Blazing speed at 14 years old: Meet the world-record-setting Ga. track phenom

Melanie Doggett is one of the brightest young track stars — not just in Georgia, but in the country. The 14-year-old sprinter from Fairburn has been racing for nearly a decade and has found plenty of early success.

At the GHSA state championships earlier this month, the Landmark Christian freshman won the 100-meter and 200-meter sprints in the private classification.

Not only did she claim a title and a GHSA record, but her blazing 22.71 in the 200 meters also broke the world record for 14-and-under girls, according to International Age Records.

“I knew the time was a record the moment it hit,” her dad Brandon Doggett said.

The previous record was 22.73, which Melanie almost broke in April at the Florida Pepsi Relays. There, she finished with a 22.80.

She said her time could have been faster, had she not stumbled out of the blocks. She went even further, explaining that she was not having the best of days to that point and was just trying to finish the race strong, let alone break a record.

“I don’t even think I looked at the time until my friend, my teammate Layla, she ran it with us. She was like, ‘Is that a PR (personal record)? And I was like, ‘Oh yeah, that is a PR,’” Melanie said.

While she grew up playing all the typical team sports, Doggett quickly found a passion for track, liking how individualistic the sport is.

“I kind of like doing stuff by myself,” Doggett said. “This is just you and the track, not really about anybody else, just you and the track.”

Her younger sister Morgan is also a competitive track athlete. While each was already a part of a club team, the decision was made to move to Major Impact Track Club, which did not have a kids division, forcing both to compete with middle and high schoolers.

“We were the only two little kids out there,” Melanie said. “So it was us running with a whole bunch of middle schoolers and high schoolers, and we’re in elementary school.”

Despite being some of the youngest people in the organization, the Doggett sisters were not to be deterred.

Success came quickly for Melanie, who set records in the 100 meters National Championship in USATF’s 8-and-under age division, a world record at age 9 in the 200 meters and won back-to-back state championships in middle school.

Along with racing with Major Impact, Melanie began racing in Nike events in sixth grade. In her first race, she broke the 60-meter world record, which garnered attention from the billion-dollar company.

So much so that Nike put Doggett on its billboard in Times Square as part of the company’s Nike Elite Program.

Doggett’s success on the track eventually led to Nike and the Doggett Family agreeing to a name, image and likeness deal in June 2025.