Top 5 Track and Field Women of 2025: Melissa Jefferson-Wooden and Beatrice Chebet Lead

By almost every measure, 2025 belonged to Melissa Jefferson-Wooden. At the World Championships, she clocked world-leading times of 10.61 in the 100m and 21.69 in the 200m, securing two gold medals. She also won 4x100m relay gold with Team USA.

As the season progressed, it became clear that defeating her would require a perfect performance on an off day for her. A single non-relay loss—a third-place finish in the 200m at GST Miami—is the only mark against an otherwise perfect record.

She also ran the fastest 100m by an American woman not named Florence Griffith-Joyner and moved to fourth on the U.S. all-time list in the 200m.

Beatrice Chebet made history by becoming the first woman to break the 14-minute barrier in the 5,000m, running an incredible 13:58.06 at the Prefontaine Classic. She also took home World Championship gold in both the 10,000m and 5000m.

While her list of accolades is staggering, these rankings are unforgiving. Chebet has two on-track losses that Jefferson-Wooden doesn't: a third-place finish in the 10,000m at her national championships and a runner-up finish in the 1,500m at the Silesia Diamond League. It was an undeniably great year for Chebet, but this is a game of inches.

Here is where the rankings get tricky. For the second consecutive season, discus thrower Valarie Allman won every competition she entered. With a perfect record and the world-leading mark—an American record of 73.52m—why is she only third?

The reason is a common one for field event athletes in these lists: Jefferson-Wooden and Chebet were exceptional across multiple events, with Chebet also setting a world record. Allman had a nearly flawless year, but to claim the top spot, she may need to add a world record to her list of achievements next season.

Long jumper Tara Davis-Woodhall finds herself in a similar position to Valarie Allman. She dominated her event, winning the World Championship and the Diamond League final. Her season was marked by consistency and clutch performances, yet the sheer record-breaking dominance of the athletes ranked higher places her at number four. It was a stellar year for Davis-Woodhall, but not quite enough to crack the top three in a season of historic track performances.

Tara Davis-Woodhall capped an undefeated season in the long jump, solidifying her status as the world's best. Her dominant 2025 campaign included victories at both the U.S. Championships and the World Championships.

She twice achieved a world-leading mark of 7.13 meters and has not lost a competition since the 2023 World Championships in Budapest. The only minor critique of her otherwise flawless year is that she focused exclusively on her primary event and did not set any new records.

Faith Kipyegon, often hailed as the greatest of all time, surprisingly lands at number five in the rankings. This is largely because she has set an incredibly high standard for herself, making a world record and a gold medal seem almost routine.

Additionally, her season was not entirely perfect. While Kipyegon bravely stepped up to the 5,000m at the World Championships, she was defeated by her compatriot Chebet, the world record holder in the event.

Despite setting a new 1,500m world record, running the fastest mile in history, and securing her fourth World Championship gold in the 1,500m, her loss in the longer distance places her here.