Biggest World Athletics Rankings Movers of the Week – 10/20/2026

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.

October 20, 2026

From October 13-20, one U.S. athlete in the top 100 of their respective event had the biggest absolute improvement to their World Ranking, improving by 3 spots.

Oklahoma State University sophomore Burklie Burton was active this past weekend, placing second in the Women’s Hammer Throw at the last Oklahoma Throws Series competition of 2026. This was her first competition since placing fourth at the World Athletics U20 Championships in Eugene, OR this summer, and with a mark of 65.91m she was able to replace her 64.78m performance in her ranking score. This fourteen point difference in performance scores was enough to move her from 90^th to 87^th in the world.

When assessing improvement based on percentage increase in ranking (e.g. 2^nd to 1^st is a 50% improvement as is moving from 30^th to 15^th), one U.S. athlete had the biggest improvement at 3.57%.

Allie Jones improved her world ranking from 28^th to 27^th this past week despite not competing. The bronze medalist in the heptathlon at the 2025 Toyota USATF Outdoor Championships, Jones saw this improvement in ranking due to the 2025 Mt. SAC Relays expiring from the heptathlon ranking period. This dropped Pippi Lotta Enok of Finland from 26^th all the way down to 79^th.

More details on rankings, results, and scenarios can be found on the World Athletics website. You can also experiment with the World Athletics Rankings Dashboard & Calculator and World Rankings Over Time Dashboard, hosted exclusively on USATF Campus.