by Lia Skoufos, MS
This article is a part of a USATF Campus exclusive series to help understand the World Athletics Rankings. For track fans and elite athletes alike, this series aims to provide clarity, analysis, and education on all things World Rankings, and what they mean for Team USATF. For more information on how the World Rankings system works, see this article.
From September 29-October 6, one U.S. athlete in the top 100 of their respective event had the biggest absolute improvement to their World Ranking, improving by 12 spots. Stephanie Casey ended September as the 74th ranked 35 km race walker in the world, began October as the 62nd best marathon race walker in the world, and established this new ranking without competing this weekend. In a move to standardize events, World Athletics has slowly been transitioning away from the 35 km race walk and towards the slightly longer marathon race walk. With this transition, the requirements for rankings changed. With the marathon serving as the new official distance, athletes are required to have at least one of their two marks be in the marathon race walk, and those who did not have any were subsequently dropped from the rankings until they complete one. Placing points have also been adjusted to account for the new classification of main and similar events. Stephanie Casey’s top two marks come from the 2026 USATF National Marathon Race Walk Championships and the 2025 Pan American Race Walking Championships (35 km). Her walk at the USATF National Marathon Race Walk Championships was her marathon debut, and in taking fourth, secured her spot in the world rankings despite the transition of events. When assessing improvement based on percentage increase in ranking (e.g. 2nd to 1st is a 50% improvement as is moving from 30th to 15th), Stephanie Casey also had the biggest improvement at 16%. More details on rankings, results, and scenarios can be found on the World Athletics website. You can also experiment with my World Athletics Rankings Dashboard & Calculator and World Rankings Over Time Dashboard, hosted exclusively on USATF Campus.
Lia Skoufos is a Sports Scientist at USATF specializing in throwing events. She holds a BS in Kinesiology from the University of Illinois Chicago and MS in Sport and Exercise Analytics from Marquette University and supports a range of analytics-based projects at USATF. In addition to her work with the throws group, she focuses on creating data-driven visuals and bridging the gap between technical analytics and practical applications by translating complex information into clear, actionable insights for coaches, athletes, and all USATF Campus members.