Sha’Carri Richardson Faces Record Challenge as Melissa Jefferson and Julien Alfred Gain Ground Before Tokyo Worlds

“I am still going in as the one to hunt. I am not a reigning world or Olympic champion. I don’t have any individual titles to my name.” Melissa Jefferson’s words after her victory in Brussels underline how quickly the balance of power has shifted in women’s sprinting. Less than a year ago in Paris, Julien Alfred stood atop the podium with Olympic gold while Jefferson-Wooden left with bronze. Now, as the World Championships approach in Tokyo, the American enters undefeated over 100 meters this season, carrying the fastest time in the world. And the contrast between their Olympic outcomes and their 2025 seasons could not be sharper.

Alfred, the pride of Saint Lucia, opened her campaign with wins in Oslo (10.89) and Stockholm (10.75). She followed that with a determined performance in Monaco, clocking 10.79 into a headwind to secure her third Diamond League victory of the year. She then capped her return from a mid-season break with a Diamond League Final triumph in Zurich, where she ran 10.76 to defend her title. Meanwhile, Melissa Jefferson has built a campaign of unbroken consistency.

From her 10.65 world lead at the US Championships in Eugene to victories in Kingston, Miami, Silesia, and Brussels, she has not lost a 100-meter race in 2025. It is this direct collision that World Athletics now emphasizes. World Athletics has centered its Tokyo preview on the growing duel between Melissa Jefferson and Julien Alfred.

Jefferson-Wooden enters unbeaten with the season’s fastest marks, including a 10.65 world lead, while Alfred counters as the reigning Olympic champion and Diamond League titleholder. According to NBC Sports director Travis Miller, “🇺🇸Melissa Jefferson-Wooden and 🇱🇨Julien Alfred have 9 of the 10 fastest women’s 100m times going into the World Championships.” So, it feels like their anticipated head-to-head clash can be the defining storyline of the women’s 100m.

When the pair met at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene on July 5, Jefferson-Wooden edged Alfred in 10.75 to 10.77, despite running into a -1.5 headwind. That race ended Alfred’s unbeaten stretch and gave Jefferson-Wooden her most significant scalp to date. The two have not faced each other since, but their records frame them as the decisive rivals in Tokyo. And their approach towards it also says “Clash of the 100m Queens.”

For Jefferson-Wooden, the season has been one of elevation. She became the first woman since Torri Edwards in 2003 to claim both the 100m and 200m titles at the USA Championships, recording a personal best of 21.84 in the longer sprint. Her 10.65 in Eugene made her the joint-fifth fastest woman in history. Then, victories in Silesia (10.66) and Brussels (10.76) confirmed her status. “I know that I’m in great shape and that it’s all about putting together the perfect race at the perfect time, when it matters the most, and that is at the World Championships in Tokyo,” she said in Brussels.

Alfred, meanwhile, has chosen steadiness over spectacle. “As long as I’m making progress and getting one percent better every single time, that’s all that matters to me,” she told Olympics.com after her Monaco victory. Later in Zurich, she added, “I feel like I want to add another gold to my collection. When I compare myself now and at the beginning of the season, I am much fitter than before, and also mentally. I am in the right place, where I want to be.” That perspective has kept her as Jefferson-Wooden’s only real equal.

And this developing rivalry has left Sha’Carri Richardson on the periphery.

The reigning world champion, who timed 10.65 at Budapest in 2023, has struggled since her injury in February, failing to break 11 seconds this season and finishing ninth at the Prefontaine Classic in 11.19. Although she managed a second-place finish behind Jefferson-Wooden in Brussels, she has not entered the same conversation as the two leaders. While Richardson retains her entry to Tokyo as defending champion, the contest for gold centers squarely on Jefferson-Wooden and Alfred.

Now, Melissa Jefferson-Wooden has not forgotten to share the due credits for her breakthrough season.

What is driving Melissa Jefferson towards her pursuit of perfection?

Tokyo will host a farewell. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, five times a world 100-meter champion, will line up at age 38 for her ninth and final appearance on the global stage. Alongside her, Jamaica’s Tina Clayton arrives as national champion with a season’s best of 10.81, the only athlete outside the Jefferson-Wooden–Alfred duopoly to crack the year’s top ten. Yet the central storyline remains unchanged.

An undefeated American and an Olympic champion from Saint Lucia, bound for a meeting that could decide the direction of women’s sprinting for years to come.

Melissa Jefferson regarded her recent stretch of racing not as the final product, but as evidence of careful preparation paying steady dividends. She did not portray her victories as accidents of circumstance or raw talent. Instead, she pointed to the foundation beneath them, “At this point, it’s just about consistency and practice making perfect.”

Her sense of progress appeared rooted in a deliberate approach to both training and self-discipline. Jefferson-Wooden explained that she had committed herself to a clearer sense of identity as an athlete.

“I feel like I’ve done a very good job of being disciplined in who I am this year and who I want to be as an athlete.” For her, the discipline was inseparable from the results. She tied the quality of her performances directly to the choices she had made away from the track, decisions that allowed her to meet the standards she set for herself.

The emphasis, however, was not on reinventing her process as she prepared for Tokyo. Jefferson-Wooden insisted she would not overhaul her racing strategy, but rather refine it. She spoke of “looking at the smaller parts of the race and fine tuning those things and critiquing those,” suggesting that she believed the margin for error in major championship finals would be exceedingly slim. Her conviction was that precision and restraint, not sweeping changes, would carry her through.

Melissa Jefferson acknowledged the necessity of remaining attentive to detail, but her words reflected a calm assurance rather than urgency. The victories had not shifted her into complacency; they had reinforced her belief in steady, intentional practice as the most reliable path to the outcome she desired.