1. “I’m not back; I’m better.” Sha’Carri Richardson

2023 was the Year of Sha’Carri Richardson. The charismatic and often-controversial star channeled her generational talent and star power into the best year of her professional career to date, culminating in U.S. and World titles, personal bests in the 100m and 200m, and her first three global medals.

Throughout the season, the mantra she repeated to media, fans, and the public rang true over and over: she wasn’t simply “back” from a disappointing 2022 season; she was better than ever before.

While Richardson is always colorful and thought-provoking in interviews, her most powerful moment of the year was probably her visual representation of that same sentiment. Stepping into the blocks at the U.S. championships in June, she symbolically shed an orange wig reminiscent of her 2021 persona (the year of her infamous Olympic Trials disqualification for THC) to reveal her new look. The braided star on the right side of her head needed no explanation: at her highest and lowest, on the track and off, Sha’Carri’s superstar status is no longer in doubt.

2. “World champion of what?” Noah Lyles

How do you make sure that your three gold medals and two world-leading marks aren’t the biggest thing you’re remembered for in 2023? You pick a fight with the entire NBA.

Noah Lyles has always been a master of media, from his dramatic celebrations to his runway-ready pre-race style. With a Peacock documentary, a huge social media following, and a target on his back every time he steps on the track, it often seems like Lyles is determined to not just make a name for himself but to elevate the entire sport. And controversy is one way to get the job done.

His teasing comments to the media about self-appointed “world” champions in U.S.-focused sports got exactly the intended reaction from a number of famously thin-skinned basketball players and fans. (It didn’t help that shortly after the initial media firestorm, Team USA lost to Germany in the FIBA World Cup Finals!) Sports fans and critics can endlessly debate and re-litigate Lyles’s initial point, but the “all press is good press” strategy was undoubtedly effective, as the clip of Lyles poking fun at the NBA surely got more impressions than any of the race clips from Budapest.

3. “The whole time I felt very comfortable.” Kelvin Kiptum

Conventional wisdom is that, for all runners of all abilities, mile 20 of a marathon is where even the fittest hit “the wall.” Even the great Eliud Kipchoge has admitted that he has to smile through the pain at the end of a race, and anyone who’s run a marathon less successfully than Kipchoge (which is pretty much everyone who has ever run a marathon) knows exactly what he’s talking about.

But Kelvin Kiptum isn’t just any marathoner. He clocked the fastest debut marathon in history in December 2022. He then set the record for the fastest second half of a marathon ever en route to the #2 all-time mark at London this past spring. And then the young Kenyan capped his stellar 2023 campaign by knocking 34 seconds off Kipchoge’s world record in Chicago. Kiptum’s victory was not just the first race-legal sub-2:01 performance; he once again recorded some truly eye-popping splits in the second half of his race and seemed to be full of run even as he crossed the finish line.

The enigmatic wunderkind then further stunned the media in the post-race press conference when he professed – then confirmed, then re-confirmed – that he had never felt pain in a marathon. It’s one thing to blow away records… it’s another to do so without even testing the bounds of your own physical limits. And it certainly suggests that, for Kiptum and his assault on the record books, this is just the beginning.

4. “What the hell am I thinking?” Sifan Hassan

Sifan Hassan is not afraid to share her own self-doubt with the world. It’s hard to think that the fearless Dutch athlete, a two-time Olympic champ, would ever experience such an emotion, but the always-candid Hassan was very clear that at every point of her London Marathon experience she wasn’t sure she was going to make it to the finish line. It probably didn’t help that her debut marathon included multiple stretch-breaks, bungled water bottles, and nearly getting hit by a moped. Oh yeah, and she won the whole damn thing against one of the most talented fields ever assembled.

“What the hell am I thinking” could apply to any number of decisions Hassan made this year: her crazy marathon debut; racing a 1500m only six weeks after she ran 26.2; deciding once again to triple at a global track championship.

Even after a dramatic fall in the 10,000m final in Budapest took away her medal chances in that event, she came back to claim silver and bronze in the 5000m and 1500m, respectively, and then continued her Chicago marathon buildup. That race resulted in the #2 all-time women’s marathon (a time that would’ve been a big world record had Tigst Assefa not run her own incredible race in Berlin two weeks earlier) and another round of colorful, charming post-race remarks. No one knows yet how Hassan is going to incorporate marathoning into the upcoming Olympic year, but whatever she does decide, we know it’ll be a wild ride.

5. “When they drop out, I am the pacemaker.” Jakob Ingebrigtsen

Every time Jakob Ingebrigtsen opens his mouth, there’s a good chance he’ll say something provocative – some would say cocky – about his own abilities.

(Honorable mentions: Ingebrigtsen also notably instructed eventual American record holder Yared Nuguse to “just stick with me” to run 3:46 in the mile ahead of the Pre Classic. And he launched a million memes and message board posts by announcing “I was sick during the 1500m” remarks in Budapest before winning 5000m gold.)

In a paced, fast race, like those on the Diamond League circuit, Ingebrigtsen has been unbeatable in the last two years. When asked if he ever considered requesting more races sans pacemakers to simulate a championship situation, Ingebrigtsen’s response made his mentality clear: he willingly puts a target on his own back and dares others to follow. If recent history is any indication, the only way that strategy doesn’t pay off is if an intrepid Scotsman is peaked for Worlds, perfectly positioned, and able to slingshot around the Norwegian in the final meters of a 1500m final. Whether that vulnerability is physical, mental, or the fault of circumstances remains unclear, but to his credit, Ingebrigtsen hasn’t yet deviated one step from his mostly-winning strategy. He’ll be the bonus pacemaker until something big shifts in the cosmic balance of men’s middle-distance running.

6. “Real dogs come and play outdoors.” Fred Kerley

One of the most fun early-season narratives was the playful(?) rivalry between Olympic 100m champ Lamont Marcell Jacobs and World 100m champ Fred Kerley, spurred in large part by fans eager to see the two talented sprinters line up head-to-head. The injury-prone Jacobs did not make it very far into the 2022 season, and as such was not able to contend for World gold in Eugene. Headed into this spring, the last time he’d raced Kerley was the final in Tokyo, where the Italian came out with gold and the American settled for silver.

Jacobs was no stranger to the pro circuit this indoor season, racing a handful of 60-meter races and earning silver at the European Indoor Championships. Meanwhile Kerley preferred to stay outdoors, racing a handful of international races in warmer weather before opening up his Diamond League campaign in Doha. Jacobs was announced for several Diamond League races this season, but lingering injury challenges meant that he was more often a scratch than a start. With every withdrawal, “dodge” and “duck” comments flooded social media, much to the entertainment of Kerley and the rest of the American sprint world. Kerley, no stranger to trash talk among even his own teammates, added his own fuel to the fire with his taunting comments about indoors vs. outdoors on a video podcast in March.

Ultimately, neither man had the last laugh: Jacobs and Kerley both failed to make the final in Budapest, paving the way for Noah Lyles to claim his first World title and make the Paris 2024 “fastest man alive” debates all the more intriguing.

7. “I think 24 is humanly possible; it’s just at that point you’re hoping to catch lightning in a bottle.” Ryan Crouser

One big unanswered question from the 2023 season will surely linger into the next year: do professional track and field stadiums build their throwing sectors big enough for Ryan Crouser?

Fans of the shot put have become all too used to Crouser’s biggest efforts one-hopping to the back wall of even the newest and fanciest throwing setups, as the tall Oregonian has set and reset his own world record twice in the last two years. While Crouser is not invincible, as a scary bout with blood clots in his leg at Worlds and a rare loss to rival Joe Kovacs at the Diamond League final proved, he does have seven of the top 10 farthest throws of all time and his 23.56m best is over a foot longer than the farthest throw by anyone else.

Crouser set the field-nerd world on fire this spring when, already the reigning World/Olympic champion and world record holder, he debuted a new technique known as the “Crouser slide.” The self-coached megastar had somehow managed to reinvent his own throwing form at 30 years old and the results were stunning: he broke the world record by 19 centimeters in May, and then came close to his own mark on an injured leg in Budapest with his 23.51m gold-medal-winning effort. Given that we’re only one year into this new era and Crouser has not been in perfect health all season, the whispers of 24 meters will only grow louder moving forward… stadium architects all over the world will start sweating and second-guessing their creations.

8. “People would be shocked to know how many pro runners smoke weed.”

Molly Seidel, as an aside, reflecting on her up-and-down journey as a pro marathoner.

Olympic bronze medalist Molly Seidel is known for many things: her witty social media presence, her prodigious marathon talent, and her willingness to be open about her mental and physical health struggles.

Heading into this year’s Chicago Marathon, Seidel hadn’t finished a marathon since 2021, and the stakes were high. Ultimately, she capitalized big-time on the opportunity, with a top-10 finish, a personal best of 2:23:07, and an Olympic qualifying mark. And the in-depth interview she did with Runner’s World in the months leading up to the race made it clear just how much she’d overcome simply to get to the starting line.

Seidel is a fan-favorite because she is candid, funny, and brutally honest about how difficult her personal journey has been. Few athletes are as open about their struggles as she is, and few are as willing to talk through health challenges in media res: Seidel is often sharing details of her battles with disordered eating, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and bone injuries as she tackles them in real time. So it wasn’t a surprise to see a one-off joke about the frequency with which athletes partake in a little (legal out-of-competition) recreational THC use, even if many other professionals would be terrified to broach such a subject. Thanks for always keeping it real, Molly.

9. “I do think it comes from a place of insecurity.”

Josh Kerr analyzing rival Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s semifinal antics after Kerr won the World title in the 1500m.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen was seemingly infallible in 2023, but he has an Achilles heel: Scots kicking hard in the final lap of a World Championship 1500m final.

For the second year in a row, Ingebrigtsen was denied a gold medal in his specialty event, first by Jake Wightman in 2022 then by Josh Kerr in August. It was Ingebrigtsen’s only loss of the year in 13 races, but it came at a critical moment. He would later blame his performance on a minor illness and redeem his Budapest trip with a gold medal in the 5000m, but the Olympic champion has now finished 2nd, 2nd, and 4th in his last three World 1500m finals and has never won that particular title.

Kerr didn’t just get lucky; he’s a formidable miler in his own right with Olympic bronze, World gold, and a 3:29.05 1500m personal best. But he’s also a student of the sport and keeps a watchful eye on his competition. He recounted to CITIUS that he interpreted Ingebrigtsen’s showboating in the Budapest semifinal as a possible sign of weakness, with the Norwegian perhaps overcompensating for vulnerability with flash. In an event that often feels like a foregone conclusion on the Diamond League circuit, it certainly adds a bit of intrigue to have Kerr riding high and Ingebrigtsen with a chip on his shoulder headed into an Olympic year.