Masai Russel of the U.S. won a maiden Olympic 100m hurdles gold medal in a photo finish at Paris 2024 on Saturday (10 August).
The 24-year-old flew over the line in 12.33 seconds, edging France’s Cyrena Samba-Mayela by just 0.01s. Defending champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico followed in third place with 12.36s.
Russell seemingly came from nowhere to overtake her rivals and end Camacho-Quinn’s hopes of making history as the first woman to win back-to-back Olympic golds in the event.
While she had no major titles behind her name heading into the Games, Russell highlighted her star quality at the 2024 US Olympic Trials, clocking a personal and world-leading time of 12.25s – which would rank her the fourth-fastest in history.
The rising star broke the legendary Gail Devers’ 24-year-old Trials record in the process.
In Paris, Russell beat a stacked field as she surged towards the line after sailing over the final hurdle before out-dipping Samba-Mayela and Camacho-Quinn by mere hundredths of a second.
First appeared on olympics.com