"Rookie season was a dream"- Masai Russell reflects on winning Paris Olympic gold medal and concluding the most successful season of her career so far

Masai Russell recently concluded the most successful season of her career so far after finishing third at Alexis Ohanian's Athlos NYC in the women's 100m hurdles. She reflected on her 2024 which included monumental success at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials and the Paris Olympics.

Russell began her season at the UK Rod McCravy Memorial in January in the 60m hurdles and actively participated in track events in the Indoor season leading up to the World Indoor Athletics Championships. She missed out on the podium positions by a minute margin after finishing fourth with a performance of 7.81s.

As she marched onto the outdoor season leading up to the Paris Olympics, Russell struggled to get into form in her initial appearances which included sixth-place finishes at the Xiamen and LA Grand Prix as well as a ninth-place finish in the 100m hurdles at the Prefontaine Classic. However, she picked her momentum at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials to clinch the title and qualify for the Paris Olympics with a performance of 12.25s.

Masai Russell dominated a highly competitive line-up in the finals of the women's 100m at the Paris Olympics which included Devynne Charlton and Jasmine Camacho-Quinn among other top athletes. She won her first Olympic gold medal in the French capital with a performance of 12.33s.

She took to Instagram to reflect on the most successful season of her career so far and wrote:

"Rookie season was a dream 🤝🏽God showed me just a preview of what’s to come. See yall on the track next season 😘OLY TRIALS CHAMP ✅ OLYMPIC CHAMP✅ US #2 All-Time #5 All-Time Muah No Bars💋," she wrote.

Masai Russell on her decision to protest in her final race of the 2024 season

Masai Russell at the Diamond League Silesia. 2024 Kamila Skolimowska Memorial. - Source: Getty

Masai Russell spoke about her decision to protest after finishing third in her final race of the 2024 season at Athlos NYC. The American athlete spoke about how flinching at the start line affected her performance due to which her agent went to meet the director of the event.

"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. 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,” she said. (0:47)

Furthermore, she stated that she believed that the person who ran the race according to the rules should be given the prize money.