by Lia Skoufos, MS
This article is part of a USATF Campus exclusive series to help understand the World Athletics Rankings. For track enthusiasts and elite athletes alike, this series aims to provide clarity, analysis, and education on all things World Rankings and how they impact Team USATF. For more information on how the World Rankings system works, see this article.
From March 31-April 7, one U.S. athlete in the top 100 of their respective event had the biggest absolute improvement to their World Ranking, improving their position by 50 spots after a win in Baton Rouge at the Battle on the Bayou. Jonathan Simms ran his fastest outdoor 400m time ever this past weekend, clocking 44.76. He neared his overall personal best of 44.62 from this indoor season. Despite having a terrific indoor season, the University of Georgia true freshman was only ranked 96th in the world prior to this week because of the limitation that at least half of his best five marks had to be from outdoor 400m races. This was only his first outdoor race of the season – and at this rate, he will continue to improve as he replaces the last two 2025 marks in his ranking score. 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), Simms still showed the biggest improvement of any U.S. athlete in the top 100 at 52%. 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.