The fastest teenage 200m runner on the planet, who is preparing to run at the 2023 World Athletics Championships, has big goals for the future, with Olympic great Usain Bolt’s world record within his sights. He spoke exclusively to Olympics.com about how far he’s come in such a short space of time, and the scary prospect of just how good he can be.
Olympics.com spoke to the fastest teenager on earth, who runs in the 200m heats at the 2023 World Athletics Championships on 23 August, about just how quick he can become and his goals for the future.
“I actually want to go sub-19,” he told us when asked about how fast it was possible to run a 200m. “I don’t want to say it’s possible. It’s possible, but you just never know… Only one human went under 19.20.”
That human was none other than Usain Bolt, the 100m and 200m senior world record holder who won the Olympic golds in both events at Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio 2016.
And Knighton, who turned 19 in January 2023, has the half-lap record of the Jamaican firmly in his sights as he looks forward to a career that could take in the Paris 2024, LA 2028 and Brisbane 2032 Olympics by the time he’s 28.
“Anybody’s going to want to beat the record of the all-time great, but at the same time, I still have to knock each down one by one,” he says. “It’s not going to be an easy task, it’s going to be hard. I definitely think I can do it but it’s just I have got to work hard and to really have a lot of self-confidence.”
Erriyon Knighton: No slowing the fastest teenager in history
Part of that confidence can come from the fact that he is by far the greatest 200m runner in junior history. Knighton holds the 11 fastest U20 times in history, with Bolt’s first appearance on the list being a joint-twelfth place of 19.93.
Bolt only ran sub-20 twice as a junior, in 2004 and 2005, while Knighton has broken the barrier on 14 occasions in his fledgling career.
His progression feels similar to other great torch passings in sport, like the rise of Mike Tyson in the mid-1980s to take on the impossible role of boxing’s greatest heavyweight following the retirement of Muhammad Ali at the beginning of the decade.
Once again now, we have someone who is young, hungry and blessed with a raw talent that makes him seem destined for the very pinnacle of the sport.
Knighton’s just in no mood to slow down.
“Knowing that I have one more year [as a junior] that means I got to go rewrite the history books once again. So my last year under 20, that’s the plan.”
