Melissa Jefferson is the reigning American champion in the 100 meter dash, but you wouldn’t know that watching any professional races in 2023. She shocked the world when she did it running as fast as 10.69 wind assisted to take the crown. She did it just weeks after finishing her collegiate track season, one in which she didn’t even win a medal at the NCAA championships. She is now officially a professional, and a world championship finalist. Yet all eyes seem to be on other American women as the nation’s hope to win a World Championship. The truth is that nobody saw Melissa Jefferson coming, not even the college track recruiters, because she was never supposed to be this good. So the question is legitimate, is she a one hit wonder? Or does she actually have what it takes to win the world in the 100? Even though she has always been the underdog, she has also made a habit of proving the doubters wrong, and this is why. 

Melissa Jefferson was never supposed to be this good

First things first, Melissa Jefferson attended Coastal Carolina University to run track in college, and there is a reason most track fans haven’t heard of them. They are not a national championship caliber program. Coastal Carolina competes in the Sun Belt Conference, and if it weren’t for Melissa they wouldn’t have scored more than 1 point at either in the Indoor or Outdoor NCAA championship meets. The bigger schools didn’t want Melissa because in high school she didn’t run anywhere near as fast as she became in college. Her high school 100 meter PR was 12.03 which was good enough to win a class 2A state championship in South Carolina. However, it is a long way off from the performances that her rivals Twanisha Terry, and Sha’carri Richardson were running when they were in high school. 

Melissa Jefferson shocked the world in 2022

When she got to college she was fast, but nowhere near NCAA championship level as a freshman. Then all of a sudden during the back half of her sophomore year she found a second gear in the outdoor season running 11.22 in the 100 meter dash wind legal, which is nearly a full second faster than her high school PR! She dominated the Sun Belt conference championship meet but we weren’t paying attention, because she didn’t make the NCAA championship final, but she was there at the meet in the prelims. A full year before we would learn her name. 

As a junior in 2022, she took it up a notch dropping her 60 meter dash time from 7.41 to 7.09. Simply put that is not supposed to happen, and in so doing she went from never qualifying for the NCAA indoors, to winning the championship in one season. So by this point she had proved she wasn’t just the most improved sprinter we may have ever seen in college, but she was the best. Which is why her NCAA championship performance outdoors in 2022 was disappointing. She finished in the back of the race for the NCAA 100 final, and was a non-factor in the 200. Which is why her performance at the USA championship meet several weeks later, was unthinkable. She won the American title with times of 10.82 wind legal, and 10.69 wind aided to make it clear that she belongs among the world’s best. 

Melissa Jefferson keeps improving

The journey matters just as much as the destination. Melissa Jefferson has continued to improve every step of the way throughout her track career, from a recruit that nobody in the SEC or ACC seemed to want, all the way to an NCAA and American champion. She didn’t win the world championship, but she made the final, after a full collegiate season where unlike some top college sprinters she had to run all the meets on her college schedule, because she wasn’t good enough yet to take any off. Melissa has not broken 11 seconds yet for much of the 2023 season, but history tells us that it doesn’t matter. The way that she has performed in the past, means she is due for a big race, on the biggest of stages. 

The Bottom Line 

Many people believe sprinting is all about running fast times, which may be true, but it is really about running those times in the one moment that actually matters each year. Melissa has proven the ability to do that, and we should expect to watch her do it a lot more. She is proof that it doesn’t matter if the big schools in the SEC won’t give you a look in recruiting. Because the points she scored for Coastal Carolina at the NCAAs are points that they all wish they could have back.

KNOW THE GAME. WIN THE GAME.

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