Paris Olympics: Rai Benjamin finally wins the gold medal that eluded him

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SAINT-DENIS, France — Rai Benjamin finally got to experience the joy his rivals already felt.

Ultimately, it was Benjamin who raised his arms as he crossed the finish line, draped his country’s flag over his shoulders and went in search of loved ones to hug.

Benjamin, the American hurdler who so often settled for silver or bronze, finally won the world championship gold medal he had longed for. He ran away from Norwegian Olympic champion Karsten Warholm of Tokyo and Brazilian 2022 world champion Alison dos Santos to win the men’s 400-meter hurdles final at the Stade de France on Friday night.

“It’s been eluding me for so long, this color medal,” Benjamin said. “To do it here, like this, at the Olympics in front of my friends and family, it just means a lot to me.”

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

Benjamin also didn’t run a flawless race. He landed awkwardly after taking the seventh hurdle and that messed up his stride pattern when he was almost 8.

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

When he had to take a step and switch legs before the 10th hurdle, he thought for sure that Warholm or dos Santos would pass him before the finish line. It wasn’t until there was no one left next to him with five meters to go that Benjamin realized, “Oh s—, I’ve got it!”

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

For Benjamin, the victory was as cathartic as it was joyful. Not only was he the silver medalist in Tokyo, he also won silver or bronze behind Warholm or dos Santos at all three of the most recent World Athletics Championships.

He’s no longer the Charles Barkley or Dan Marino of the 400 hurdles. Now he has a gold medal to validate himself as perhaps 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 change in his mindset about how he viewed what was missing from his resume. He used to obsess over it and it made him nervous for world championships.

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

It also helped that Benjamin was healthy for a world championship for the first time since Tokyo. In both 2022 and 2023, Benjamin said that persistent injuries prevented him from preparing for the World Championships 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. Friday night, even as he spoke to reporters, their love for him was evident.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone walked by after her medal ceremony and hugged Benjamin tightly. Anna Cockrell whispered, “Good s—” as she passed by a moment later.

For years, Benjamin has faced critics who said he wasn’t mentally strong enough to win gold or that he would never follow through when it mattered. After his victory lap on Friday night, he couldn’t help but say, “What are they going to say now?

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