Paris Olympics: Quincy Hall unleashes stunning comeback to win men’s 400m gold

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SAINT-DENIS, France — Arms pumping, legs churning, face twisted in a grimace, Quincy Hall kept coming even when he appeared hopelessly far behind.

Hall was a distant fourth place in the Olympic 400 meters final and he was running out of purple track between him and the finish line.

With 50 meters to go, he charged past fading former Olympic champion Kirani James. With 40 meters to go, he ran down Jereem Richards like the Trinidadian’s shoes were made of cement. Only pre-race favorite Matthew Hudson-Smith of Great Britain remained ahead of him, and Hall was reeling him in too.

“You can’t outrun a dog,” Hall said. “A dog is going to chase you forever.”

Hall captured Olympic gold on Wednesday night with a display of never-say-die resilience that won’t soon be forgotten. He overtook a stunned Hudson-Smith with 10 meters to go, leaned at the finish line and then stared at the video board to make sure what he thought he had just experienced was real.

Hall’s winning time was a personal-best 43.40 seconds, the fourth fastest a man has ever run 400 meters. That was four-hundredths of a second faster than Hudson-Smith, now the fifth fastest in history over 400 meters.

Five of the eight men in the final clocked a sub-45-second time. Zambia’s Muzala Samukonga ran a 43.74 to take bronze, his country’s second-ever medal and first since 1996.

When Hall was asked when he knew he’d win, he deadpanned, “As soon as they shot that gun.”

“You can’t get far enough,” he said matter-of-factly. “That’s what I’m known for. If you don’t get far enough away, I’m going to catch you every time.”

The grit that has become Hall’s trademark wasn’t there at birth. He says it’s a byproduct of the obstacle-laden path he’s taken to the top of his sport.

The son of Milton and Iecia Hall, Hall grew up in Kansas City running everything from the 200, to the 400, to the 800, to the 1,500. Occasionally, he’d do them all at the same meet.

When he went to community college in California at College of the Sequoias, Hall found that the school had no housing and no cafeteria. He worked two jobs to pay for tuition, food and a room to sleep at night.

At College of the Sequoias, Hall won state championships in the 400, 400 hurdles and the 4×400 relay. He’d win the 400, race across the infield and then line up for the 400 hurdles.

“That’s where I feel like I found myself becoming the dog I say I am,” Hall said.

While Hall won an NCAA championship in the 400 hurdles after accepting a scholarship offer from South Carolina, he calls switching his focus to the open 400 two years ago the “best decision of my life.”

Hall didn’t finish his preliminary 400 hurdles heat at the 2021 U.S. Olympic Trials. He came in fifth at USA Nationals the following year. His best 400 hurdles times were fast, but not in the same class as the likes of Rai Benjamin, Karsten Warholms and Alison Dos Santos. Earlier this summer, he told Olympics.com that he was “wasting time” running that event as a pro.

Since ditching the hurdles and focusing on the open 400 the past two years, Hall has been one of those elite guys. He had a breakthrough 2023, representing the U.S. for the first time at a global championship and earning bronze at the World Championships in Budapest. He lowered his career-best time in the 400 from 44.53 in college to 44.37 last year, and then to 43.80 seconds a few weeks before the Olympics began.

Blind to the rest of the field in lane eight on Wednesday night, Hall got out faster than he usually does, but it still wasn’t fast enough. The pace was so quick that Hall left himself a lot of ground to make up entering the final 100 meters.

Hudson-Smith said that his coaches had warned him about Hall’s kick over the last 50 meters of a race. Even so, Hudson-Smith admitted that he was caught off guard by Hall’s heroic last-gasp charge.

“I thought I had it,” Hudson-Smith said. “If you’re going to win, you’re going to have to take it from me. That’s exactly what he did.”

Last month, during a podcast appearance, Noah Lyles mulled which sprinters he’d include on his dream American 4×400-meter relay. Conspicuously absent from the selections that Lyles made was Hall, the man who won the U.S. title in the 400 at Olympic Trials this past June.

Christopher Bailey was Lyles’ choice to lead off. Lyles designated himself the best option for the second leg, even though he’s primarily known as a short sprinter. Michael Norman and Benjamin were Lyles’ choices for the second-to-last leg and the anchor position.

“The only reason I wouldn’t use the current U.S. champion is that I just don’t think he’d be a starter,” Lyles explained. “Using him on the first leg would almost be like a waste of his talents.”

On July 19, Hall tagged Lyles in a post on X and wrote, “My blocks ready anytime you feel like you can beat me in the 400.”

“You was talking [too] much on my name on yo little podcast,” Hall added. “I don’t do the little slick comments and remarks. I line up.”

It’s probably safe to assume Lyles wouldn’t omit Quincy Hall again if he could have a do-over. Hall lined up against seven of the world’s best quarter-milers, spotted a few of them a lead and then roared back to beat all of them.