Masai Russell Wins Olympic Gold in 100m Hurdles, Two Wildcats Win Gold in 4x400m Relay

PARIS, France – On the final day of track and field competition at the Paris Olympic Games, Kentucky Track and Field athletes won four medals, including three gold, bringing the week’s overall haul to a program-best six medals.

Masai Russell took home the gold medal in the 100m hurdles in a dramatic photo finish. In the same event, Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, the gold medalist from Tokyo, secured the bronze. This is the second consecutive Olympics in which the gold medalist in the 100m hurdles has come from Kentucky, as well as the second straight Olympics in which two Wildcats have finished on the podium in that event.

In the women’s 4x400m relay, Wildcats made up fifty percent of the gold medal-winning – and American record-setting – squad. Alexis Holmes earned her first career Olympic medal, while Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone picked up her second gold of the Games and fourth of her career. The American team posted a time of 3:15.27, the second fastest time in history and one-tenth of a second from the World Record. McLaughlin-Levrone ran the second leg of the race and gave the USA a lead they would never relinquish. Holmes ran the anchor leg and crossed the line over thirty meters before the silver-medal winning Dutch team. Both McLaughlin-Levrone and Holmes won SEC titles in the 4x400m relay while at Kentucky. Holmes also won an NCAA title in the event in 2022.

In the final of the 100m hurdles, three of the eight runners on the line were representatives of Kentucky Track and Field, but it was 2023 Kentucky graduate Masai Russell who reigned supreme. The first time Olympian made an incredible lean at the finish line to claim the gold medal in a time of 12.33 seconds, winning the event by one one-hundredth of a second. This is the second consecutive Games in which the Olympic gold medalist in the 100m hurdles hailed from Kentucky, as Camacho-Quinn took home the gold in Tokyo.

Russell, the collegiate record holder in the event, was racing in her first major international final in the 100m hurdles and was able to top the podium in the deepest field in the event’s history. A four-time NCAA runner-up, Russell won the biggest title of her career—prior to her gold medal run– at the US Olympic Team Trials in a world-leading time of 12.25, to secure the gold medalist her spot in Paris.

Winning the bronze medal in the 100m hurdles, Camacho-Quinn became the first Puerto Rican in Olympic history to win multiple medals. Adding to her gold from Tokyo, the three-time NCAA champion during her time at Kentucky finished the race in 12.36 seconds to secure her spot on the podium. Still the Olympic record holder, Camacho-Quinn is now the second Wildcat to win multiple Olympic medals, joining former teammate Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone.

Also running in the 100m hurdles final was Volunteer Assistant Coach Devynne Charlton, who finished in sixth place with a time of 12.56 seconds. The Bahamian athlete who trains in Lexington with Russell is the world record holder in the indoor 60m hurdles and repeated her sixth place finish from Tokyo.

Kentucky Track and Field finished the Paris Olympics with six medals – four golds, one silver, and one bronze. The six medals is the most in program history and tops the five medals won by Wildcats in Tokyo.

A full event recap of the Wildcats in Paris can be found below.

Event Schedule

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