Noah Lyles vs. Jordan Anthony in Rome Diamond League 100m Showdown

In March, when Jordan Anthony defeated his training partner Noah Lyles to win the US 60-meter title on Staten Island, Lyles crashed Anthony’s post-race interview on NBC to hand over possession of “The Belt.”

That belt, a gaudy, WWE-style accoutrement, is something Lyles cooked up to keep practices interesting over the winter at Pure Athletics, the Clermont, Florida-based group where the pair train under coach Lance Brauman. The 28-year-old Lyles, the reigning Olympic 100m and world 200m champion, remains the king of US sprinting. But Anthony, 21, is coming for him, and his resume has only grown more impressive since handing Lyles that defeat in March.

Three weeks after winning USAs, Anthony won the World Indoor 60m title in Poland in his global championship debut; his time of 6.41 seconds tied him for fourth all-time. And he has started the outdoor season hot, with three wins from three races, including a 9.91 personal best in the 100 and a 20.05 for 200 run into a 1.3 m/s headwind at the Seiko Golden Grand Prix in Tokyo.

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Now, Anthony faces one of his biggest tests yet in his first full season as a professional: a 100m showdown with Lyles in his Diamond League debut in Rome on Thursday night.

The race is full of elite talent. Meet organizers have been hyping the showdown between Lyles and Italy’s Marcell Jacobs, the last two Olympic 100m champions. Olympic 200m champion Letsile Tebogo and Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala, winner of the most recent Diamond League 100 in Xiamen, are also entered. But Lyles v. Anthony is the matchup American sprint fans will be focused on.

“Me and Jordan have been having some immaculate training sessions,” Lyles said. “If not anything, just to see where we’re at, I’d say I’m pretty excited. I’m debating if this is the best shape I’ve been in my life at this time period or if I’m right at where I was during the Olympic season in 2024. But I’m seeing some really good things, and having a good training partner definitely helps push that boundary.”

With two global titles in the 100 and four in the 200, Lyles has been the world’s best sprinter during the first half of the 2020s. But he was usurped in the 100m by Jamaicans Oblique Seville, 25, and Kishane Thompson, 24, in last year’s World Championship final in Tokyo. And now, within his own training group, Anthony has emerged as a potential domestic rival.

Can Anthony surpass Lyles?

At 21, Anthony is the youngest of the group, and while his personal bests (9.91/19.93) and global accolades lag behind for now, 2026 is his first year as a full-time sprinter. During his three years of college — one at Kentucky, one at Texas A&M, one at Arkansas — Anthony played football in the fall before returning to track in the winter and spring. But after a 2025 campaign that saw him win NCAA titles in the 60 and 100, as well as The Bowerman — the Heisman of collegiate track — he signed with adidas and went all-in on sprinting.

So far, the results have been tremendous. But the higher you go in the sport, the smaller the margin for error. And Lyles, one of the most consistent performers on the circuit, is not going to take it easy on him. The weather in Rome looks good for sprinting (70s Fahrenheit), and Lyles said he believes he is in shape to run 9.85 or faster.

“I’ve never come to a track meet and not gone all-in,” Lyles said. “If I show up, I’m ready to run.”

That makes Thursday’s race in Rome a heavyweight showdown. Does Lyles v. Anthony represent the present of American sprinting against the future of American sprinting? Or is Lyles the past and Anthony the present? One race won’t settle the answer to those questions — crowns are won at championships, not Diamond Leagues.

But in a year without a traditional global championship, we are not guaranteed a best-on-best showdown of the world’s top sprinters (World Athletics is hoping that will come at its new Ultimate Championships in Budapest in September, but Lyles has hesitated to commit). So we must savor matchups like this when they come along. Thursday’s 100 in Rome may not offer definitive answers. But it may offer a clue about where the future of sprinting is headed.

“We got a show to give,” Lyles said. “It’s not going to be like the last few Diamond Leagues. It’s going to be different.”

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Full meet preview: Rome DL preview: Keely Hodgkinson in 400, Lyles v. Anthony vs. Jacobs in 100, Melissa Jefferson-Wooden debuts