Led by sprint standouts Noah Lyles and Sha’Carri Richardson, the United States captured 29 medals including 12 golds, marking four consecutive World Championships with as many podium finishes and double-digit titles for the Americans

By David Woods for DyeStat

Photo by Getty Images

PHOTOS by Kim Spir | INTERVIEWS

BUDAPEST, Hungary – If track and field is a manifestation of what a human body can achieve, it takes a poet, not a journalist, to illustrate such beauty in words.

Maybe Maya Angelou was not a tracknut, but she had the right idea about Budapest 2023:

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

What people did at these nine-day World Athletics Championships will not soon be forgotten. The legacy will be something other than medals or statistics.

From the drama on the track and in the field, to the stadium set on banks of the Danube River, to the animated crowds, to the medal plaza, to the concerts, to the buzz around Budapest, there was an energy in a sport forever needing it.

It was a feeling.

Sebastian Coe, president of World Athletics, said Budapest created a new blueprint. He called the in-stadium experience “electric and addictive,” saying fans were engaged and supportive despite the host nation winning one medal.

“We’re lucky in that,” Coe said. “We’re not tribal.”

It was worth it to put a World Championships in the United States, the world’s biggest market with the world’s best team. Yet Oregon 2022 was never going to deliver as Budapest did. Not in a remote location, in a small stadium, in a saturated sports landscape, in something that was not the Olympic Games.

It could be argued both World Championships were necessary to sustain and grow the world’s oldest, most global and most diverse sport.

The local organizing committee touted success in tickets sold (400,000) and nations represented among ticket-buyers (120). There were so many visitors to worldathletics.org – up to 400,000 requests per minute, 14 million per hour – that the website kept crashing during night sessions.

The United States led the medals with 29 – 12 gold, eight silver, nine bronze. That was down only slightly from the record home-soil total of 33 last year (13-9-11).

Breakdown was 15 medals for the women, 13 for the men, one in the mixed 4x400-meter relay, highlighted Aug. 19 by a world record 3:08.80.

If it matters to NBC in a buildup to Paris 2024 –  let’s be honest, it does – the Olympics network can promote triple-medal sprinters Noah Lyles and Sha’Carri Richardson.

“They’re absolute rock stars,” Coe said. “They both come through in a powerful way.”

Not to mention the near-fictional feat of Ryan Crouser nearly setting a world record in the shot put despite two blood clots in his left leg.

Only other years the Americans won as many World medals: 30 at London in 2017 and 29 at Doha in 2019.

For Team USA, the good and the bad from Budapest:

USA men

Sprints/hurdles

The good: It would have been virtually impossible to duplicate last year’s medal sweeps of the 100 and 200 meters, so five of nine medals at 100/200/400 represented a win. So did the 1-3-4 finish in the 110 hurdles, led by three-time champion Grant Holloway; 3-4 in the 400 by Quincy Hall and 31-year-old Vernon Norwood; golds in 4x100 and 4x400 relays.

The bad: DNQ of world champion Fred Kerley in the 100 and an injury to national champion Bryce Deadmon in the 400.

Middle/long distance

The good: Fifth- and seventh-place finishes in the 1,500 from Yared Nuguse, 24, and Cole Hocker, 22, coming within 0.57 and 1.02 seconds of medaling. Back in January, that would have been implausible. Kenneth Rooks, 23, was 10th in the 3,000-meter steeplechase but shows potential for more. Zach Panning was a creditable 13th in the marathon in 2:11.21.

The bad: Americans captured zero of 18 available medals. Bryce Hoppel made the 800 final and finished last. Grant Fisher, injured and out, was fourth in the 10,000 and sixth in the 5,000 in 2022. No one came close to that in 2023.

Field events

The good: A 1-3 in the shot put by Crouser and Joe Kovacs, JuVaughn Harrison’s silver in the high jump, Chris Nilsen’s bronze in the pole vault.

The bad: A nation that produced Jesse Owens, Ralph Boston, Bob Beamon, Carl Lewis and Mike Powell inexplicably cannot locate a long jumper. It is now three straight global championships without a medal. Will Claye was a credible seventh in the triple jump, having competed in all seven World Championships since 2011 But Claye is 32. Where are the next Christian Taylor or Will Claye?

Decathlon

The good: Paris medal contenders still include Harrison Williams, Zach Ziemek and Kyle Garland.

The bad: None of the three performed like it. Harrison was seventh. Ziemek and Garland did not finish. On the other hand, for Williams to score 8,500 points in what, for him, was a bad decathlon is a high floor.

USA women

Sprints/hurdles

The good: Richardson set a championship record of 10.65 in the 100. With bronze at 200, she became the first American woman since 2011 to medal in both sprints. Gabby Thomas was not going to run down Shericka Jackson in a for-the-ages 200, but she won her first global gold by running away from Jamaica in the 4x100 relay. Shamier Little returned to the podium with a 400 hurdles silver to match the one from 2015. Tamari Davis, 20, made the 100 final and was on the gold-winning 4x100.

The bad: There was a billboard in Budapest for Sydney McLaughlin Levrone, but she was not. Not that she would have been guaranteed gold against Femke Bol in the 400 hurdles or Marileidy Paulino in the 400 meters. In the 400, Britton Wilson was injured and Lynna Irby-Jackson went out again in the semifinals. And as dominant as American are in the 100 hurdles, they have one medal to show for it (Keni Harrison’s bronze) over the past two worlds. The botched exchange to Alexis Holmes, heroine of the mixed 4x400 relay, in a semifinal of the women’s 4x400 relay prevented Team USA from winning all five relays.

Middle/long distance

The good: A 3-4-6 American finish in the 800 meters was highlighted by Athing Mu, and in no way should bronze be construed as a misfire. Alicia Monson is disadvantaged in a tactical race featuring big kicks, so fifth in the 10,000 rates as a breakthrough.

The bad: Recent world medalists Jenny Simpson, Emma Coburn and Courtney Frerichs now look like outliers. Coburn was a DNQ in the steeplechase, and it is hard to foresee any U.S. woman medaling soon at 1,500, steeple, 5K or 10K. Monson, 25, is at least in the mix.

Field events

The good: The women were medal money – five of nine available medals in the shot put, discus and hammer, plus gold by pole vaulter Katie Moon and silver by long jumper Tara Davis-Woodhall. The 1-2 finish by discus throwers Laulauga Tasauga-Collins and Valarie Allman was unprecedented. Hammer throwers Janee’ Kassanavoid and DeAnna Price took two medals. Hana Moll, 18, broke her own national high school all-time mark and achieved the World Under-20 outdoor record by clearing 15-3 (4.65m) to advance in the pole vault.

The bad: World champion Brooke Andersen failed to make the hammer final. Vashti Cunningham, 11th in the high jump, has not maintained the form she displayed when bursting on the scene as World indoor champion in 2016. For the first time, three Americans were among 12 finalists in the triple jump, but none made the cut to eight.

Heptathlon

The good: Despite a hyperextended knee, Anna Hall persevered to secure a silver medal with a score of 6,720 points. Hall, 22, is the future of the heptathlon. Chari Hawkins has persevered, too, and was rewarded with a PB of 6,366 and eighth place at age 32.

The bad: Hall’s injury, which happened a few weeks before the World Championships.

Contact David Woods at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007