American Masai Russell, fourth fastest athlete in history in the 100 meters hurdles during the Olympic selections – Libération

At 24, the Texan rocket dominated the American trials for the Paris 2024 Olympics by completing her 100 meters hurdles in 12.25 seconds, the best time in the world this season and the fourth best performance of all time.

That’s about the time it takes for a rocket to launch from the ignition of its engines to its takeoff. On Sunday, June 30, at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials in Eugene, Oregon, hurdler Masai Russell ran the 100-meter hurdles in 12.25 seconds, with a 0.7 m/s tailwind, in a race of unprecedented density.

Not only did she set her personal best and the best world performance of the year, but this time allowed her to become the fourth fastest athlete in the history of the discipline. In the run-up to the Paris Olympics, the 24-year-old American has built up a status as a serious contender for the podium in the Stade de France in a long breath. There, she will meet Frenchwoman Cyrena Samba-Mayela, who is also clearly identified as a contender for the Olympic podium in the 100m hurdles. In Rome at the beginning of June, she won the European gold medal by crushing her own French record with a time of 12.31 seconds, the best world performance of the season before Russell’s race.

Two days earlier, Russell had already achieved an excellent performance in Eugene, running a first 100-meter hurdles in 12.35 seconds. This winter, she took fourth place in the 60-meter hurdles at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow (7.81 seconds). The hurdler also holds the NCAA (the main university athletics association) American record in the 100-meter hurdles, acquired in April 2023 on her Texas home turf, in Austin, with 12.36 seconds.

At the U.S. trials, only the top three athletes in each event could qualify for Paris 2024. Two Olympic medalists were thus excluded: Rio 2016 Olympic runner-up and 2019 world champion Nia Ali (4th in 12.37 seconds), and Tokyo 2021 Olympic runner-up Kendra Harrison (5th in 12.39 seconds). Russell will be joined in the French capital by Alaysha Johnson (12.31 seconds, her record) and Grace Stark, also 12.31 seconds, and again, another personal best.