Erriyon Knighton (born January 29, 2004) is an American male sprinter specializing in the 100 meters and 200 meters events. He currently holds the world under-18 and world under-20 records in the 200 meters with a time of 19.84 seconds, set on June 27, 2021 at the US Olympic Trials.
Knighton started participating in track and field in 2019 as a freshman at Hillsborough High School in Tampa, Florida. During his time there, he ran the second fastest time over 200 meters for an under-18 athlete in world history, clocking 20.33 seconds in the final at the 2020 USA Track & Field Junior Olympics in Satellite Beach, Florida.
Knighton signed a sponsorship deal with adidas in January 2021 at the age of 16, forgoing his remaining two years of amateur competition at Hillsborough High. The same year, on May 2, he broke the 10-second barrier over 100 meters at the PURE Athletics Sprint Elite Meet in Clermont, Florida, with a time of 9.99 seconds, but the wind was over the +2.0 meters per second velocity limit (+2.7) for record consideration.
On May 31, 2021, he set the world under-18 best in the boys' 200 meters, improving on Usain Bolt's under-18 best by two hundredths of a second to 20.11 seconds. At the US Olympic Trials he would improve that time to 20.04 seconds in the first round on June 25, and then again on June 26 to 19.88 seconds in the semi-finals, improving on Bolt's world under-20 record by five hundredths of a second. He then improved to 19.84 in the final on June 27, beating his own record and qualifying for the Olympics.
