Masai Russell shares training update as she looks ahead to outdoor season after USA Indoor Championships exploits

Masai Russell took pride in her track progress, stating that she feels she is ahead of where she was at this stage last year. The 24-year-old recently claimed her first US indoor title, clocking 7.74s in the 60m hurdles to record the world's best time of 2025.

Russell won the gold medal in the 100m hurdles at the Paris Olympics. Following that, she clinched a podium finish at Athlos NYC. Continuing her momentum in 2025, she raced at the Tech Corky Classic for the first race of her season. Achieving victories in the 60m and 60m hurdles, she added more wins to her repertoire from the New Balance Grand Prix and Millrose Games.

At the recently concluded USATF Indoor Championships, the 24-year-old took her first National indoor title as a professional. She clocked 7.74s to leave Grace Stark, Christina Clemons, and Alia Armstrong behind.

In an X post, she reflected on her win and said that her progress at the beginning of the Olympic year was not as good as her results so far in 2025.

"[Started] training a month later & I’m ahead of where I was at from last year.. back to the grind. See y'all outdoors," Masai Russell wrote.

Russell set the US NCAA record in the 100m hurdles when she was a student-athlete at the University of Kentucky. Her resume also includes a bronze in the 400m hurdles at the Pan American U20 Championships.

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Masai Russell weighed in on keeping away from the World Indoor Championships in 2025

Russell looking on at the Olympic Games-Paris 2024 - (Source: Getty)

Masai Russell has been in her top form since her 100m hurdles win at the Paris Games. Though she has made a strong start to 2025, the 24-year-old wished to take it slow and focus on more important events than running in all of them.

In her post-race interview at the USATF Indoors, Russell revealed she would skip the World Indoors to focus on the outdoor races this season. She mainly talked about her focus on the World Outdoor Championships in September.

"No running Indoors. Just because it's very close to the outdoor season you know. I'm a professional now and I'm not in a rush to just go back and forth from competition to competition. For me, be it personally, be it mentally, I like to take a break before like setting it up again. I just think it's going to set me up really great for the outdoor season because the season is very long this year. It's the end of September so I want to make sure that I'm ready to run, my mindset is there and you know my toughest goal going into World Outdoors is to know we're on indoors," Masai Russell said to CITIUS Mag.

The Bullis School alum recently attended the NBA All-Star Game alongside several sporting legends. She competed with the Team Bonds against Team Rice, which had her fellow Olympian, Shelby McEwen.