Disappointment after disappointment! That’s been Christian Coleman’s journey this year. Well, Sha’Carri Richardson’s boyfriend, and once the man who beat Usain Bolt, has shockingly failed to win any of his four 100m races this season. This is the same guy who holds the 60m world record, is a three-time world champion, a two-time Diamond League Final winner, and owns a personal best of 9.76 in the 100m, faster than Paris Olympic gold medallist Noah Lyles’ 9.79. But right now? Coleman’s season best is a sluggish 10.06, far from his peak form. With each race, fans have started to doubt whether he’ll even make the World Championships.

So what are the experts saying? Noah Williams, an NCAA champion and 400m specialist, spoke on the YouTube podcast Track World News, where Colin Waitzman asked him about Coleman’s current struggles. “Christian has run four 100s this season: 10.06, 10.18, 10.13, and 10.11. He hasn’t run sub-10 yet this year,” Waitzman noted. “He’s not winning races, and he’s not running times that we would assume for him to run usually at this point of the year.” Williams agreed, adding that this slump isn’t just about the times on paper, it’s about the fact that Coleman is losing, something unusual for an athlete of his caliber.

But Williams isn’t ready to count Coleman out just yet. Drawing on advice from his high school coach, he explained, “When you’re consistently running times within a tenth of a second, you’re preparing your body for a big drop.” He pointed out Coleman’s consistent 10.1-second range and said, “If I had to predict, in the next four to six weeks, I see Christian dropping a time around 9.86 or 9.88.”

This optimistic forecast comes with the context that Coleman is adjusting to a new training program with coach Dennis Mitchell, who is also coaching Sha’Carri Richardson, after spending his whole career with his college coach, Tim Hall. “I’m granting him more grace than a lot of other people because it’s a new program for him, it’s new training,” Williams said.

So while Coleman’s 2025 season might look disappointing on the surface, there’s reason for hope. With Sha’Carri Richardson standing by him and experts like Noah Williams believing a breakthrough is coming, the real question is: will Coleman shake off this slump and remind the world why he’s one of the fastest sprinters alive? Let’s dive into how his season has unfolded so far.

Christian Coleman’s sprint season starts with a shake-up

Christian Coleman’s 2025 100m season started with quite a twist! On April 19, at the Tom Jones Memorial in Gainesville, Florida, you’d expect a seasoned sprinter like him to just own the track, right? But nope, Coleman finished third with a time of 10.06 seconds, trailing behind rising stars Courtney Lindsey (9.97) and Christian Miller (10.02). For a former world champ, that was a surprising opener, especially considering the wind was legal (+1.9 m/s) and the field was stacked with fellow Americans like Kyree King and Brandon Hicklin, all clocking sub-10.10.

Fast forward to April 26 in Xiamen for the Wanda Diamond League, and the pattern continued. Coleman ran 10.18 seconds, landing fourth place behind Akani Simbine’s sharp 9.99. Then came May 3 at the Yangtze River Delta Diamond Gala in China, where the field was absolutely on fire. Simbine blazed to a 9.98, and Coleman could only manage fifth, finishing behind Kishane Thompson, Tebogo, and Eseme with a time of 10.13. At this point, the question hanging in the air was: Is Coleman off his game, or is the field just that deep in 2025?

By May 18, at the Seiko Golden Grand Prix in Tokyo, fans were hoping for a spark. But again, Coleman took third, clocking 10.11 seconds behind Japan’s Hiroki Yanagita (10.06) and that teenager-turned-threat Christian Miller (10.08). So far, it’s been a season of consistently solid but not dominating performances. Coleman’s times are sharp, but with guys dipping into the 9.9s left and right, he’s got work to do if he wants to reclaim that title of the fastest man alive.

So, what do you think? Is Coleman just warming up for a major comeback? We are definitely curious to see how the rest of his season unfolds!