'I started the season an unsponsored athlete' - Olympic champion Masai Russel shares rocky story from being the underdog to Paris glory

Olympic 100mH champion Masai Russel detailed her stormy path to Paris Olympic glory despite not having a sponsored contract at the beginning of the season.

Before the start of the 2024 season, American speed hurdler Masai Russel wasn't highly rated on the list of possible challengers for the women's 100mH title at the Paris Olympics.

However, she proved all doubters wrong when she blazed to the 100mH gold medal in 12.33s, out-dipping home crowd favourite Cyrena Samba-Mayela in 12.34s, while Puerto Rico's defending champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn got bronze in 12.36s.

The race which has been classified as the deepest women’s 100mH final in Olympic history, saw Nadine Visser and Grace Stark finish just three-thousandths of a second apart as they both clocked 12.43 – Visser finishing a fraction ahead for fourth place. 

Russel's underdog story to Olympic glory wasn't a smooth ride as she competed in just two global finals in 2024, but won the one that mattered the most. 

After an indoor season that included a fourth-place finish in the 60mH at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow, the 24-year-old’s path to Paris included 100mH victory at the US Olympic Team Trials in Eugene where she clocked a then world-leading 12.25s to move to joint fourth on the world all-time list.

Her rise to Olympic spotlight this season took off by being an unsponsored athlete and dealing with several mental struggles which she explained during The Pivot Podcast with @Realrclark25, @OfficialCrowder, and @FredTaylorMade.

"It was super tough because I started off being unsponsored. When I came out of college, I had a contract but I didn't take the contract and there was a lot that went on," she explained.

"There was a lot of things that were said and weren't true, so there was just a lot that were going in there. So I ended up walking away from a contract that I had and just taking a chance on myself and it ended up delaying my signing process," added Russel.

"I thought that it was going to be a much quicker process and by the time I started my season this year, I thought I was going to be sponsored and I ended up not having a sponsor. So I just feel like I attached myself to the sponsorship that I didn't get, so it was just like no one really cared if I showed up or not like why am I here? Why am I not coming, what am I showing up for?"

Russel further disclosed that she credits her boyfriend Robbie Springfield for helping her bounce back amid the challenges and how she dealt with traveling the world as a rookie professional.

"I give my boyfriend credit because at that time I was just mentally checked out. Practice was harder than ever, like our sport is mental and if you're not in the right head space it's just hard to show up every day.

"So for me, he was just pretty much telling me, you know a cheque contract does not make you run fast, it doesn't allow you to do the things you want to do, it doesn't make you run fast or slow. So if you're going to determine if money makes you run fast or not then you should just quit now," said Russel.

Following her boyfriend's advice, the standout college athlete for the University of Kentucky regrouped herself to have a memorable outing in her maiden Olympics in Paris.

"You know I had to take a step back, talking to a logical man, you know me being a woman in my emotions I was just going crazy but yeah, it was super hard and then coming into the start of the season, I just kind of cared so much about how others perceived me because I'm big on social media, I do have a following, people are asking me 'why don't you sign?'.

"So I'm stepping into the line thinking about what everyone else is thinking of me rather than just focusing on my 10 hurdles. And then another thing, I had like a hurdle-hitting problem and then I just started to overcomplicate them. I started to overcomplicate my drills, my steps, and everything. I was just overthinking the whole thing and track is more mental so if you're not aligned with the mind, body, and spirit, you're going to be able to tell," she added.

"So I fell in my first outdoor meet. I went to China, I came fourth and sixth place in my first two Diamond League, which wasn't terrible, but I mean I wasn't running the times that I ran in college and throughout this point becoming a professional is a transitional period.

"I was competing without my coach, I was traveling the world and I was just trying to figure it out, trying to coach myself, you know trying to do as best as I can."

Despite all these, Russel didn't give up but only made her mentally stronger, before everything eventually aligned perfectly for her success.

"I ran 12.88 in a meet in LA and I was like 'what's going on?' because I have a PB of 12.36s. I came last place at the Prefontaine Classic and then I had a little spark because I'm the kind of person that just didn't give up.

"I just kept pushing and kept having faith...And then I took a step back and got my mind ready for the Olympic trials and ended up winning it, breaking the Olympic trials meet record, came to the Olympics, won it and I mean now the rest is history," she concluded.