Paris Olympics: Rai Benjamin, at last, wins the gold medal that had eluded him

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SAINT-DENIS, France — At last, Rai Benjamin got to experience the joy that his rivals had already felt.

At last, it was Benjamin raising his arms as he crossed the finish line, draping his country’s flag over his shoulders and running to find loved ones to hug.

Benjamin, the American hurdler who so many times before has settled for silver or bronze, finally earned the global championship meet gold medal that he has long coveted. He pulled away from Tokyo Olympic champion Karsten Warholm of Norway and 2022 World Champion Alison dos Santos of Brazil to win Friday night’s Olympic men’s 400-meter hurdles final at the Stade de France.

“It has eluded me for so long, this color medal,” Benjamin said. “To get it done here, in this fashion, at the Olympic Games in front of my friends and family, it just means so much to me.”

Benjamin’s winning time was 46.46, a few tenths of a second slower than what he ran during that epic final in Tokyo three years ago when he and Warholm both smashed the world record but only the Norwegian left with a gold medal. The difference this time was that instead of producing a near-perfect race, Warholm lost momentum during the second half of the race when he clipped a couple hurdles.

Not that Benjamin ran a flawless race, either. He landed awkwardly after clearing the seventh hurdle and it threw his stride pattern off approaching 8.

“Please don’t fall. Please don’t fall,” he remembers thinking.

When he had to stutter step and switch takeoff legs before the 10th hurdle, he thought for sure that Warholm or dos Santos was about to overtake him before the finish line. Only when there wasn’t anyone alongside him with five meters to go did Benjamin realize, “Oh s—, I got it!”

Warholm settled for silver, six-tenths of a second behind Benjamin. Dos Santos took the bronze, another two-tenths of a second back.

For Benjamin, the victory was as cathartic as it was joyous. Not only was he the silver medalist in Tokyo, he also claimed silver or bronze behind Warholm or dos Santos at all three of track and field’s most recent World Championships.

No longer is he the Charles Barkley or Dan Marino of the 400 hurdles anymore. Now he has a gold medal to validate himself as maybe the event’s standard bearer.

“It means so much to me,” he said. “You have no idea.”

The secret behind Benjamin’s victory on Friday is a shift in mindset to how he viewed what was missing from his resume. He used to obsess over it and it made him tense before global championship meets.

This year, he tried a new approach, staying looser and focusing more on what he had already achieved rather than what he hadn’t. Only minutes before Friday night’s race, Benjamin said he was “cracking jokes.” On his way to the track, he told his teammates, “Alright, I’m going to go chase my dreams. Whatever happens, happens.”

It also helped that Benjamin was healthy before a global championship meet for the first time since Tokyo. In both 2022 and 2023, Benjamin said that lingering injuries prevented him from preparing for Worlds the way he otherwise would have.

Benjamin described himself as “the unspoken team captain” of Team USA and a hype man for many of his teammates. On Friday night, even while he was speaking with reporters, their love for him was apparent.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone walked by after her medal ceremony and wrapped Benjamin in a big hug. Anna Cockrell whispered “Good s—” as she passed through moments later.

For years, Benjamin has dealt with critics who said he wasn’t mentally tough enough to win gold or that he would never come through when it mattered. After his victory lap on Friday night, he couldn’t resist pointing out, “What are they going to say now?

“I got the s— done, man,” he added. “I got it done.”