The race for Flo-Jo's 100m world record: Can Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Shericka Jackson or Sha'Carri Richardson make history in 2023?
Three-and-a-half decades after the women's 100m world record was set, could this be the year it is finally broken? Olympics.com looks at the main contenders to do it and analyses their fastest times side-by-side.
Athletics
It’s been 35 years since Florence Griffith-Joyner - also known as Flo-Jo - set the women’s 100m world record in the quarter-finals of the US Olympic trials of 1988.
The time of 10.49, which lowered the existing record by 0.27 seconds, has often been called unbeatable.
But in recent years, Flo-Jo’s legendary mark has begun to be challenged, with the Jamaican duo of Elaine Thompson-Herah and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce edging closer than ever to breaking it.
The 2023 season has also seen the re-emergence of the precociously talented Sha’Carri Richardson, whose performances so far this year have seen her enter the frame when the question is raised as to who is the current fastest woman on earth.
Seven of the 10 fastest times in history have been set since 2021, with Thompson-Herah the closest to Flo-Jo after registering a devastating time of 10.54 in August 2021. In the same month, the third-fastest time ever was claimed by Fraser-Pryce who stormed home in 10.60 in Lausanne**.**
The 23-year-old Richardson hasn’t quite reached that level yet with a PB of 10.71 from July 2023 the fastest wind-legal time on her resume.
However, in April 2023, with an illegal tailwind of +4.1 (the legal limit is +2.0), the young American set the fourth-fastest all-conditions time in history with a time of 10.57, behind only Flo-Jo and two-time Olympic 100m champion Thomson-Herah on the all-time list.
And then there is 2022 world 100m silver medallist Shericka Jackson who became the fifth fastest woman in history after clocking 10.65 to win the 100m at the Jamaican national championships in June.
Now, with another World Athletics Championships taking place in Budapest and the Paris 2024 Olympics coming just a year later, could we see the world record of Flo-Jo fall? And if so, who’s most likely to break it?
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Shericka Jackson and Elaine Thompson-Herah: The Jamaican speed queens closing in on the world record
While Thompson-Herah’s fastest-ever time is 0.06 seconds ahead of Fraser-Pryce’s best, a closer look at their top 10 marks shows that the latter is in a league of her own when it comes to consistency.
Fraser-Pryce holds the record for most times-ever under 10.70 seconds, registering nine marks that have broken that barrier.
In fact, all of those times have been set since 2021, proving that ‘Mommy Rocket’ has been in the form of her life at 36 years old.
And the Jamaican has made clear her intentions to bow out from her career after breaking the 100m world record.
“I definitely believe I can run 10.5,” she said in an interview with NBC. “And once I run 10.5 I know 10.4 is possible.”
Thompson-Herah was equally bullish when it comes to beating Flo-Jo’s mark, saying before last year’s Worlds: “I think once I have that line-up and that good weather it is possible.”
The reigning Olympic champion has even more reason to be confident when raw pace is taken into account, with her top speed of 39.7 km/h set at Tokyo 2020 eclipsing Griffith-Joyner’s best of 39.1 km/h from 1988.
“I don’t think I’m one of those athletes who puts the record in the front of my head,” Shericka Jackson told Olympics.com in a sponsor event two days before the Worlds began in Hungary. “Once I execute a good race, anything is possible.”
This season, neither Fraser-Pryce nor Thompson-Herah have been at their mesmerising best, with the former suffering a knee injury in May 2023 that hampered her season and the latter only competing at the World Athletics Championships as part of the Jamaican 4x100m relay team. However, the longterm goal for both will be Paris 2024 where they will aim to create history in the capital of France.
Sha’Carri Richardson: Could 2023 be the year of the young American?
While she may not yet be on the level of Thompson-Herah or Fraser-Pryce, there is a feeling that we have yet to see the best of Richardson.
In the current season, the NCAA 100m record holder has begun to show the type of form that caused so many ripples when she shot onto the international scene before the last Olympics in 2021.
So far in her fledgling career, Richardson has produced eight legal times under 10.80 seconds, not including that windy 10.57 in April 2023, with four of them coming in 2023.
And while consistency has sometimes been an issue, her form this year shows she is back to her best after a challenging 2022.
As the two Jamaicans enter the latter stages of their careers, there is no other sprinter on earth today who captures the attention of the public quite like Sha’Carri.
And if she can stay fit and healthy, she may just be there to challenge the legendary Thomson-Herah and Fraser-Pryce when the medals are on the line at Paris 2024.