“I wanted to quit, it was hard”- Masai Russell opens up facing hardships while aiming for the winning the gold medal at the Paris Olympics

Masai Russell recently opened up about her mindset ahead of the Paris Olympics. The athlete wrapped up her 2024 season after running at the Athlos NYC meet, which took place on September 26 at the Icahn stadium.

Russell won just one race in 2024, which was the 100m hurdles event at the Paris Olympics. The 24-year-old clocked 12.33 seconds in the final to clinch gold.

Weeks after this, the hurdler concluded her season by competing in the Athlos NYC meet, where she ran in the 100m hurdles event and attained a third-place finish. Russell clocked 12.44s and was bested by Jasmine Camacho-Quinn and Alaysha Johnson.

The 24-year-old recently appeared in an interview with The Pivot, where she spoke about her belief about winning the gold medal at the Paris Olympics. She spoke about how "hard" it was to train for that but she kept on going, thinking about the positive side of the win.

"I wanted to quit. I am not going to lie, it was hard. I just told myself that on the other side of this there was going to be something, like, I don't know what it is, I am just not going to stop, I am not going to stop, and I think that just built the savage in me," Masai Russell said.

Masai Russell on the last race of her 2024 season

Masai Russell last ran in the Athlos NYC meet, where she finished in third place in the 100m hurdles event. Following this race, the athlete wanted to protest because of the flinching that took place at the start line during the race. She stated that this affected her run, and she couldn't focus on the race.

Russell also revealed that her agent spoke to the meet's director about the same.

"I don't know, my agent went to talk to the meet director. But yeah, I want to protest because as anyone can see, there was a lot of flinching going on at the starting line, so that kind of affected me," said Masai Russell. "I was playing catchup the whole entire race. So you know, it is a big prize money on the line and I think the person who ran the legal race should get the prize money they deserve."

Russell's personal best timing in 2024 is 12.25 seconds, which she clocked at the Olympic Trials in Eugene. This is also her career-best timing in the 100m hurdles.