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Russell, who won the Olympic gold medal in Paris in the 100mH by the narrowest of margins, has revealed why she thinks it is the toughest event in track and field.
Fresh off her remarkable victory at the Paris 2024 Olympics, American gold medalist Masai Russell has opened up about why she believes the women’s 100-meters hurdles is the hardest event in track and field.
Despite outpacing seasoned stars like Jasmine Camacho-Quinn to secure Olympic gold, Russell's recent form in the Diamond League circuit has left fans divided on her post-Olympic trajectory.
Following her stunning win in Paris, Russell has delivered a series of mixed performances. She finished second in the Rome Diamond League, but her return to competition at the Silesia Diamond League ended in disappointment with an 11th-place finish.
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Her latest showing at the Zurich Diamond League saw her come in third in the women’s 100m hurdles, a respectable result but short of her Olympic-winning form.
With critics raising doubts about whether her Olympic triumph was a one-off success, Russell has defended her position, explaining that the event's inherent difficulty makes consistent wins a challenge. During the pre-race press conference at the Zurich Diamond League, she candidly shared her thoughts:
"The sprint events are always so close, separated by hundredths of a second, so it’s always going to be a race. The women’s 110 meters hurdles is the most difficult race," Russell emphasized. "I just had the best race, the cleanest race on that day. No one can ever take my 100m Hurdle Olympic title away from me."
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For Russell, the key to her Olympic win lay in her ability to focus solely on her performance, without being distracted by the competition. “I wasn’t really thinking about anyone else in the race. I was just thinking about myself and what I can do. When I focus on what I can do, I run my cleanest and most successful races.”
She further added, “It can be anyone’s race any day, but I’m just as talented as they are. So, I just focus on running my cleanest race because whoever does that usually wins, since we are all so talented and close.”
Russell also addressed the monumental challenge of simply making it onto the U.S. Olympic team, emphasizing how cutthroat the competition is. “I think 13 women have run 12.3 this year, and I don’t think that’s ever been done in history,” she said. “I was actually more stressed about making the team than being on the line at the Olympics, because there’s no Olympics without getting through trials, and U.S. trials are like an Olympics within itself.”
The intense nature of the U.S. trials, she explained, left her with one singular focus: making the Olympic team. “That was the fastest run ever statistically, from start to bottom, just averaging all the times. For me, it’s stressful, but I try to hone it and say, ‘Get through these 10 hurdles clean so you can be on that flight to Paris,’ and I did just that.”
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