2024 Olympics: Team USA’s Quincy Hall makes improbable comeback in 400 meters for gold

Another race, another incredible late rally to win a gold medal for Team USA at the Paris Olympics. First it was Noah Lyles in the 100 meters, then it was Cole Hocker in the 1500 meters, and now it’s Quincy Hall in the 400 meters.

After the final turn, Quincy Hall was in fourth place behind gold medal favorite Matthew Hudson-Smith from Great Britain, Jereem Richards from Trinidad and Tobago and legendary Grenadian Olympic champion Kirani James. It would have been a great honor for Hall to even take a bronze medal, as he did when he rallied at the World Championships in Budapest last year, but he persevered, fought through the pain and staged a remarkable rally to outpace everyone and claim the gold medal with one of the fastest times ever.

With a stunning new personal best of 43.40 seconds, Hall has the fifth-fastest 400m time in history, with only world record holder Wayde Van Niekirk, Michael Johnson and Butch Reynolds having run faster. Hudson-Smith’s silver medal-winning 43.44 was the fastest non-winning time ever, while Muzala Samukonga of Zambia ran a national record of 43.74 to complete his own rally from fifth to bronze for his country’s third ever Olympic medal. It is the second consecutive major championship that Hudson-Smith has been in position to win gold, only to be beaten just before the finish line.

Jereem Richards and Kirani James also ran under 44 seconds, but failed to win a medal. It is the first time that five athletes have stayed under the coveted 44-second mark in a 400-meter race.

Hall is the first American Olympic gold medalist in the men’s 400 meters since LaShawn Merritt, who led a U.S. sweep at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He previously competed in the 400-meter hurdles, winning the 2019 NCAA championship at the University of South Carolina. Though Hall had collegiate experience in the flat track and hurdles, he focused on the hurdles in 2021 and missed the Tokyo Olympics. Hall also failed to qualify for the world championships in Eugene the following year. Hall decided to drop the hurdles for good in 2023, and it paid immediate dividends with a bronze medal at the world championships and a gold medal at the Olympics.

“I really like the 400m hurdles, but it’s just not my event,” Hall told FloTrack after his victory on the Diamond League circuit in Monaco last month.

Hall may not have been the gold medal favorite, but his 2024 season couldn’t have gone better in terms of peaking at the right time. He improved his time in eight straight races, from his Doha Diamond League opener in May (45.98 seconds) to his U.S. Trials win in June (44.17 seconds) and his Monaco Diamond League victory (43.80 seconds) in July. Now he’s the Olympic champion with an epic finish.

And for anyone who’s noticed that Hall’s running technique isn’t the smoothest or cleanest you’ll ever see, he’s aware of it, he doesn’t care, and the results show that it works for him.