400
World leader Chris Bailey, the fifth-fastest man in history with a 44.70 at the Tyson Invitational in Arkansas last month, was a comfortable winner at the USATF indoor meet and earned silver last year in Glasgow on the U.S. 4×400 squad. He also has Olympic and World Championships relay gold to his credit and was sixth in the 400 at Paris last summer. Joining him in the red, white and blue is World Indoor Tour winner Brian Faust, who was fourth at the USATF meet, and Jacory Patterson, also a 4×400 silver medalist at Glasgow. Patterson has the fastest 300 time in the world this year at 32.18 and was the USATF runner-up. Baylor’s NCAA silver medalist Nathaniel Ezekiel of Nigeria is the No. 7 all-time world indoor performer at 44.74 and will be a powerful contender for gold, as will Canada’s Christopher Morales Williams, the world indoor record holder at 44.49, and European champion Attila Molnar of Hungary, who has run 45.08 this year.

1500
Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen is the favorite on paper here after setting a world indoor record of 3:29.63 en route to a mile world record of 3:45.14 in France on Feb. 13. He was a double gold medalist at the European Indoors, taking the 1500 and 3000, and he is attempting the same double here. Isaac Nader of Portugal was third behind the Norwegian at the Euro meet and has a PB of 3:32.95, the second fastest entry mark. Sam Prakel was ninth at the 2022 World Indoors and finished second at the USATF meet. He has an indoor PB of 3:35.66. The other American is Luke Houser, a two-time NCAA indoor mile winner for Washington who set his indoor 1500 PB of 3:35.85 earlier this month at Boston. Ethiopia’s Samuel Tefera hasn’t run the 1500 indoors yet this season, but claimed gold at the 2018 and 2022 World Indoor titles. Tefera set an indoor world record of 3:31.04 in 2019, the mark that Ingebrigtsen took down this year. Neil Gourley of Great Britain is a veteran international championship competitor and has a PB of 3:32.48.

Pentathlon
Finland’s Saga Vanninen set the year’s top score with a 4,922-point tally at the European Championships. Her closest challenger on paper is Ireland’s Kate O’Connor, the European indoor bronze medalist at 4,781. USATF champion Timara Chapman put together a 4,555 PB at Ocean Breeze to nab one of the U.S. team spots, with Taliyah Brooks garnering a place based on her world ranking. The combined events entrants were all invited by World Athletics because of their world ranking positions. An Olympian at Paris in the heptathlon last year, Brooks has a pentathlon best of 4,580 from 2017.

60
Celera Barnes captured the national indoor title at Ocean Breeze with a season best 7.11 and was a semifinalist at Glasgow in 2024. She is joined by 2022 World Indoor silver medalist Mikiah Brisco, the third-place finisher at the U.S. championships and fifth at Glasgow last year. The American duo face a potent group of European challengers that is topped by Italy’s Zaynab Dosso, a returning bronze medalist who won the European Indoor title two weeks ago and has a best of 7.01. Poland’s Ewa Swoboda was the runner-up last year and has cracked seven seconds with a 6.98 PB, while Switzerland’s Mujinga Kambundji has the fastest lifetime best in the field at 6.96.

3000
None of the medalists from Glasgow 2024 return, but this race shapes up as a compelling matchup with the third-fastest woman in history, Ethiopia’s Freweyni Hailu, taking on teammate Birke Haylom, the world U20 indoor record holder who turned 19 in January. Hailu has a PB of 8:19.98 thatwas set in February at Lievin, France, while Haylom has run 8:25.37 this year. Shelby Houlihan and Whittni Morgan are the fourth- and fifth-fastest American ever indoors and have the ability to mount the medal stand. Houlihan, fifth in this event at the 2018 world indoor meet, was the runner-up at the USATF Indoors at Ocean Breeze and has a PB of 8:26.66 from 2020, with Morgan setting her PB of 8:28.03 earlier this year to win the Millrose Games. Australia’s Jessica Hull is No. 9 on the all-time world performer list with a PB of 8:24.39 and she earned silver in the 1500 at the Paris Olympics after a fourth-place finish in the 3000 at Glasgow.

800
One of the more exciting duels at the USATF Indoor Championships presented by Prevagen featured Nia Akins and Valery Tobias both dipping under 2:00, with Akins taking the crown in a PB of 1:59.31 and Tobias right on her heels with a 1:59.55 PB effort. They will go against world-leading Tsige Duguma of Ethiopia, the reigning champion, Paris silver medalist, and a 1:58.97 performer this year. St. Vincent’s Shafiqua Maloney is a multi-talented runner and has a season best of 1:59.07 that gave her the Millrose Games win. She was fourth at the Olympic Games in Paris. Prudence Sekgodiso of South Africa is the other entrant with a sub-2:00 clocking in 2025, bringing a best of 1:59.88.

400
Powering to an indoor PB of 50.24 at Glasgow, Alexis Holmes earned bronze in 2024 and is among the favorites in Nanjing after taking the U.S. gold in a season best of 50.51. Also a silver medalist on the American 4×400 last year, Holmes takes on Norway’s Henriette Jaeger, the leading entrant at 50.44, along with training partner Amber Anning of Great Britain, who has clocked 50.57 this year. Rosey Effiong, the U.S. runner-up and an Arkansas teammate of Anning last year, is also a medal contender with a PB of 50.54.

60 Hurdles
One of the highlight events of the Championships, this one features reigning champion Devynne Charlton of the Bahamas, who set the world indoor record of 7.65 to take that gold last year, and returning bronze medalist Pia Skrzyszowska of Poland. Grace Stark was fifth in the 100H at Paris last summer and won the NCAA gold in that event for Florida. She set a lifetime best of 7.75 in the heats and clocked 7.76 in the final to earn silver at the USATF Indoors. Team USATF has three entrants in this event by virtue of Christina Clemons winning the World Indoor Tour title in 2020, and she and Amber Hughes round out a strong U.S. trio. Clemons was the silver medalist at the 2018 World Indoors and boasts a PB of 7.73 from 2018 that puts her fifth on the all-time U.S. indoor performer list. Hughes set her PB of 7.92 in 2024 and is making her global championship debut. The world leader this year is Switzerland’s Ditaji Kambundji, who jetted to a 7.67 to win the European title and move to equal-second on the all-time world performer list. Two other women to watch are 2023 NCAA indoor champion Ackera Nugent of Jamaica and Nadine Visser of the Netherlands both of whom have PBs of 7.72 to rank in the all-time world top 10.

Long Jump
Wunderkind Mattia Furlani of Italy just turned 20 in February and has the best mark in the world in 2025 at 8.37/27-5.5. Furlani was the silver medalist at Glasgow last year and then earned bronze at the Olympics in Paris. Seventh at Glasgow, Will Williams won the U.S. title last month and sports an 8.16/26-9.25 season best. The USATF runner-up, Cameron Crump, needs a return to the 2023 form that saw him blast a PB 8.39/27-6.5 if he wants to be in the medal chase. Solid outdoor marks from Tajay Gayle of Jamaica, the 2019 world outdoor champion, and Liam Adcock of Australia place them in the frame, and another Jamaican, Wayne Pinnock, earned Olympic silver at Paris and is opening his season in Nanjing. Switzerland’s Simon Ehammer, also a talented decathlete, has an outdoor PB of 8.45/27-8.75.

Triple Jump
Reigning Olympic and World Indoor champion Thea LaFond of Dominica and a pair of Cubans top the bill in an event that sorely misses world record holder Yulimar Rojas of Venezuela. LaFond has not yet competed in 2025, but won in Glasgow with a national record 15.01/49-3. Silver behind her went to Leyanis Perez of Cuba, and she will team up with compatriot Liadagmis Povea to give the island nation double medal potential. There is no U.S. entrant in this event.

Pole Vault
Anything can happen in any event, but a loss here by Sweden’s Mondo Duplantis would be a huge upset. A many-time world record setter of late, Duplantis raised his own global standard to 6.27/20-6.75 earlier this year and is a big favorite. Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis has been on a hot streak, too, improving his PB to 6.02/19-9 and tying for the European Indoor title with Menno Vloon of the Netherlands, another medal hopeful. Carrying the flag for Team USATF is Sam Kendricks, thrice a silver medalist at the World Indoors, including at Glasgow last year, and the former American indoor record holder with a PB of 6.01/19-8.5 in 2020. 38-year-old Renaud Lavillenie of France was a world record setter a decade ago, but is still capable of a podium spot based on his season best of 5.91/19-4.75.

800
What can Josh Hoey and Brandon Miller do to improve on the amazing race they ran at the USATF Indoor Championships? Hoey has had a magical 2025 campaign, setting American indoor records at 800 and 1000, and winning the national 800 crown in a record-setting 1:43.24. That made him the second-fastest man in indoor history and put the target on his back here. Miller, an Olympic semifinalist at Paris, moved to No. 9 on that world list with his runner-up 1:44.26 last month and won the 2022 NCAA indoor gold for Texas A&M. Eliott Crestan of Belgium was the bronze medalist at Glasgow and finished second behind Samuel Chapple of the Netherlands at the European indoors, and both men have dipped under 1:45 this season, as has Spain’s Elvin Canales.

NANJING, China – Coming off dominant performances at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, Team USATF’s contingent for the 20th World Athletics Indoor Championships will look to improve upon the 20-medal effort that saw them quadruple the nearest nation’s tally last year in Glasgow as the first global championship meet of 2025 gets under way Friday at the Nanjing Sports Training Centre.

Men’s Event-by-Event Preview

Pole Vault
Defending champion Molly Caudery of Great Britain has the best entry mark at 4.85/15-11 but will face a stern challenge from a handful of women that includes European champion Angelica Moser of Switzerland and the two athletes who finished behind her at that meet, Tina Sutej of Slovenia and Marie-Julie Bonnin of France. Gabriela Leon won the NCAA outdoor crown for Louisville in 2022, was a World Championships finalist, and was the U.S. runner-up last month. She has a PB of 4.70/15-5, while Emily Grove placed third at the national championships with a season best 4.65/15-3.

Triple Jump
Italy’s Andy Diaz Hernandez, the Paris Olympic Games bronze medalist and formerly of Cuba, exploded to a world-leading 17.71/58-1.25 to win the European indoor gold and he tops the entry list here. Max Hess of Germany also uncorked a big jump at the Euro meet, going 17.43/57-2.25 for silver, and Andrea Dallavalle gave Italy bronze to go with the Diaz Hernandez gold. The NCAA indoor champion for Miami last year, Russell Robinson was an Olympian in 2024 and placed second at the USATF Indoors. Robinson has an indoor PB of 16.86/55-3.75 that he set earlier this season. Two-time World Indoor gold medalist Will Claye is on the Mt. Rushmore of American triple jumping with nine career global medals and seven national titles. Claye set his indoor PB of 17.70/58-1 in winning the World Indoor gold in 2012 at Istanbul and is No. 3 on the all-time U.S. indoor performer list. Reigning champion Hugues Fabrice Zango of Burkina Faso has a career best of 18.07/59-3.5 but was subpar in his only competition this season.

Led by reigning World Indoor champion and world record holder Grant Holloway in the men’s 60 hurdles, the U.S. squad features 2025 world leaders in four events and ten athletes who earned medals at last year’s World Indoors.

1500
Americans took silver and bronze in Glasgow last year, leaving Sinclaire Johnson and Heather MacLean with a monumental task to match that effort in Nanjing. The giant obstacle standing in their way for a spot atop the podium is world indoor record-holder Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia. Tsegay set the world record of 3:53.09 in 2021, and she leads the world list in 2025 with a 3:53.92 best. The World Indoor champion in 2022, Tsegay is also a world outdoor champion at 5000 and 10,000, and she took silver in the 3000 at this meet last year. MacLean was third at the U.S. championships but bettered the American record at a last chance meet in Boston on March 2 with a 3:59.60 en route to a world-leading 4:17.01 mile. She was seventh in this event at the 2022 World Indoors. The 2019 NCAA champion in the outdoor 1500 for Oklahoma State, Johnson was sixth at the 2022 world outdoor meet and ran an indoor lifetime best of 4:06.05 to take silver at the USATF indoor meet in February. Tsegay’s Ethiopia teammate, Diribe Welteji, is also a huge  threat for gold with a PB of 3:55.47 and a season best of 3:58.89.

High Jump
Olympic champion and reigning World Indoor gold medalist Hamish Kerr of New Zealand is one of two men in the field to have cleared a PB of 2.36/7-8.75, and he is competing in his first indoor meet of the season after winning his nation’s outdoor title two weeks ago. European indoor champion Oleh Doroshchuk of Ukraine was fourth at Glasgow last year and looks set to mount the podium based on recent form. Doroshchuk leads the world list at 2.34/7-8 and was sixth at the Olympic Games in Paris last summer. Just behind him at the Games was South Korea’s Sang-hyeok Woo, another 2.36/7-8.75 jumper who won the 2022 World Indoor gold and earned bronze last year. Eli Kosiba is the lone American entry and has a PB of 2.30/7-6.5.

60 Hurdles
It begins and ends with Grant Holloway. Undefeated in 76 straight indoor 60H races since 2014, Holloway has two straight World Indoor golds and the world indoor record at 7.27. He cruised to another U.S. title last month in 7.36, which leads the world list in 2025. Emerging Polish star Jakub Szymanski won the European title and has a PB of 7.39, while Cameron Murray set his PB of 7.41 to finish second to Holloway at the USATF meet. Murray was a semifinalist at Glasgow last year. Lorenzo Ndele Simonelli of Italy was the silver medalist in 2024, and France’s Wilhelm Belocian grabbed the runner-up spot at the European indoors behind Szymanski.

High Jump
Only one defeat marred an otherwise perfect slate in 2024 for Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh, who broke one of the oldest world records on the books with her 2.10/6-10.75 at the Paris Diamond League meet to take down the mark set in 1987 by Bulgaria’s Stefka Kostadinova. She was relegated to silver at Glasgow by Australia’s Nicola Olyslagers, and those two will go head-to-head again in Nanjing. Mahuchikh won the European title two weeks ago and is the world leader, while Olyslagers is making her season debut. U.S. hopes ride on Vashti Cunningham, who won her 15th national title at Ocean Breeze and was the 2016 World Indoor champion as a teen. Cunningham has an indoor PB of 2.00/6-6.75 and also has a silver from the 2018 World Indoors. NCAA outdoor champion for Kentucky in 2023, Charity Hufnagel was the runner-up at this year’s USATF Indoors with a PB 1.94/6-4.25. 

60
The third-fastest man in history in the event with a PB of 6.40 from 2018, Ronnie Baker won the USATF title last month and has a season best of 6.50. Baker also earned the U.S. an additional slot with his World Indoor Tour victory in 2020, so Coby Hilton and Emmanuel Wells comprise the rest of the American trio. Hilton and Wells both clocked 6.58 at the USATF indoor meet, and Hilton got the nod for the runner-up spot. Both men are making their international championship debuts. This year’s fastest indoor performer at 6.49, Great Britain’s Jeremiah Azu used that time to win the European title. Australia’s Lachlan Kennedy qualified for the meet with an outdoor 6.43 down under and has the best entry mark overall.

3000
Ingebrigtsen’s difficult distance double will require some serious tactical nous in spite of his status as the outdoor world record holder at 7:17.55. He won a pedestrian affair at the European Indoors in 7:48.37, but will be up against Ethiopia’s Berihu Aregawi, a 7:26.20 man who was the silver medalist in the 10,000 at Paris last summer, and Aregawi’s 18-year-old teammate, Biniam Mehary, who set a world U20 record with his 7:29.99 outing in February. Dylan Jacobs is the eighth fastest man in U.S. history with a PB of 7:30.45 at the Millrose Games. Jacobs won the NCAA indoor 5000 for Tennessee in 2023 and was the outdoor NCAA champion at 10,000 in 2022. Former Air Force Academy star Sam Gilman dropped his PB to 7:34.69 earlier this month at Boston and was third at the USATF Indoors. One other dangerous challenger is Ethiopia’s Getnet Wale, the 2020 World Indoor Tour winner who is No. 6 on the all-time world performer list at 7:24.98.

Shot Put
The world lead belongs to Italy’s Leonardo Fabbri at 21.95/72-0.25, but he bombed out in qualifying at the European Indoors. Fabbri was the bronze medalist at Glasgow, though, and earned outdoor world silver in 2023. Those medals along with his outdoor PB of 22.98/75-4.75 make him a solid contender. Two-time World Indoor champion Tom Walsh of New Zealand earned silver last year and has a PB of 22.90/75-1.75. Walsh won the New Zealand national outdoor gold two weeks ago with a season best 21.24/69-8.25. USATF champion Tripp Piperi was eighth at the 2022 world outdoor championships and is poised for his first global indoor competition. Piperi has a PB of 21.74/71-4. U.S. leader Roger Steen threw an indoor PB 21.94/71-11.75 at a small meet in Wisconsin in February to move to No. 10 on the all-time U.S. indoor performer list before taking the runner-up spot at the USATF meet. 

Shot Put
The most-anticipated women’s field event in Nanjing has defending champion Sarah Mitton of Canada, world leader and European champion Jessica Schilder of the Netherlands, and American record holder Chase Jackson vying for the top step on the podium. Jackson bettered her own American indoor record with a 20.24/66-5 toss in Poland in February and followed up with another U.S. indoor title at Ocean Breeze. She has a silver and bronze from previous World Indoor meets, but has yet to match the double World Outdoor golds she achieved in 2022 and 2023. Mitton brings a best of 20.68/67-10.25 into the meet, set at Karlsruhe last month, and Schilder threw a massive PB of 20.69/67-10.75 to win the Euro gold. Because Jackson won this year’s World Indoor Tour, the U.S. has three berths in the shot, and two-time World Indoor finalist Maggie Ewen will seek to improve on a seventh-place finish last year and a fifth-place effort in 2022. Jessica Ramsey, the 2021 Olympic Trials champion, makes her first World Indoor Championships appearance and ranks seventh on the all-time U.S. indoor performer list.

Heptathlon
Sander Skotheim of Norway came away best in a titanic battle at the European Indoors, scoring 6,558 points to move to third on the all-time world performer list. Germany’s Till Steinforth, a redshirt at Nebraska, earned bronze with a PB 6,388, and Johannes Erm of Estonia was fourth with a 6,380 PB. Americans Heath Baldwin and Harrison Williamsearned invitations because of their world ranking in the combined events. Baldwin was the Olympic Trials decathlon champion and placed 10th at the Olympic Games in Paris. He also earned silver in the NCAA indoor heptathlon for Michigan State with a 6,238 PB score. Williams was seventh in the decathlon at Paris after a third-place effort at the Olympic Trials. He has a PB of 6,042 in the heptathlon, set in 2019.

Women’s Event-by-Event Preview

Long Jump
Monae’ Nichols is the top returner after claiming silver at Glasgow, and she won the USATF Indoor Championships last month. Sixth at the Paris Olympic Games, Nichols set her indoor PB of 6.85/22-5.75 at last year’s meet. Spain’s Fatima Diame earned bronze in Glasgow in 2024, but was only fifth at the European Championships earlier this month. Making her international championship debut, Claire Bryant was second at the U.S. championships and has a best of 6.72/22-0.75 this season. The leading entry mark is 6.98/22-10.75 by Anthaya Charlton of the Bahamas, who was fourth at the NCAA indoor meet for Florida.