Florida teenager breaks American U20 100m record

American teenager Christian Miller is having a senior year of high school to remember. The 17-year-old from Creekside, Fla., set a new American U20 100m record of 9.93 seconds (+1.6 m/s) on Saturday at the Pure Athletics Spring Invitational in Clermont, Fla.

Miller is only the second American high schooler in history to break the elusive 10-second barrier for 100m. The only other American sprinter to do so is Trayvon Bromell, who ran 9.97 seconds in 2014. Bromell has won three world championship sprint medals since he turned pro in 2015.

Christian Miller drops a wind legal 9.93 100m at 17-years-old 🤯pic.twitter.com/4yz6ZXnlpV

— Travis Miller (@travismillerx13) April 21, 2024

It’s only April, but Miller’s performance is the fastest 100m time in the world this year. It’s even faster than the reigning world champion Noah Lyles’s season’s best of 10.01 seconds.

Miller had a personal best of 10.06 seconds heading into the race. Last year, Miller won the U.S. U20 national title in the 100m and 200m events. His impressive performances have earned him a full scholarship to the University of Georgia, where he will work with decorated sprint coach Caryl Smith Gilbert. Smith Gilbert has previously coached some of the top sprinters in the world, including Canada’s Andre De Grasse and Christopher Morales Williams.

Miller’s new American record is the third-fastest U20 100m in history, behind Suriname’s Issam Asinga, who set the U20 record of 9.89 last July (he was later suspended for a doping violation), and Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo, who clocked 9.91 in 2022.

With USATF opting out of the U20 World Athletics Championships later this year in Lima, Peru, Miller could potentially follow in the footsteps of American 200m star Erriyon Knighton, who made the U.S. Olympic Team for Tokyo 2020 while still in high school.