Cravont Charleston is the American champion in the 100 meter dash! You probably have no idea who he is, because it’s the first time he has ever even made the finals. He beat Christian Coleman, Noah Lyles, and Trayvon Bromell to do it, so the win was truly against some of the world’s best. Cravont’s victory is the definition of an underdog story, but even an underdog has to have a whole lot of talent to get the job done. From never making an NCAA championship final, to now representing the USA on the World Stage, almost nobody saw this coming. In fact, he’s the first champion to not even have a shoe sponsor since Justin Gatlin, who was coming back from suspension at the time! But when you take a closer look, it’s not that surprising. Cravont has always been right there, as a contender in the 100, knocking on the door of championship success. This is just the first time that he finally kicked the door down himself.

Cravont was a dominant high school runner

First things first, calling Cravont Charleston an underdog, is only telling a small part of the story. In high school he was very good, like most top recruits in the sprints. With a personal best of 10.38 wind legal which he recorded at the North Carolina state championship meet. That’s a First Team National Elite time for an athlete who was already the state’s indoor 55 meter dash champion during his senior year. He was actually a New Balance All American as a junior in the 100 meter dash as well. After all that he chose to run for NC State which is a legitimate D1 program in the ACC conference. So even at 17 years old he had been running against the best, even if he wasn’t finishing in the front of the race yet.

Cravont underachieved in college

The truth about Cravont is that once he got to college he underachieved. This is not to say that he wasn’t good, but actually the opposite. He was so good before the NCAA championships that it is disappointing that fans never got so see what he could really do once he was there. As a freshman he won the ACC Outdoor championship in the 100 meter dash in a time of 10.07 seconds wind assisted. That is a very big deal, and he should have been a lock to at least make the NCAA championships. But he finished 13th at the regional meet, just missing out on qualifying by one hundredth of a second. The regional winner that year was also the NCAA champion, named Christian Coleman. Whom coincidentally he would beat years later to become the American champion. It was his freshman year and Christian was a junior about to turn pro, so there were high hopes for Cravont after that.

Yet as a sophomore he only finished second in the ACC championship 100, not close to making it out of the regional meet. So his junior year indoors was his first time at the NCAAs finishing 9th in the prelims. He missed the final this time by three hundredths of a second, with Grant Holloway stealing the 60 meter championship. Outdoors was the same story, he made it to the NCAAs and missed the final. The year 2020 should have been his last season and Cravont was  running new PRs in the 60 and dominating the ACC conference. But there was no NCAA championship to run at, due to the pandemic. He came back to run for the spring of 2021 but nobody was paying attention, because he got hurt midseason. That being said, he was fast enough to make the Olympic Trials, where he would get eliminated in the preliminary heats.

Many sprinters would have given up after that, but Cravont Charleston kept pushing and became a finalist at the USA indoors in 2022. Where he lost once again to Christian Coleman. Track fans weren’t paying attention because he didn’t win, and he followed it up as a semifinalist at last year’s USA’s. Once again, nobody cared because it ain’t the final. 

Cravont is finally running at his best

So here we are in 2023, and Cravont Charleston is running at his best. The first time he’s even gotten close to doing so since he was a freshman in college. Track and Field is a sport where we really only pay attention to the victors, and anyone else in the race might as well be the extras in an action movie. Well Cravont is finally the star and he’s putting on a show. He ran 9.87 wind aided to win the Mt. SAC 100 beating Michael Norman and several other pros to do it. But that’s nothing compared to his performance at the LA Grand Prix. He didn’t win, he got second losing to Ackeem Blake of Jamaica. But you gotta see the field of Americans who were behind him. It includes Olympian Ronnie Baker, World Championship silver medalist Marvin Bracy-Williams, and someone else whom he edged out by one thousandth of a second. It’s a name that Cravont can never forget in Christian Coleman. At that moment, every sprinter showing up at the USA championships knew that Cravont Charleston was a legitimate threat to win the American championship. This is almost one full month before he would actually do it.

You can call it an underdog story if you want to, but this dog has been fighting for a long time. He underachieved all throughout college but that word only applies to him, because he was capable of achieving anything to begin with. So now everybody knows that Cravont Charleston is not an extra in an action movie, he is the star of the show. A role that he has worked incredibly hard to earn. It’s time we put some respect on his name. Because he deserves everything that is coming to him, and that includes a shoe contract, which I’m sure Nike and Adidas are trying to figure out right about now.

KNOW THE GAME. WIN THE GAME.

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