The 2024 NCAA Track and Field Championships is becoming quite the event! With stars like Sha’Carri Richardson and Gabby Thomas preparing hard for the upcoming Paris Games, it seems like the national championship just made things a little more difficult for them. With the US Olympic Trials – from June 21 to 30 – being their immediate focus, a new addition to the fray will ensure Richardson and Thomas will have their work cut out for them.

In May, Gabby Thomas was asked who could compete for the 200m gold in Paris. Her response? “Shericka Jackson, Elaine Thompson-Herah, me, Sha’Carri Richardson, and if Christine Mboma comes back, it’s going to be a very intense and historic race. But we’re all pushing each other to that level, which is really special.” Well, she might want to add Ole Miss star McKenzie Long to that list because, right now, she’s the fastest 200m female sprinter in the world. And she has been since early May.

The collegiate athletics scene in the country is a fantastic one. Like wrestling, the NCAA track and field establishment has also produced several Olympians over the years. And now, McKenzie Long is looking to make ripples across the community by extending her NCAA record further and threatening to sprint beyond the reaches of Thomas or Richardson.

In Thomas’ interview last month, she mentioned how Florence Griffith Joyner’s 200m record (21.34 seconds) has “got to go” at the Paris Olympics. Since 1988, the closest anyone has come to breaking that was Shericka Jackson in August 2023, courtesy of her 21.41-second dash. “The 200m is so exciting on the women’s side because we’re running times that just have not been run before since Flo Jo,” Thomas added. And, well, the closest anyone has come to the 21.34-second mark this year is the 23-year-old Ole Miss Rebel.

McKenzie Long grabbed the world lead in the women’s 200m event as she recorded a stunning 21.95 seconds in the race during the semifinals of the NCAA Championships. “Sub-22,” read FloTrack’s tweet after Long’s jaw-dropping feat. Why was it a jaw-dropping feat? Because no other athlete has breached the 22-second mark this year – not Gabby Thomas, not Sha’Carri Richardson, and not Shericka Jackson. With this time, McKenzie broke her own previous record in the event (22.03), which also was the performance that brought her the SEC title. But that’s not all.

Her 22.03 time at the SEC Championships wasn’t just good enough to take her to the top of the 2024 charts, but it was also good enough to keep 2-time Olympic champion Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone at bay. At the LA Grand Prix on May 18, just a week after the SEC Championships, McLaughlin-Levrone ran the 200m in 22.07 seconds. It was a shock for her, considering she specializes in and is the world record holder in the 400m hurdles.

“McKenzie Long is on a TEAR today as she logs 21.95 (+0.3) in the semis to improve on her women’s 200m world lead,” elaborated the social media post, and both Thomas and Sha’Carri need to head back to the drawing board to come up with a plan to get their tickets to Paris later this month at Eugene.

Long’s latest victory, which saw her extending her world lead by a considerable margin compared to her spell-binding SEC Championships performance, has left Richardson and Thomas in the dust, too. Slotting in behind McLaughlin-Levrone in third place on the 2023 charts is Gabby Thomas, with her 22.08 Texas Relays display. As for Sha’Carri Richardson, her season-best is a 22.99, which puts her in 99th place. However, considering Sha’Carri’s past achievements, Long won’t get an easy pass either.

McKenzie’s journey to the top won’t be easy

At last year’s World Championships, Sha’Carri won the bronze medal in the 200m sprint with 21.92 seconds. This remains her personal best time in the event and is faster than Long’s latest score – albeit by just 0.03 seconds. However, what makes McKenzie’s feat such an impressive one is that in 2023, only 4 women could record a time lower than 22 seconds in the 200m race. Considering this, Long could be well on her way to immortality if she retains her form for the Olympic Team Trials and then in Paris in August.

However, it’s important to note that this will be McKenzie Long’s first Olympic Trials appearance. More than a physical battle, it will likely be a mental battle, one that Long will have to get used to as quickly as possible. Gabby Thomas said in her interview last month, “It’s a hard team to make. It’s cutthroat…[Qualification] is late. It’s close to the Olympics. So we have all season to think about that qualification process. In my opinion, it’s the fairest way to do it, but it’s definitely a mental battle.” The fight doesn’t end there, though.

Should McKenzie Long make it to the French capital, she’ll be destined to face the likes of Shericka Jackson, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, and Elaine Thompson-Herah, who are also gearing up to make waves on the banks of the Seine. They will pose a difficult challenge for the 23-year-old.