Two of the greatest US sprinters of their generation will go head to head when Olympic silver medallist Sha’Carri Richardson takes on world champion Melissa Jefferson-Wooden at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene on July 4.
World number one Jefferson-Wooden was already confirmed to headline the women’s 100m at the US leg of the 2026 Wanda Diamond League, and she will now be joined by fellow American Richardson.
Richardson and Jefferson-Wooden have enjoyed success alongside each other in recent years, leading Team USA to Olympic and World Championship gold in the 4x100m 2024 and 2025.
Yet they have also engaged in a fierce individual rivalry, having met 14 teams in the 100m and 200m since 2023.
Five of those meetings have come in the Diamond League, with Jefferson-Wooden taking three victories to Richardson’s two.
Richardson won in Doha in 2023 and Eugene in 2024, before Jefferson-Wooden landed a string of victories in Eugene, Silesia and Brussels last season.
Whenever both have been on the same billing in athletics’ premier one-day series, one of the two has ended up winning the race.
Jefferson-Wooden’s win in Eugene last year was her first ever Diamond League victory and it kickstarted a run of dominance which saw her crowned world champion a few months later.
Richardson, meanwhile, is hoping to rediscover the form which saw her snatch five Diamond League wins, a world title and an Olympic silver medal in 2023 and 2024.
Eugene is the ninth leg of the 2026 Wanda Diamond League, which begins in Shanghai/Keqiao on May 16 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.
