by Lia Skoufos, MS
This article is a part of a USATF Campus exclusive series to help understand the World Athletics Rankings. For track fans and elite athletes alike, this series aims to provide clarity, analysis, and education on all things World Rankings, and what they mean for Team USATF. For more information on how the World Rankings system works, see this article.
From October 6-13, one U.S. athlete in the top 100 of their respective event had the biggest absolute improvement to their World Ranking, improving by 35 spots. Finishing as the top U.S. athlete at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, Clayton Young surged from 89th place to 54th in the men’s marathon world rankings. His seventh-place time of 2:05:23 served not only as a personal best, but also as the second-fastest time ever run by a U.S. athlete. This performance was only 40 seconds off his training partner Conner Mantz’s National Record set at the 2025 Bank of America Chicago Marathon and replaces his performance at the 2026 Boston Marathon in his ranking score. The marathon world rankings will continue to shake up in the coming weeks as the 2025 Boston Marathon and 2025 TCS London Marathon performances will expire in the next two weeks, and new marks will be posted at the TCS Amsterdam Marathon and TCS New York City Marathon. Each of these races are categorized as a “GW” event, meaning only the Olympic Games and World Athletics Championships can offer more placing points. In Young’s case, his second- and third-best performance scores are a mere two points apart. This means that when his 2025 Boston Marathon mark expires, we can expect a minimal drop in his ranking score, thus cementing his spot well within the top 100 for at least the next twelve months. When assessing improvement based on percentage increase in ranking (e.g. 2nd to 1st is a 50% improvement as is moving from 30th to 15th), Clayton Young also had the biggest improvement at 39%. More details on rankings, results, and scenarios can be found on the World Athletics website. You can also experiment with my World Athletics Rankings Dashboard & Calculator and World Rankings Over Time Dashboard, hosted exclusively on USATF Campus.
Lia Skoufos is a Sports Scientist at USATF specializing in throwing events. She holds a BS in Kinesiology from the University of Illinois Chicago and MS in Sport and Exercise Analytics from Marquette University and supports a range of analytics-based projects at USATF. In addition to her work with the throws group, she focuses on creating data-driven visuals and bridging the gap between technical analytics and practical applications by translating complex information into clear, actionable insights for coaches, athletes, and all USATF Campus members.