Who is Karsten Warholm? The Norwegian athlete who set the 400m hurdles world record at Oslo Diamond League

A world record set four years before the birth of Norwegian athlete Karsten Warholm now stands broken.

25-year-old Karsten Warholm broke a long-standing world record of 29 years, set by American sprint legend Kevin Young at the 1992 Olympic Games. The world record now stands at an unbelievable 46.70s set at the Oslo Diamond League and is faster than the previous record by 00.08 seconds.

4⃣6⃣.7⃣0⃣#OsloDL 📷 Wanda #DiamondLeague

— Wanda Diamond League (@Diamond_League) July 1, 2021

Let’s go back to 2013 for a little background check on the Tokyo-bound Norwegian athlete and now a world record holder - Karsten Warholm.

Karsten Warholm - The Junior Wonder

At the Bislett Games in June 2013, three months after winning eight gold medals in the Norwegian Youth Indoors Championship, a 17-year-old European rising star finished seventh in the 200m heats. That particular heat was won by none other than Usain Bolt. As an emerging young athlete, Karsten competed in a number of track and field events - including octathlon and decathlon - before specializing in 400m sprint and 400m hurdles.

Karsten was already a national record holder in his pet event - the 400m hurdles, before he made his Olympic debut in Rio. Despite low expectations, he reached the semi-finals in the 400m hurdles in his first-ever Olympic Games. Since then he has been a 2017 & 2018 European U23, 2017 World, 2018 European Champion in the 400m hurdles event and a 2019 European Indoor Champion in the 400m dash.

Karsten Warholm is a gold medal favorite at the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Olympics

Karsten ran the third-fastest time in the history of 400m hurdles when he set a new European record of 46.92s at Weltklasse Zurich in 2019. He grabbed headlines once again when he broke the 47s barrier for the second time the following year. He came within touching distance of breaching Kevin Young’s long-standing world record. In the process of clocking 46.87s in the 400m hurdles, he became the first athlete to eclipse the 47-second barrier twice. Kevin Young has only once run under 47s, when he set the Olympic and world record in 1992.

A spectacle for the home crowd

A few hours before his final race at the Diamond League in Osla, Karsten was confident of setting a new benchmark. He said:

"I just want to run a personal best and to entertain the home crowd - it will be the first time in almost two years so it's very special. I'm always all-in and trying to set the bar very high for myself."

It’s impossible for the world to not turn their attention to this young sprinter who promises to produce nothing but only a ‘faster’ performance at the Olympic Games later this month.

Thanks for giving us a new playground @usainbolt 😂👑 @Olympics @WorldAthletics https://t.co/pl48qaZ4KJ

— Karsten Warholm (@kwarholm) January 26, 2021