SPORT NEWS WORLDWIDE: 2021

Wednesday, June 2, 2021

Raevyn Rogers

Raevyn Rogers (born September 7, 1996) is an American middle-distance athlete. She won a bronze medal in the 800 meters at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, becoming the fourth fastest woman in U.S. history in the event. At the 2019 World Championships, Rogers came from seventh with 100m remaining in the race to place silver over USA teammate Ajeé Wilson in bronze. She earned a world indoor title as a member of national 4x400 m relay squad that took gold at the 2018 World Indoor Championships.

Rogers ran on the University of Oregon Ducks women's track and field team until 2017, when she went professional.

Athletic career

High school

Rogers attended The Kinkaid School in Houston, Texas, where she competed for the Falcons. She earned a bronze medal in the 800 at the World Youth Championships in 2013, where she also ran on a medley relay that took gold. She still holds individual school records in the 200m, 400m, 800m and 1600m. She graduated in 2014.

University of Oregon

Rogers was a six-time NCAA Division I champion and ten-time All-American at University of Oregon. She won three consecutive outdoor 800 meters NCAA and Pac-12 Conference titles (2015, 2016, 2017) as well as the 2017 Women's Bowerman Award.

Rogers enjoyed a breakthrough season in her first spring with the Ducks. At the 2015 Penn Relays, Rogers ran the 400m leg of the Sprint Medley, which won the race in a time of 3:44.59, narrowly defeating Clemson University.[Her win at the NCAA championships contributed 10 points to a total of 59 team points, which won the meet for Oregon for the first time since 1985. She also won the 800 at the 2015 Outdoor U.S. Junior Championships and the 2015 Pan American Junior Athletics Championships. In winning the 800-meter title at the 2015 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships, her time of 1:59.71 was the fastest ever run by a freshman, and the fourth-fastest run by a Duck.

Rogers produced a collegiate record at 800 meters in her third and final year with the Ducks, setting a time of 1:59.10 that smashed a 27-year-old record.

Subsequent years

She placed 4th in the 800 meters (2:00.75) at 2018 NACAC Championships in Toronto.

Rogers placed 2nd in the 800 meters at 2018 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.

She placed 1st in the 4 × 400 m (3:30.54 in the prelim) and 5th in the 800 m (2:01.44) at 2018 IAAF World Indoor Championships. Rogers placed 2nd in the 800 meters (2:01.74) behind champion Ajee' Wilson in Albuquerque, New Mexico, at 2018 USA Indoor Track and Field Championships.

Rogers was part of Team USA setting world indoor record in the 4 × 800 m relay February 3 at 2018 Millrose Games in 8:05.89 – Chrishuna Williams (2:05.10), Raevyn Rogers (2:00.45), Charlene Lipsey (2:01.98), Ajee' Wilson (1:58.37).

She competed in the women's 800 meters at the 2016 NACAC Under-23 Championships in Athletics, running 2:04.78 in the final round to earn fourth place.

Rogers competed in the women's 800 meters at the 2015 Pan American Junior Athletics Championships, running 2:04.62 in the final round to earn first place.

She competed in the women's 800 meters at the 2014 World Junior Championships in Athletics, running 2:08.01 in the preliminary round to rank No. 22 as a non-qualifying athlete.

Rogers competed in the women's 800 meters at the 2013 World Youth Championships in Athletics, running 2:03.32 in the final round to earn bronze medal.

Shamier Little

Shamier Little born March 20, 1995) is an American track and field sprinter specializing in the 400 metres hurdles. As a 20-year-old college sophomore at Texas A&M University, Little was the 2015 US champion. She then went on to win the silver medal in her signature event at the 2015 and 2023 World Championships. In July 2021, she became the fifth fastest woman of all time at the event.

Early life

Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Little is the child of athletic parents, her father a football cornerback and her mother a star basketball player and high jumper at Eastern Kentucky University. Shamier began participating in youth track and field as an 8 year old. She made her first appearance at the national level at the 2004 USATF Youth Championships as a 100 meter sprinter running for the University of Chicago Youth Track Club. She regularly participated in all comers track meets. Later Little ran for the Country Club Hills Gazelles both in USATF and AAU competitions. None of her early youth competitions could be labeled exceptional.

At Robert Lindblom Math & Science Academy in Chicago, Little got more serious setting the IHSA Class 2A records in 100 meters hurdles, 200 meters and 400 meters. She won the 2011 AAU Junior Olympics at 400 hurdles. In 2012, she won the Arcadia Invitational in the 400 meters, which she repeated in 2013. She won the Junior National Championships in 400 hurdles, which qualified her for the 2012 World Junior Championships in Athletics, but she did not finish the final, falling over the last hurdle while in medal contention. In 2013, Little tried 100 meters hurdles and 400 at the National Championships, finishing off the podium in both.

Career

After high school, Little chose to go to Texas A&M University. As a freshman, she won the NCAA Championships at 400 hurdles and helped her team get second place in the 4 × 400 meters relay. Later that summer, she won the 2014 World Junior Championships in the 400 hurdles.

In 2015, before winning the overall national championship, she repeated as NCAA Champion, running the #1 time worldwide to that point in the season. The National Championship offered Little an invitation to run in the 2015 Pan American Games, where she took the gold medal.

In 2016, Little won a third consecutive NCAA 400 m hurdles champion title.

In October 2024, it was announced that she had signed up for the inaugural season of the Michael Johnson founded Grand Slam Track.

Athing Mu-Nikolayev

Athing Mu-Nikolayev born June 8, 2002) is an American middle-distance runner. She is the youngest woman in history to hold Olympic and world titles in an individual track and field event. At the age of 19, Mu won the gold medal in the 800 meters at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, breaking a national record set by Ajeé Wilson in 2017, and a continental under-20 record. She took a second gold as part of the women's 4 × 400 m relay. She was the 800 m 2022 World champion, becoming the first American woman to win the world championship title over the distance.

Mu holds the world under-20 record in the women's indoor 800 m, which she set in early 2021. She also holds the world U20 best in the indoor 600 meters, set in 2019 when she was 16 years of age. Her time is the third fastest ever run indoors.

Early life

Athing Mu was born and raised in Trenton, New Jersey, and is the second youngest of seven siblings. Her parents immigrated to the United States from South Sudan, and her family is of South Sudanese heritage. She began competing in track at the age of 6. Mu did not join her high school track team, choosing to compete instead for Trenton Track Club. She graduated from Trenton Central High School in 2020.

Career

On February 24, 2019, Mu broke the American women's record at the 600 meter event at the 2019 USA Indoor Track and Field Championships with a time of 1:23.57. She bested the previous American women's record of 1:23.59 held by Alysia Montaño, and nearly broke the women's world record of 1:23.44, held by Olga Kotlyarova.

2021

On February 6, Mu ran indoor 50.52 s in the women's 400 meters, which was 0.3 seconds faster than Sanya Richards' official world under-20 record ratified by World Athletics.[8] However, Mu's time was slower than the 50.36 s set by fellow American Sydney McLaughlin, which was not able to meet the standards for world record ratification. On February 27, she ran 1:58.40 in the 800 meters to set an indoor collegiate and world under-20 record. She bested the previous collegiate record by more than two seconds.

On April 17 in Waco, Texas, running outdoors, Mu set the 800 meter USA collegiate record with a time of 1:57.73. At the 2021 NCAA Championships in Eugene, Oregon on June 12, 2021, she lowered her collegiate all-time record mark to 49.57 s in winning the 400 m, before anchoring the Texas A&M Women's 4 × 400 m relay squad to victory and a new collegiate record of 3:22.34 later in the day.

Mu qualified for the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics at the US Olympic trials held in Eugene, Oregon by placing first in the event with a time of 1:56.07, a world-leading time and the second-fastest result in American history. At the Tokyo Games, she won two gold medals for the women's 800 meters and women's 4 × 400 meters relay. In her individual event, Mu led from gun to tape in a dominant showing, finishing clear ahead of Keely Hodgkinson and compatriot Raevyn Rogers.

She broke the American women's 800 meter record with a 1m 55.21s performance and ended a 53-year Olympic win drought for the USA – the last American woman who won the event was Madeline Manning at the 1968 Mexico Olympics (first Olympic 800 m male or female win since Dave Wottle at the Munich 1972). Mu became also the youngest U.S. woman to win individual Olympic track and field title since Wyomia Tyus earned the 100 m title at the 1964 Tokyo Games.

In her first post-Olympic race at the Prefontaine Classic, she set even better American 800 m record of one minute 55.04 seconds despite running by herself over the final lap, also the all-comers' record, making her the second fastest U20 woman ever after Pamela Jelimo and putting her eighth on the world all-time list.

In that record-breaking season Mu competed 36 times (including rounds) and triumphed in 35 races to be voted World Athletics Female Rising Star of the Year.

2022

At the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon in July, Mu this time barely held off Hodgkinson to take the women's 800 m gold with a world-leading time of 1:56.30. She won by 0.08 s after a tight finish on the home stretch, with Mary Moraa trailing in third. Thus, Mu became the first American woman to win the 800 m world championship title, and the youngest woman in history to own Olympic and world titles in an individual track and field event. She also extended her outdoor win streak to nearly three years as she hadn't lost an outdoor race (in any round, at any distance) since September 2019.

2023

At the 2023 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, Mu competed in the 1500 m and placed second. As the winner of the previous year's iteration, she automatically qualified for the year's world championships in the 800 m. Although whether she would compete was in doubt, at the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, Mu competed in the 800 m and placed third to Mary Moraa and Keely Hodgkinson. She had only run one 800 m race all season prior to this. At September's 2023 Prefontaine Classic, she won the Diamond League final in a time of 1:54.97 to set an American record and defeat Moraa and Hodgkinson.

2024

After a nine-month hiatus, Mu returned to competition at the 2024 United States Olympic trials. During the 800 m final, she tripped and fell, and finished in last place. As a result she would not compete to defend her Olympic gold from three years prior. She raced the 800m again at the Holloway Pro Classic in Gainesville, Florida one month later and placed 5th in 2:00.29.

Personal life

Mu got engaged in September 2024. She was married in March 2025, and she later changed her name to Athing Mu-Nikolayev.

Ajeé Wilson

Ajeé Wilson born May 8, 1994) is an American middle-distance runner who specializes in the 800 meters. She is the 2022 World indoor champion at the 800 meter distance, after earning silver medals in 2016 and 2018. Wilson won bronze medals at both the 2017 and 2019 World Athletics Championships. She is the second-fastest American of all time in the event with a time of 1m 55.61s, and she holds North American indoor record.

Wilson won titles in the 800 m at both the 2011 World Youth Championships and 2012 World Junior Championships. Her winning time of 2:00.91 at the latter is the third-fastest time run by a high schooler behind Mary Cain and Kim Gallagher.

Personal life

Wilson attended Academy of Allied Health & Science in Neptune Township, New Jersey, until 2012. She originally committed to attend Florida State University, before deciding to turn professional. She graduated from Temple University in 2016, but trains with her coach Derek Thompson and the Juventus Track Club of Philadelphia.

Career

2013

In 2012, she committed to run for the Florida State Seminoles under Karen Harvey, but days before the fall semester, she decided to focus on a pro career and return to her coach Derek Thompson at Temple University. The decision paid off at the IAAF Moscow 2013 World Championships where she ran the quickest junior 800 m of 1:58.21 – a North American and USA junior record – to place fifth.

2014

Wilson won her Second U.S. Senior Indoor 800-meter title at the 2014 USA Indoor Track and Field Championships in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 2:00.43. Wilson won her first U.S. Senior Outdoor 800-meter title at the 2014 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Sacramento, California, in 1:58.70. On July 18, Wilson ran a world leading mark of 1:57.67 to win the Diamond League Herculis Monaco.

2015

Wilson won the Armory Invitational in 2:01.7 on January 31 in New York City.

At the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Eugene, Oregon Wilson placed 3rd in the 800 m in 2:00.05 despite losing a shoe in the last 200 meters. She qualified to represent the U.S. for the 800 m in the 2015 World Championships in Athletics in Beijing, China but did not compete due to injury.

2017

Wilson won the New York Road Runners Armory Invitational in New York City 600 m in 1:24.28, the fourth-fastest time in history and the second-fastest by an American behind only Alysia Montaño‘s U.S. national record of 1:23.59 set on this same Armory oval in 2013.

At the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Sacramento, Wilson placed 1st in the 800 meters in 1:57.78, to represent the U.S. for the 800 m in the 2017 World Championships in Athletics in London.

On July 21, 2017, Wilson ran 1:55.61 at the Diamond League event in Monaco to break the U.S. record by nearly 1 second. This time ranks Wilson at number 20 on the IAAF all-time list.

2018

Wilson was part of the Team USA squad setting a world indoor record in the 4 × 800 m relay on February 3 at the 2018 Millrose Games in 8:05.89 – a squad that featured Chrishuna Williams (2:05.10), Raevyn Rogers (2:00.45), Charlene Lipsey (2:01.98), Ajeé Wilson (1:58.37).

Wilson won 800 m gold at 2018 USA Indoor Track and Field Championships in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 2:01.60, and USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in 1:58.18.

Wilson won 800 m gold at 2018 NACAC Championships in Toronto, Canada, in a championship record and stadium record 1:57.52.

2019

On July 28, at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Des Moines, Wilson placed 1st in the 800 meters in 1:57.72, to represent the U.S. for the 800 m in the 2019 World Championships in Athletics in Doha, Qatar.