by SAINT-DENIS, France — Rai Benjamin’s 400-meter hurdles race was going swimmingly until, about 70 percent of the way through the race, something appeared in front of him. Oh, that’s righthe realized. An obstacle.
“I was so focused on speed, and those obstacles get in the way,” he said, offering an elegant description of the event’s challenge. “It’s kind of annoying, because you want to go, but you can’t go, because these bears are in your way. So I think I got lost out there trying to sprint, and I forgot, like, OK, I really have to get through this thing properly..”
He landed badly coming out of the seventh hurdle, which meant his stride was off as he approached the eighth. He begged himself not to fall. He had to stretch for the tenth hurdle. He begged himself not to get caught. Then, with five metres to go: “I thought: Oh shithe said.Got it.”
He looked at the clock: 46.46 seconds, just over half a second behind the world record set by Norwegian Karsten Warholm in Tokyo, but just over half a second ahead of Warholm in Paris.
Benjamin tore off his bib, his last weapon in his war against them—“These shoe companies spend all their money on research and development and make all these aerodynamic uniforms, and then you just put a paper bib on it,” he laments. “We might as well be running in T-shirts at that point”—and wrapped himself in an American flag.
“It wasn’t particularly fast,” Benjamin said. “But we did it.”
Three years after one of the greatest races of all time in Tokyo, where Benjamin broke the world record and had to settle for silver, Friday’s rematch was not as tense. Warholm grazed the ninth hurdle and knew it was over. “These are mistakes you can’t afford at this level,” he said after winning silver this time.
But Benjamin later said he felt Warholm, Alison dos Santos, the Brazilian bronze medalist in Tokyo and Paris, and himself had taken the event to new heights. All three won world titles. Edwin Moses, an Olympic gold medalist in the 400-meter hurdles in 1976 and 1984, ran a time of 47.02 seconds in 1983, setting the world record. That time has been beaten 26 times since then, 24 times by Benjamin, Warholm or dos Santos.
“It’s a different time now,” said Benjamin, who turned 27 last week. “A lot of them say it’s the shoes, it’s the track, but honestly, we’re just better.”
Dos Santos said he was proud to have won bronze “in the era of the 400 metres hurdles, because it is the best era ever.”
Perhaps that’s part of why Benjamin said he agreed to race regardless. He’s spent years dreaming of what he considers his first Olympic gold medal (the one he won in the 4×400-meter relay doesn’t count), but he decided to have some fun this cycle. He described himself as the “unspoken captain of the team at these Games” and said he tries to crack jokes in tense moments. He and teammate Kenneth Rooks both competed Wednesday, Benjamin first in the 400-meter hurdles semifinals and Rooks in the 3,000-meter steeplechase finals, and Benjamin promised him, “I’m going to keep that motherf—– warm for you!” Rooks surprisingly won a silver medal, his first world medal.
“It’s an individual sport, but we’re here as a team,” Benjamin said. Americans have won 29 medals in track and field, including 11 golds. As he spoke, past U.S. medalists honored that night walked past and congratulated him: Melissa Jefferson, Sha’Carri Richardson, Twanisha Terry and Gabby Thomas, who had just won gold in the 4X100-meter relay, and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, who broke her own world record to win the women’s 400 meter hurdles race on Thursday.
“People think I’m not mentally strong enough to do this, but like [men’s 100-meter bronze medalist] Fred [Kerley] “I always say, ‘It’s not pressure, man,’” Benjamin said. “It’s fun. The real pressure is trying to find food, feed your family, pay the bills. And what we do is entertainment. I’m not saving any lives. At the end of the day, we’re just going around in circles.”
And in his case, he was jumping over stuff, as he remembered just in time.
