Sha’Carri Richardson cruised into tonight’s 100m final with the fastest time in the semifinals.
Richardson clocked 10.78 seconds to win her semi, boosted by a 2.6 meter-per-second tailwind (above the 2.0 m/s limit for record purposes).
Richardson bids to become the second woman since 2000 to win a third U.S. 100m title after Carmelita Jeter.
She does so in the absence of training partner Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, the 2025 U.S. and world champion who entered only the 200m this week.
The final is at 7:45 p.m. ET. Other contenders include Kayla White (10.97 to win her semi), Anavia Battle (10.99) and Tamari Davis (11.01).
Erin Marsh won the heptathlon with 6,059 points, two years after placing 12th at the Olympic Trials and one year after DNFing at nationals.
Marsh’s older brother is Philadelphia Phillies All-Star outfielder Brandon Marsh.
World champion Anna Hall, who won the last four U.S. titles, sat out nationals this year after her April wedding with New York Giants wide receiver Darius Slayton. Expect to see her back in 2027, a World Outdoor Championships year.
Quincy Hall was 16th-fastest in the men’s 400m prelims, missing out on Saturday’s nine-man final.
It’s unsurprising given Hall’s hamstring problems since the Paris Games, which are a big reason why he’s only raced at six meets in the last two years.
The top qualifiers into the final are 2026 World Indoor silver medalist Khaleb McRae (44.65) and 2025 World Indoor champion Chris Bailey (45.14).
Last year, Cooper Lutkenhaus placed second in the 800m at the USATF Outdoor Champs. At age 16, he became the youngest American to compete at a World Outdoor Championships.
This year, Lutkenhaus set a goal of winning both the U.S. indoor and outdoor 800m titles. He checked off the former in March (later winning the world indoor title).
He can reach his goal this weekend in his last meet of the season before starting senior year classes at Northwest High School in Justin, Texas.
Lutkenhaus goes in the first heat of the 800m first round at 6:57 ET. Read more on his rapid rise here:
As expected, Aaliyah Butler led the way in the women’s 400m prelims with the best time of 50.53 seconds.
Others to make Saturday’s nine-woman final include Alexis Holmes, who anchored the 2024 Olympic women’s 4x400m relay team to gold.
Plus Britton Wilson, the joint-seventh-fastest American in history who grabbed the last qualifying spot.
The Para National Championships are being held concurrently with the USATF Outdoor Championships for a second consecutive year.
Jaydin Blackwell, who won 2024 Paralympic T38 gold in the 100m and 400m, broke his own world record in the T38 400m.
He clocked 47.23 seconds, crushing the previous record of 48.00 that he set at the 2025 World Championships.
Para Nationals live results are here.
History, again for Jaydin Blackwell 🌍🚨
— USATF (@usatf) July 24, 2026
The six-time world champion broke his own T38 world record, running 47.23 to win the men’s 400m and add another U.S. national title to his decorated career.#TeamUSATF | #USATFOutdoors pic.twitter.com/n2rZBXTnDv
The most anticipated head-to-head this weekend comes in the men’s 100m with the last two national champions: Noah Lyles and Kenny Bednarek.
At the 2025 USATF Outdoor Championships, Lyles overtook Bednarek by four hundredths in the 200m final. Lyles stared at Bednarek as they crossed the finish line, leading Bednarek to shove Lyles.
Lyles beat Bednarek in their last seven head-to-heads in 100m finals, according to Tilastopaja.info.
Lyles has the best wind-legal time by an American this year -- 9.88 from the Rome Diamond League on June 4 -- but Bednarek did run a windy 9.72 (+2.4) at the LA Grand Prix on June 14. Among Americans, only Tyson Gay has run faster across all wind conditions -- an American record 9.69 from 2009, plus a wind-aided 9.68 and a legal 9.71.
Below is a highlight from Lyles’ prelim win on Thursday.
Leading the charge 👏@__coleman (9.96) and @LylesNoah (9.97) took care of business in the men’s 100m prelims.
— USATF (@usatf) July 23, 2026
Semifinals tomorrow 🇺🇲 pic.twitter.com/VFlusvO39N
Sha’Carri Richardson ran the U.S. 100m final on three occasions in the last five years and crossed the finish line first each time (2021 (later vacated), 2023, 2024).
Tonight, she can become the second woman to win a third U.S. 100m title since 2000, joining 2011 World champion Carmelita Jeter.
Richardson went into nationals as the clear favorite given training partner Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, the 2025 U.S. and world champion, chose to enter strictly the 200m this week.
Here’s video of Richardson’s prelim win from Thursday:
Setting the tone 😤⚡️
— USATF (@usatf) July 23, 2026
Sha’Carri Richardson (10.90) and Kayla White (10.98) were the only women to break 11 seconds in the 100m prelims. 🇺🇲#TeamUSATF | #USATFOutdoors pic.twitter.com/wluZwozYQP
Quincy Hall has been hampered by hamstring problems since his gutsy gold-medal run at the Paris Olympics.
He has raced just five times since the Olympics, and finished seventh and eighth in his two outings so far in 2026.
So the leading man may be Chris Bailey, the 2025 World Indoor champion. He has run 44.06 this year, best in this U.S. field by three tenths.
The women’s 400m features Aaliyah Butler, who two weeks ago ran a personal best of 48.84 seconds, becoming the fourth-fastest American in history. The only Americans to ever run faster are all Olympic gold medalists: Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (47.78 American record from 2025 Worlds; she’s on maternity leave), Sanya Richards-Ross and Valerie Brisco-Hooks.
Butler, 22, eyes her first U.S. title after placing second and third the last two years.
