World 100m champion Melissa Jefferson will be hoping to make it back-to-back wins at the Prefontaine Classic when she lines up at the Eugene leg of the Wanda Diamond League for the third year in a row on July 5.
US sprint star Jefferson-Wooden beat Olympic champion Julien Alfred to claim her first ever Diamond League win in Eugene last year in one of the standout performances of the 2025 season.
It was the first of three Diamond League victories for the American, who went on to win gold with a championship record of 10.61 at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.
A year on, she returns to Eugene as the fourth-fastest woman in history, the world number one and the undisputed favourite for the 100m Diamond League title in 2026.
The 25-year-old is unbeaten over 100m since the final of the Olympic Games in Paris in August 2024, where she won bronze behind Alfred and compatriot Sha’Carri Richardson.
She dipped under 10.70 three times in the course of 2025, equalling Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce’s meeting record of 10.66 at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Silesia.
In 2026, she has the chance to win her first Diamond League title, joining the likes of Fraser-Pryce, Elaine Thompson, Noah Lyles and Usain Bolt on the list of 100m series champions.
Eugene is the ninth leg of the 2026 Wanda Diamond League, which begins in Doha on May 8 and ends at the two-day series final in Brussels on September 4-5.
The series unites the biggest names in track and field in some of the world’s most iconic arenas, crossing four continents and 15 cities over the course of the season.
