Grant Holloway wins gold medal in hurdles in Paris after heartbreaking race in Tokyo

SAINT-DENIS, France — Grant Holloway put his hands on the sixth hurdle on the Stade de France home straight. The 110m hurdles final was just minutes away, and anyone who understands history, Holloway’s otherworldly talent and appreciates symmetry could easily tie all those threads together.

Tokyo 2020. Holloway, leading the 110m hurdles final, was ready to live up to all expectations — the experts’, the fans’, his own. He was the world champion and the clear favorite. That was until a herd of bodies crashed over the seventh hurdle and Holloway’s lead was suddenly gone. He didn’t hit a hurdle or stumble. No, none of that. He simply broke form. He jumped too close to those 42-inch hurdles and began to bounce instead of powering forward. Instant death in the hurdles.

Jamaican Hansle Parchment took the shovel and pounded the dirt, beating Holloway by a stunning .05 margin to take the Tokyo 2020 gold.

But now, a new image.

On Thursday at Stade de France, Holloway jumped the seventh hurdle, made three jumps, jumped the eighth hurdle, made three more jumps, jumped the ninth hurdle and then the tenth hurdle.

A time of 12.99. A huge exhale at the finish. An Olympic gold medal that secures his place among the great hurdlers in American history.

Grant.Holloway. 😤

DOMINATION on the way to gold in the 110m hurdles! #Olympic Games in Paris photo.twitter.com/G3bqBRXYsD

— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 8, 2024

“What are they going to say now?” Holloway said afterward, grabbing an American flag and throwing it over his shoulders.

Holloway became the first American to win gold in the 100m hurdles since Aries Merritt at London 2012. He was followed by fellow American Daniel Roberts in second place, who took silver. Freddie Crittenden, No. 4 in the world, was unable to complete the American podium, finishing sixth.

Rasheed Broadbell of Jamaica won bronze in 13.09.

Holloway led from the start and never wavered, something that had been a long time coming.

Just as in 2020, Holloway arrived Thursday as the clear favorite. By a wide margin, to be sure. He came into these Olympics with the second-fastest 110m hurdles time in history, 12.81 seconds, set at the 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials. He ran the fourth-fastest time in history, 12.86 seconds, at this year’s trials, despite missing the eighth hurdle. He was a three-time world champion in the 110m hurdles and the world record holder in the 60m indoor.

But that’s part of Holloway’s problem. Outside the blocks, he’s as good as anyone in recent memory. He’d be unbeatable if he could close, too.

The finish in Tokyo exposed the vulnerability.

So Holloway called someone who might know what to do: Merritt.

“It kind of came out of nowhere,” Merritt said by phone Thursday.

Holloway has long worked with Mike “Mouse” Holloway (no relation), the legendary coach at the University of Florida, but wanted another opinion. Merritt watched the video. The two talked. More video. More talking.

Merritt’s winning run in London was 12.92 seconds, spent gradually building a lead hurdle by hurdle until he edged out American Jason Richardson by .12 seconds. Like Holloway, he was an extremely technical hurdler, looking for every hair out of place. Unlike Holloway, he was a closer. That’s what he indicated in those conversations with Holloway.

“In hurdles, you have to be almost fearless, but you have to stay focused,” Merritt says. “The idea is that you have to run hurdles on the edge of uncontrollability. There can be no technical pauses at the end of the race. You can’t start cutting and rushing. The goal is to run well, not fast.”

The distance from the last hurdle in the 110m hurdles to the finish line is 14.2 meters. About 45 feet. About the length of a school bus. About the height of the Hollywood sign that Grant Holloway will now run under in four years as an Olympic gold medalist.

In Tokyo, Holloway suddenly landed level with Parchment over the final hurdle, then took his final steps and turned his head to the right as he saw the Jamaican pass him.

In Paris, Holloway was upright and strong through the first eight hurdles before cramping on the ninth. Which leg? “Both,” he said. The slightest hiccup at the end wasn’t enough to erase the lead he’d built. He added another under-13 team to his resume and finished with a lean all on his own.

“This was definitely not a redemptive moment,” Holloway said. “Tokyo was three years ago. Hansle obviously had a great race. This was my moment.”

The victory reclaims an event dominated by Americans in the 20th century, when the U.S. claimed 17 of a possible 22 gold medals. Since Allen Johnson’s victory in Atlanta 1996, five of the last six Games have ended with the gold going elsewhere. The lone exception was Merritt, whose gold in London came exactly 12 years ago.

Holloway was 14 at the time. The son of a retired U.S. Navy officer, Stan Holloway, he attended Grassfield High School in Chesapeake, Virginia, where he did everything in the state — sprinting, high jump, long jump and football. That’s where things got tough.

By his senior year in high school, Holloway was a three-star wide receiver with scholarship offers to Georgia, Clemson, Michigan, Tennessee and other powers. Ultimately, he chose between playing football at Georgia or running back at Florida.

Holloway ignored the football spotlight and did his own thing, choosing track and field because he preferred the heat of individual sports. He went on to win a handful of NCAA titles at Florida.

Now he’s an Olympic gold medalist, one who strangely lacks the swagger and showmanship of other sprinters. Holloway has said recently that he doesn’t sell tickets, that he’s not the needle-mover.

Maybe he should think about that again.

“The collection is finally complete,” he said. “To have world indoor, Diamond Leagues, world outdoors — all the titles, and now officially Olympic gold is amazing, so I’m just happy and excited. The relief is finally off my shoulders.”

Required reading

(Photo: Hannah Peters/Getty Images)