On June 8th, at the Brooks PR Invitational in Washington, 13-year-old Camryn Dailey delivered a performance that transcended age divisions and turned heads on the global stage.
The seventh-grader scorched the track in the 400 meters with a staggering 51.67 seconds.
The Brooks PR Invitational has long been a stage for future stars, but rarely has it seen a middle schooler deliver a performance of this magnitude. Dailey’s time was more than just fast for her age group. It was elite by any standard, positioning her alarmingly close to senior-level Olympic contenders in 2025.
To appreciate the scale of this achievement, consider this, in an Olympic year where sprinting giants like Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Marileidy Paulino, and Gabby Thomas are gunning for sub-50 second times, Dailey’s 51.67 isn’t far behind.
In fact, her performance places her faster than several reigning national champions across Europe and Asia, and just outside the top 25 senior women’s 400m times worldwide this season.
A Rising Force in a Shifting Landscape
Camryn Dailey’s rapid rise isn’t an isolated story but part of a larger shift in track and field. The arrival of highly-trained, high-performing teens ready to challenge senior elites earlier than anyone expected. Just weeks before her Brooks PR heroics, Dailey won the Middle School States 400m in 54.64 seconds, then obliterated her personal best by nearly three seconds.
Her indoor season was equally dominant, capturing gold at the 2025 New Balance Nationals Indoor with a meet-record 55.33 seconds. And she’s far from a one-event wonder. Dailey clocked a 7.40-second 60m dash earlier this year and recorded an astonishing 22.90-second 200m at the Ken Roberts-Panthers Elite Track and Field Challenge.
Dailey’s name now joins a growing list of young American sprinters like Melanie Doggett, Cayla Hawkins, and Trinity Perine, who are rapidly reshaping expectations around what’s possible in youth sprinting.
Closing in on the Icons
To grasp just how disruptive Dailey’s 51.67 is, one only needs to glance at the current world leaderboard. The elite class this season includes Salwa Eid Naser’s 48.67, Paulino’s 49.12, Gabby Thomas’ 49.14, and McLaughlin-Levrone’s 49.69. These are Olympic medalists and world champions operating at peak condition.
Dailey isn’t quite there yet. But she’s within two seconds, a margin that often separates Olympic medalists from finalists. For context, highly-touted performances this season like Nickisha Pryce’s 50.04, Alexis Holmes’ 50.12, and Mercy Adongo Oketch’s 50.14 were hailed as breakthrough moments. Dailey’s 51.67 sits just outside that range, mere strides behind.
And while those athletes are in their early-to-mid 20s, Dailey just turned 13.
The Future Has Arrived
While seasoned stars are preparing for the World Championships, Camryn Dailey is still finishing middle school homework. Yet, she’s already inserting herself into conversations typically reserved for the sport’s titans.
If her progression continues on this trajectory, it won’t be long before Olympic qualifying standards aren’t something she’s chasing, they’ll be something she’s rewriting.
Camryn Dailey is proof that track and field’s next era is arriving faster than anyone could’ve anticipated.
