“Running like an underdog" - World Record holder Karsten Warholm opens up on his focus for the Paris Olympics as rival Rai Benjamin is in peak form

Reigning 400m hurdles champion Karsten Warholm unveiled his Paris Olympics strategies just 64 days away from the marquee event. While arch-rival Rai Benjamin is in top form in 2024, Warholm wishes to be unpredictable on the track, running like an underdog.

Karsten Warholm, 28, broke the 29-year-old 400m hurdles record set by Kevin Young, clocking 46.72 at his 2021 season opener, which he further lowered to 45.94 seconds at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The silver finisher, Rai Benjamin, is the second fastest man in 400m hurdles history, trailing right behind on Warholm's heels.

Recently at the 2024 USATF Los Angeles Grand Prix, Benjamin ran the 400m hurdles in a world-leading 46.64 seconds. This was the ninth-fastest in history and the fastest early-season race ever. In Warholm's absence, the 26-year-old soared to victory but awaits a highly contentious track at the Paris Olympics.

The 2023 World 400m hurdles champion, Warholm broke his win streak with a 2024 World Indoors silver. But in a recent interview with CITIUS Mag, as posted on X, Karsten Warholm unveiled his unconventional plans for the upcoming Summer Games. He talks about taking risks in training and execution and running like an underdog so as not to lay his cards bare early.

"If you don't take risks in sports, you will never have 45 seconds in the 400m hurdles and it's like, you need to take risks in training, that's the risk that people don't see. You need to take risks in the execution part of the race, which is the part people see. That's the way I like to do it. I think, being aggressive, to always (be) fighting, running like an underdog – even though you’re not – that is my focus," he said to CITIUS Mag during PUMA's pre-Olympic celebration.

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Karsten Warholm opens up about his Paris Olympics training regime

In the interview with CITIUS Mag, Karsten Warholm, who released the New Puma Sprint Spikes for Paris 2024, talked about what should change and what should remain the same. He opined that consistency is the fundamental element that should remain uncompromised.

Warholm informs that there have been changes in the volume of training and an amplification of its quality but not in his strength, the 400m hurdles. In the YouTube video posted by CITIUS Mag, Warholm said:

"I think consistency you know this is the boring thing but it's also so important because I don't think people manage that over time - (I) consider consistency to always do the things. Working every day that's how you build the fundamental parts and my training looks more or less the same now that it did four or five years ago.

"But we changed of course volumes we do more volumes, I run faster. We try to take the quality higher of course but the qualities that we train (for) will never change, you know for the 400m hurdles."

Karsten Warhol ran the 300m hurdles at the Trond Mohn Games in Norway, his season-opening race. His time of 33.28s was just 0.02s away from the world record.