As an overwhelmed Jaiden Reid crossed the finish line on Friday at the 2026 NCAA Championships, breaking a 19-year-old college record unexpectedly, Trelee Banks watched on from third place. The Hoosiers’ star was the only American who even came close to challenging Reid, although he was well off. Only one American had won the 200m in the last decade.

“When the next NCAA Championships come around in 2027, it will have been a decade since an American won the Men’s 200m title,” wrote Global Athletics Hub. “The last being Christian Coleman of Tennessee in 2017, who ran 20.25s (-3.1) to defeat LSU’s Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake & Alabama’s Jereem Richards.”

That was his first and only outdoor title in the 200m, as Coleman collected it in his final year. The 30-year-old has won several indoor titles, including the 60m and the 200m twice, finishing second thrice as well.

The two-time Olympian didn’t make it big as a collegiate athlete, but still holds a few titles, including four golds and two silvers in five World Outdoor Championships. At the NCAA level, though, Coleman is currently the last American to win the outdoor 200m title. What makes it interesting is that before him, the last time a non-American sprinter had won the 200m at the NCAA outdoors in consecutive years was in 1995.

That was when Bahamas’ Andrew Tynes in 1994 and Trinidad and Tobago’s Ato Boldon in 1995 won the title. Between 1996 and 2017, only two 200m NCAA titles went to non-Americans. That was when Trinidad and Tobago’s Rondel Sorrillo (2010) and Canada’s Andre De Grasse (2015) won the finals. Since Coleman last won, the script has flipped, as every 200m NCAA title has gone to non-Americans.

Now, Cayman Island’s Reid broke the collegiate record and won it in 2026, extending the drought. Prior to his win, Nigerian Divine Oduduru won the 200m title twice (2018 and 19), and the 2020 edition was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Liberian Joseph Fahnbulleh won it in 2021, then again in 2022. He was followed by Nigerian Udodi Onwuzurike (2023), Ivorian Cheickna Traore (2024), and Zimbabwean Tapiwanashe Makarawu (2025).

Meanwhile, out of the four American sprinters in the 2026 final, only Trelee Banks finished in a podium place. The other three (Ian Dossman, Jordan Urrutia, and Mason Lawyer) finished seventh, eighth, and ninth. Not quite what anyone expected, especially given the quality Americans have produced since Coleman.

However, with Jelani Watkins still in the mix to run one more year, perhaps the Arkansas star can help end the drought. Now, with Reid having taken Walter Dix’s record as well, questions are being asked about the next American sprinter. That was especially true after Reid believed he could have run even faster.

Jaiden Reid reflects on breaking the 200m collegiate record

In the end, the 2026 NCAA Outdoor Championship 200m final was a sensational race. Jaiden Reid entered as the favourite despite his sensational win over pre-tournament favourite Jelani Watkins. However, the Arkansas athlete’s error meant that he didn’t make the title race. It left Reid to contend with a pack of hungry sprinters, and the LSU startlet stood the test.

He flew out of the blocks, was the fastest coming out of the curve, and finished with a time of 19.63. That shattered the 19.69 set in 2007 by Walter Dix, giving Reid the collegiate record, the college record, the meet record, and the 2026 world-leading time in the 200. It was a superb run and one that the 21-year-old believed he had in him.

“To be honest with you, the plan, like I said in the heats, was just to execute,” Reid said after the race. “I know once I executed, it was going to be a good day.”

“I was really expecting a 19.9, maybe a 20.01 like I did at regionals, but thank God. It’s surreal, I still can’t believe it really, I’m still in shock.”

What makes it even more shocking is that the LSU star did it after two races. Reid had already run the 4x100m relay first thing, then the 100m race less than 50 minutes later. Despite that, LSU came second in the relay, and Reid came second in the 100m before he ran the 200m. It’s why he believes he probably would have gone even faster had he only run one race.

“To be honest with you, I feel like if I just ran the 200 alone, I probably would have gone a little bit faster,” Reid added. “The 100 and the 4×100 was a lot on my body, especially doing it twice in one week.”

Nine years after his NCAA title, Paris 2024 Olympics star Christian Coleman still stands alone as the last American man to win the event. With Reid rewriting the record books and Watkins expected to return in 2027, though, the pressure is now firmly on the next generation to bring the title back home.