Most athletes train their entire lives for the , but most aren’t Masai Russell. Her path to a gold medal started in her senior year of high school when she competed in her first 100M hurdles. Russell began her track journey at eight and quickly found success.
By the time she was 10, she was invited to Youth Nationals and placed third in the 400M, and her track career was off to the races—no pun intended. “My main event for the longest time was the 400 until I got to high school,” says Russell. “I started with the 400M hurdles because it was the first hurdle event that piqued my interest naturally as a 400 runner.
” Before her senior year, she had become one of the top hurdlers in the country and had offers from almost every college with a track and field team. She decided to commit to the University Of Tennessee, but when her coach told her he would be coaching at Kentucky, she chose to follow him. “The story of Kentucky is crazy because they weren’t even in my Top 5,” admitted Russell.
“I didn’t do a visit, I didn’t do a tour, I was literally looking up the dorms on YouTube like 2-3 weeks before school started, but Kentucky ended up being the best school for me, as an individual, as an athlete, academically, everything.” Russell got to Lexington and started making waves immediately. She would place first in a bunch of NCAA competitions and even break two collegiate records, but never won a 100M Hurdle outdoors, where she would rack up four second-pla.