The two sprint icons posed for a photo commemorating their new bond. The American flag draped over their shoulders.

Noah Lyles, his blonded hair unbraided and free, flashed four fingers to the camera. Highlighter-colored Adidas hung around his neck, like a savvy endorser. His 200-meter gold medal ever so close to his tongue as it dangled from his smile. The aura of a rap star dripped onto the track beneath him in Tokyo.

Next to him, the infectious cheese of Melissa Jefferson-Wooden. Her gold, earned moments later in the women's 200-meter final, held up in one hand, a dainty peace sign flashed by the other. The ferocious competitor already tucked behind her wide, delightful disposition.

These World Athletics Championships could've been slow for U.S. sprinting. Lyles and Jefferson-Wooden helped make sure they hardly missed a stride.

On Friday, Lyles and Jefferson-Wooden finished off the individual sprint program at these worlds in style, giving the U.S. a final total of six golds across the 10 races, hurdles and flats, of 400 meters or less in length. It was their best world-championship showing in those events since 2007 in Osaka, Japan, when they also went 6-for-10.

At the Paris Olympics last summer, the U.S. won gold in seven of those 10 events, but it came into this meet with its fair share of question marks. Two of those Paris gold medalists -- Gabby Thomas (women's 200m) and Quincy Hall (men's 400m) -- missed worlds with injuries. Another was switching events. The other four were not clear favorites to defend, through some combination of injuries and stiff competition.

After winning the 100-meter final in Paris, Lyles was winless in three finals at that distance this year heading into Tokyo. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone was making a bold switch from the 400-meter hurdles race she dominated in the past two Olympics to the 400 flat. Grant Holloway, the 110-meter hurdles winner in Paris, was a shell of himself while battling through injury this season. Masai Russell, the 100-meter hurdles Olympic champ, was no sure thing in a competitive field. Rai Benjamin, who took 400 hurdles gold in Paris, is forever challenged by Norway's Karsten Warholm and Brazil's Alison dos Santos.

Even among the non-gold-medalists, questions lingered. Sha'Carri Richardson, once assumed to be the next U.S. sprint star, was removed from her peak form this season. Fred Kerley, a staple on the U.S. sprint scene and Olympic bronze medalist in the 100-meter, is now off on an "enhanced" mission.

But the Americans found a way. Lyles lost the 100m title on Saturday before taking back the 200 on Friday. Jefferson-Wooden gave the U.S. a new 100-meter champ and took Thomas' place atop the 200. Queen Sydney spread her dominance to the 400 flat, winning gold in breathtaking fashion. Cordell Tinch, 25, picked up the gold medal Holloway eventually dropped. Benjamin maintained his 400-meter hurdles supremacy.

And even though McLaughlin-Levrone's departure allowed someone else to win the women's 400 hurdles -- which, unsurprisingly, was the Netherlands' Femke Bol -- American Jasmine Jones, 23, pulled out a silver. Though Russell lost the 100 hurdles crown, another American -- Grace Stark, 24 -- found a spot on the podium. It was the first major medal for each.

Friday night in Tokyo, Lyles and Jefferson-Wooden delivered the finishing touches. Lyles won his fourth consecutive world title in the 200m, matching Usain Bolt and Michael Johnson for consecutive gold medals at worlds by a sprinter. Bolt did it in the 200, and Johnson in the 400.

Jefferson-Wooden, meanwhile, became the first American woman to win gold in the 100 and 200 in the same world championships, and she plastered her name on the marquee of stars in jaw-dropping fashion. Only three other women have ever done it, including the modern GOAT, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica.

Lyles and Jefferson-Wooden became the first American pair to win men's and women's 200 gold in the same world championships since that 2007 edition, when Allyson Felix and Tyson Gay did it.

Perhaps no one embodied the stubbornness of American sprinting like Lyles. He burst onto the big screen in the 2023 worlds by winning gold in the 100 meters, not long after adding the race to his repertoire. He then backed it up with one of the most memorable gold medals ever in Paris, eking out the fastest race in history. He didn't defend his crown in the 100 this time, taking bronze. The Jamaicans legitimized the rivalry with a one-two finish -- Oblique Seville with gold and Kishane Thompson with silver. But Lyles still had the 200, his main event.

Lyles, who got a late start to the season because of injuries, didn't dominate in this final. He came out of the turn fighting for his life. Botswana's Letsile Tebogo, who won the 200 gold over Lyles in Paris, on his left. Jamaican Bryan Levell on his right. And next to him was Lyles' national rival, Kenny Bednarek. All four men finished in under 19.7 seconds.

But Lyles lives for this. It's not a coincidence that the 200 is his best event. It's the one that requires some endurance coupled with world-class speed.

That gear was visible this night in Tokyo, almost as if he had a hand on the stick shift. Bednarek surged. Tebogo and Levell were maxing out. Still, Lyles pulled away. His final 40 meters are of another caliber. It's a trademark. Others start faster, run prettier, and make the turn smoother. But Lyles' advantage is the champion's grit. That he can find more, without sacrificing time by preserving earlier in the race.

Jefferson-Wooden's path to this historic day worked out oppositely. She's so explosive, so refined and efficient, she lives towards the front of a race.

But she became the face of women's sprinting in America because she's got the same kind of dawg inside. Her growth has come in transitioning, getting to her elite top-end speed, and having plenty in the tank to finish.

Before this season, she'd never won a major event in the 200. Her only major 100-meter gold was at the 2022 U.S. championships, when she was fresh out of Coastal Carolina. But she'd been building towards 100 glory. This was her 200 debut under the brightest lights. And she was doing so next to Shericka Jackson, the Jamaican sprinter who not that long ago was being mentioned as the likeliest to break Florence Griffith-Joyner's world record in the 200 (21.34s).

Jefferson-Wooden had Jackson beat some 50 meters in. The American gobbled up the stagger and headed into the straightaway with a clear lead. Saint Lucia's Julien Alfred didn't race. Neither did Gabby Thomas. But Jefferson-Wooden came prepared to race them all, and take them all down.

Her eyes widened. Her jaw chiseled. And she floored it. The result was a personal-best time of 21.68, nearly half a second better than Great Britain's Amy Hunt in second place. You could drive a sprinter van through the gap between Jefferson-Wooden and the field.

Only two American women have pulled off this double in Olympic history. Wilma Rudolph did it in 1960 and Flo-Jo did it in 1988. Jefferson-Wooden is in rarified air. And she's 24 years old.

With the relays yet remaining, America has Lyles' swag and Jefferson-Wooden's smile. His relentlessness and her explosiveness. His consistency and her novelty. The grizzled show and the sparkling new star. Their joined celebration made a worthy portrait of American sprinting might. All that was missing from the frame was McLaughlin-Levrone.

Those three, especially Jefferson-Wooden, highlighted the resilient excellence that morphed a potentially underwhelming showing into typical dominance.

Noah Lyles, Melissa Jefferson-Wooden cap off a strong worlds for U.S. sprinters