San Antonio Native Tate Taylor Made History by Sweeping the 100, 200 and 4×100 Relay at the World U20 Championships
San Antonio sprinter Tate Taylor made history on the world stage, completing a dominant run at the World Under-20 Championships with three gold medals and a championship record.
Taylor, an 18-year-old Harlan High School alum, became the first American man to complete the sprint double at the championships after winning the men’s 200-meter final in 19.83 seconds.
He controlled the race from start to finish, beating fellow American Blake Hamilton, who finished second in 20.31 seconds, by 0.48 seconds.
Taylor’s time also broke the previous championship record of 19.96 seconds, set jointly by Letsile Tebogo and Blessing Afrifah in 2022.
The 200-meter victory came two days after Taylor captured the men’s 100-meter championship in a personal-best 9.94 seconds.
He defeated silver medalist Gary Card, who finished in 10.05 seconds, and became the first American man to win the Under-20 100-meter title since Noah Lyles in 2016.
“Once I got out at the top end, I knew it was going to be a good race,” Taylor told World Athletics. “There were some tweaks I was looking to fix after the semi-finals, and I think I executed those pretty well.”
The victories made Taylor the first U.S. male athlete to sweep the 100 and 200 at the World Under-20 Championships.
Relay Gold Completes Historic Sprint Treble
Taylor was not finished.
He anchored the United States men’s 4×100-meter relay team to gold, running an 8.75-second anchor split as the Americans finished in an Under-20 world-record 38.16 seconds.
Great Britain finished second in 38.90 seconds, setting a European Under-20 record.
With the relay victory, Taylor became the first athlete in 40 years of the World Under-20 Championships to win gold in the 100 meters, 200 meters and 4×100 relay at the same meet.
“It means a lot winning this gold medal,” Taylor said. “We have been talking about this relay the whole week. We knew something special was about to happen. McDonald’s, I am coming for you.”
Olympic champion Noah Lyles praised Taylor and fellow Texas sprinter Mia Maxwell, who also swept the women’s 100- and 200-meter titles.
“This double gold that Tate Taylor and Mia Maxwell just pulled off is probably one of the hardest to do,” Lyles wrote on X, pointing to the toll of running six races in four days.
Team USA finished the championships with 24 medals, including 12 golds.
Taylor’s performance capped a breakout season that also included national age-group championships in the 100 and 200 meters. At July’s Prefontaine Classic, he ran 19.75 seconds in the 200 to defeat a senior field that included Tebogo.
Taylor is now headed to Texas Tech, where he is expected to begin competing at the NCAA level this fall.
