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 February 24 - March 3, 2026, one U.S. athlete in the top 100 had the biggest absolute improvement to their World Ranking, improving their position by a whopping 41 spots. Jessica Mercier took home a silver medal in the pole vault after a jump-off at the USATF Indoor Championships presented by Prevagen, in which she vaulted only 2cm off her personal best. This moves her from 100th to 59th in the world, and each of her top five performances in her ranking score are from this season, indicating high upside from the Indiana University alum. 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), Mercier still showed the biggest improvement at 41%.
From February 17-24, 2026, one U.S. athlete in the top 100 had the biggest absolute improvement to their World Ranking, improving their position by 19 spots. Sam Ellis, former Princeton Tiger and Washington Husky, ran his fastest Mile in three years at the Saucony Battle for Boston. This moved last season’s USATF 1 Mile Road Championship runner-up from 97th to 78th in the Men’s 1500m world rankings. When assessing improvement based on percentage increase in ranking, a different U.S. athlete showed the biggest improvement. Hakim McMorris jumped from 19th to 13th in the Men’s Decathlon world rankings for a 31.6% improvement, resulting from his Personal Best and victory in the Heptathlon at the USATF Indoor Combined Events Championships. He set Personal Bests in both the 60m and 1000m en route to winning this title. 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 or World Rankings Over Time, 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.