There’s an eerie calm to Akani Simbine this year. No theatrics. No chest-pounding. Just seven straight wins, two world leads, and a quiet storm brewing out of South Africa. While the rest of the sprint world chases headlines, Simbine is stacking victories like clockwork. Each race cleaner, sharper, colder than the last. And now, with the 2025 World Championships creeping closer, you can feel it.

This isn’t just momentum. It’s a warning. Because when you’ve survived three Olympic finals without a single medal, the way forward either breaks you or rebuilds you. For Simbine, last summer’s heartbreak in Paris. Fourth place, just 0.01 seconds off the podium, wasn’t a collapse. It was a pivot. And now? Now he’s the one running the fastest time of 2025.

Not Noah Lyles. Not Kishane Thompson. The so-called “World’s Fastest Man”, Lyles might’ve dazzled with a 9.78 gold in Paris, but this spring, it’s the 31-year-old South African who’s rewriting the script. And with every victory, he’s forcing the favorites to look over their shoulders because Simbine isn’t just chasing wins anymore. He’s chasing legacy.

The streak that has been turning heads

It was NBC Sports director Travis Miller who decided to stir the pot with a well-timed tweet, “Akani Simbine remains undefeated in all seven of his races this outdoor season!” and beneath it, a graphic listing each of those wins, like a quiet flex. But if you’ve been watching Simbine’s 2025 campaign, you already know the image said what words couldn’t. Seven races. Seven wins. Two world leads. And not a single false step. While others are trading headlines, Simbine’s been trading finish lines for W’s.

The fuse was lit in Gaborone back on April 12. Simbine lined up at the FNB Botswana Golden Grand Prix not just to open his season, but to send a message. Running into a stiff headwind, he still managed to drop a 9.90. A world leader at the time, and left no doubt about his intent. That wasn’t just a win; it was a dismissal of one of Africa’s fastest men, Ferdinand Omanyala, who could only watch Simbine disappear down the stretch.

From there, it’s been a clean, calculated march. Xiamen followed, then Shanghai. Then Atlanta. Each time the pressure ratcheted up, each time the competition got fiercer. Simbine delivered. But it was that opener in Botswana, into the wind, against a rival like Omanyala, that felt like a line being drawn. The message was clear: this year, Akani Simbine isn’t chasing medals. He’s chasing redemption, and he’s doing it on his terms.

Fast, but not fulfilled: Simbine’s dual showdown in Asia

If Gaborone was the spark, then Xiamen was the ignition. Simbine lined up against an elite field packed with Olympic and world champions, Ferdinand Omanyala, Christian Coleman, and Letsile Tebogo. All hungry to make a statement. But it was the South African who turned the volume up. A clinical 9.99 seconds, wind-legal and effortless, as he stormed away from the pack and reminded the world exactly why he’s been one of the most reliable names in sprinting over the past decade.

No flukes. No fluff. Just Simbine, doing what he does best, delivering when it matters. Then came Shanghai, and with it, the same result but a different tone. Simbine crossed the line in 9.98 seconds, holding off another stacked field that included Kishane Thompson, Coleman, and Tebogo once more. Yet, as the cameras caught his expression post-race, it wasn’t a celebration.

It was frustration. “I’m not happy with the start,” he said, visibly unsatisfied despite the win. “It is just frustrating, I didn’t get it right today.” That honesty revealed what numbers alone can’t: Simbine isn’t just chasing victories. He’s chasing perfection. And that pursuit carried him full throttle into World Relays, Atlanta, and Morocco, with unfinished business written all over his face.

From Guangzhou glory to Atlanta fire: Simbine’s relentless rise

At the World Relays in Guangzhou, Team USA looked poised to take it all until Akani Simbine got the baton. Brandon Hicklin had carved out a lead for the Americans, but Simbine, with his usual unshakable calm, hunted him down. Like a predator locked in, he surged past the field in the final leg and stopped the clock at 37.61 seconds, securing South Africa’s first-ever World Relays gold.

It was such a commanding run that even a two-time NCAA champion from the U.S. took to social media to offer a stunned apology. Simbine wasn’t just racing for the win. He was rewriting history. “I feed from chasing,” Simbine said after the race. “Once I got the baton and saw the USA in front, I told myself: I need to catch him.” And catch him he did with intent, with clarity, and with the kind of backstretch speed that’s becoming his trademark this season.

Alongside teammates Bayanda Walaza, Sinesipho Dambile, and Bradley Nkoana, Simbine helped deliver a masterclass in execution and belief. Their performance didn’t just upset the Americans. It earned praise from some of Team USA’s biggest names. And while the relay gold was monumental, Simbine had no time to bask in the moment. Atlanta was already calling.

At the Adidas Atlanta City Games, Simbine extended his win streak once more. A casual 10.13s in the heat gave way to a wind-aided 9.86s explosion in the final. A clear message to every sprinter watching: he’s not done. Not even close. “It’s just about putting big pieces of my race together,” he told CITIUS MAG, his voice steady, his focus razor-sharp. No fist pumps. No declarations. Just a purpose. From Xiamen to Shanghai to Guangzhou and now Atlanta, Simbine’s form is peaking at the perfect time.

Simbine’s belief is now bulletproof ahead of the World Championships

Since bursting onto the scene in 2016, Akani Simbine has never once fallen out of South Africa’s top sprinting echelon. Year after year, he’s shown up, leveled up, and earned his place, never missing the national top ten. But it was that bronze medal run in Budapest at the 2023 World Championships that truly silenced the doubters. Clocking 9.97s and edging out some of America’s biggest names, Simbine didn’t just shock the field.

He changed the narrative. No longer was he just the guy who came close. He became the guy who could win it all. A medal in hand, a legacy in motion, and the world finally taking notice. And if anyone questioned whether he’d carry that energy into 2025, his words before the Xiamen Diamond League erased any doubt. “I came here to win,” he said with steely confidence, and then he did exactly that.

He’s racing to own the season. And with the World Championships on the horizon, one question looms larger than ever: Could 2025 finally be the year he breaks the medal curse? Everything he’s done this season suggests it’s not just possible. It’s coming.