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Jesse Owens
Born
Owens raced from hand-dug holes in cinder tracks, without starting blocks, and still looks modern on film. Watch his upright, relaxed upper body and the light, quick contacts that made him so efficient: the same economy that let him win four golds in Berlin in 1936 across the 100m, 200m, long jump and relay. He is the reference point for how smooth sprinting can look before any of today's technology.
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Wilma Rudolph
Born
Rudolph wore a leg brace as a child after polio and went on to win the 100m, 200m and relay at the 1960 Rome Olympics. Her running was long, graceful and remarkably relaxed for the era, and the Rome 100m footage shows a sprinter pulling away with a smooth stride rather than force. She was the first American woman to win three track golds at one Games, and her style influenced how women's sprinting was seen for a generation.
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Bob Hayes
Born
Hayes broke every textbook rule. He ran pigeon-toed, with a rolling, almost brawling action, yet he won the 1964 Olympic 100m in Tokyo from lane one on a cinder track churned up by earlier races. His anchor leg in the relay is still talked about as one of the fastest ever timed by hand, and he went on to star in the NFL. Study him as proof that raw force can outweigh classical form.
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Carl Lewis
Lewis was rarely first out of the blocks, and that is the point. His races were built on holding top speed longer than anyone, so rivals appeared to come back to him in the last 30 metres when in fact they were slowing. The 1991 Tokyo world final, where he ran a then world record of 9.86, is the best demonstration. His 1988 Olympic 100m gold came after Ben Johnson's positive test, a reminder to read that race's result with care.
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Florence Griffith Joyner
Born
FloJo's 1988 season produced the 100m and 200m world records that still stand: 10.49 at the US trials and 21.34 at the Seoul Olympics. The 100m mark is debated because of the wind reading at the time, and her sudden improvement drew suspicion, though she never failed a test. Technically, watch her 200m in Seoul: an unusually long, powerful stride and an upright, relaxed finish that left a world-class field well behind.
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Merlene Ottey
Born
Ottey's smooth, economical bend running made her one of the great 200m runners, and that economy is the likeliest explanation for a career that never seemed to end. She won Olympic medals across five Games from 1980 to 2000, nine in total, and was still racing for Slovenia in her fifties. Her relaxed shoulders and tall posture through the curve are worth watching for anyone interested in sprinting that holds up with age.
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Linford Christie
Born
Christie was a late developer who won Olympic 100m gold in Barcelona in 1992 at 32, then the 1993 world title in Stuttgart. His races are a study in tunnel vision: a powerful, upright drive and a fierce focus on his own lane. The record has two caveats worth knowing. He was disqualified for two false starts in the 1996 Olympic final, and in 1999 he received a two-year ban after testing positive for nandrolone, after his major titles.
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Michael Johnson (sprinter)
The bolt-upright posture and short, rapid stride looked wrong to many coaches, and Johnson used it to win the Atlanta 1996 200m and 400m double. His 19.32 in that 200m final took a huge chunk off the world record and stood for 12 years. The lesson is in frequency: rather than reaching out, he kept his feet landing under his hips at a cadence few could match, and the 1999 400m world record of 43.18 shows the same action over a full lap.
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Marie-José Pérec
Born
Pérec is the long-levered counterpoint to Michael Johnson, who completed the same 200m and 400m double at Atlanta 1996. Tall and rangy, she covered ground with a flowing, long stride that looked unhurried even at full speed, especially down the back straight of the 400m. Three Olympic golds, the 1992 and 1996 400m and the 1996 200m, came from that rhythm rather than any explosive start.
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Maurice Greene (sprinter)
Greene was the great drive-phase sprinter of the late 1990s. Thickly muscled and low out of the blocks, he stayed down through his acceleration and attacked the track with piston-like arms, a contrast to Lewis's gradual unfolding. His 9.79 world record in Athens in 1999, three world 100m titles and the Sydney 2000 Olympic gold all came from winning the first 50 metres and refusing to give it back.
More about Maurice Greene (sprinter)11
Asafa Powell
Born
Powell's technique was close to ideal for the first 60 metres: an explosive start, clean transition and beautifully relaxed arms. He broke the world record twice and ran under 10 seconds more than 90 times, more than anyone in history. What he could never quite do was win the big one, with no individual global title, and his career makes a fascinating contrast between time-trial brilliance and championship pressure. He served a reduced six-month suspension after a 2013 positive for a stimulant.
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Usain Bolt
Born
At 1.95m, Bolt needed longer than his rivals to unfold out of the blocks and was often behind at 30 metres. What followed was unprecedented: around 41 strides for 100m where rivals took 44 or more, while still turning his legs over quickly. The Berlin 2009 final, with the 9.58 and 19.19 world records that week, shows the whole sequence, and his slight asymmetry, linked to scoliosis, is a reminder that elite form is rarely textbook.
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Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce
Born
The "Pocket Rocket" stood about 1.52m tall and built a career on the best start in women's sprinting. Her reaction, low drive and rapid early steps meant she was often clear by 20 metres, and the 2022 world final in Eugene shows how far ahead that put her. Two Olympic 100m golds, five world 100m titles and a 10.60 at the age of 34 make her the clearest study of how a short sprinter turns frequency into dominance. She retired after the 2025 season.
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Allyson Felix
Born
Felix's stride was so fluid and light that commentators struggled to describe it without the word "glide". Slim and long-legged, she was not a natural starter, but her 200m races show how to carry speed off the bend without visible strain, and that efficiency let her extend into the 400m. Eleven Olympic medals over five Games, including 200m gold in London 2012, came from an action that barely changed in two decades.
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Elaine Thompson-Herah
Born
Where Fraser-Pryce won at the start, Thompson-Herah won in the middle. Her high knee lift and powerful front-side mechanics produced a top speed no woman of her era could live with, and in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic final she was pointing at the clock before the line and still ran 10.61. She won the 100m and 200m at both Rio and Tokyo, and her 10.54 in Eugene in 2021 is the second-fastest women's 100m ever.
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Wayde van Niekerk
Born
Van Niekerk ran the 400m world record of 43.03 at Rio 2016 from lane eight, with no one to chase or see. That race is a pacing masterclass: he went out hard and committed, then held his form better than anyone as fatigue set in. He is also the only man to have run under 10 seconds, 20 seconds and 44 seconds, proof that real speed underpins great one-lap running. A serious knee injury in 2017 interrupted what followed.
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Christian Coleman
Born
If you want to study the first 30 metres, start with Coleman. His block clearance and rapid, low acceleration produced the 60m world record of 6.34 indoors in 2018, and in the 2019 Doha world final he was gone by halfway, winning in 9.76. His career also carries an 18-month suspension for whereabouts failures, three missed tests rather than a positive, which cost him the Tokyo Olympics.
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Dina Asher-Smith
Born
Britain's fastest woman is a fine study in rhythm on the bend. Asher-Smith is compact and quick-footed, and her 200m world title in Doha in 2019, in a British record 21.88, came from attacking the curve and staying tall into the straight. She spent most of her career with one coach from her schooldays, John Blackie, before moving to Texas in 2023, so her races also offer a rare look at how a sprinter's mechanics evolve under different coaching.
More about Dina Asher-Smith19
Noah Lyles
Born
Lyles is the best bend runner of his generation, and his 200m races repay slow-motion viewing: he leans into the curve and comes off it already at top speed, as in his 19.31 American record in Eugene in 2022. He has won four world 200m titles in a row. In the 100m his weakness is the start, so his Paris 2024 Olympic win, by five thousandths of a second over Kishane Thompson, came entirely from the second half.
More about Noah Lyles20
Sha'Carri Richardson
Born
Richardson's 2023 world 100m title in Budapest came from lane nine, where she could barely see the favourites, and she ran 10.65 with a late surge that is her signature. Small and extremely fast-footed, she often looks behind at 40 metres before her turnover takes over. Her career also includes a one-month suspension in 2021 for cannabis, which cost her the Tokyo Olympics; in Paris she took 100m silver and relay gold.
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Julien Alfred
Alfred's Paris 2024 Olympic 100m win, Saint Lucia's first Olympic medal of any colour, came in the rain, and it showed off her power: a muscular, forceful acceleration that holds together on a wet track where lighter runners slip. A world indoor 60m champion the same year, she is the strongest example on this list of a sprinter built on force production rather than pure cadence.
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Kishane Thompson
Thompson is the most powerful-looking accelerator in men's sprinting today, heavily muscled and very fast through 60 metres, and his 9.75 at the 2025 Jamaican championships put him among the fastest men in history. Championship finals have so far slipped away late: Olympic silver in Paris by five thousandths, then world silver behind team-mate Oblique Seville in Tokyo. Compare his drive phase with Lyles's finish for the clearest contrast in the modern 100m.
More about Kishane Thompson23
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone
McLaughlin-Levrone proved her sprinting was more than hurdling rhythm when she stepped into the flat 400m at the 2025 world championships and won in 47.78, an American record and the fastest women's 400m in 40 years. Her running is about posture under fatigue: she stays tall and keeps her arm action tidy deep into the home straight, the same quality behind her 400m hurdles world record of 50.37 at the Paris Olympics.
More about Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone24
Melissa Jefferson-Wooden
Jefferson-Wooden has become the most complete sprinter in the women's game in two seasons. Her start was once a weakness; by the 2025 world championships it was among the best in the field, and she won the 100m in a championship record 10.61 and the 200m too. She repeated the sprint double at the first World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest in September 2026. Watch how quickly she reaches upright running without losing drive.
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