Though she ended up winning gold, Masai Russell came into the 100-meter hurdles final with one goal: no regrets. Above all, she wanted to avoid a repeat of the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, last year, when she crashed into a hurdle and didn’t finish the semi final.
“I failed, but I always knew that I had the talent and the capability of being one of the best hurdlers ever,” she told reporters at the Stade de France. Her main aim was “not wanting to be in that bad place again, not regretting anything when I lined up here today,” she said. “I was like, I’m not gonna regret the things that I didn’t do in this race. I’m gonna make it happen.”
She beat France’s Cyréna Samba-Mayela in a photo finish by one-hundredth of a second. Did she think she’d won on the line? “I felt like I was in the top three, because I knew my finish was super strong,” she said. “But when I was waiting, I was like: Come on, come on, come on. Give it to me, give it to me. And then I took off running. So, yeah, it was crazy.”
She put her win down to her explosive finishing power. “I knew it was gonna come down to a dive” for the line, she said. “I take a lot of pride in my last five hurdles. I know a lot of people can’t compete with me on the back end.”
As a well-done present for getting to Paris she bought herself a Mercedes-Benz. Her prize for winning gold? “Probably a house, now!”
She’s also known for accruing legions of followers on social media. Is she expecting more now she’s an official OLY? “Absolutely, they better go up, I’m not playing!” she laughed. “But it’s bigger than social media,” she added. “I love inspiring on social media, but what I do, my purpose, my path, is not to gain followers, it’s to honestly walk away with great performances.”
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Publish date : 2024-08-10 15:10:00
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