Masai Russell: Confident, Committed to Excellence and Very, Very Fast

The following is an article that I wrote, which appeared in the October-November 2024 edition of Montgomery Magazine: 

Masai Russell won gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics in the 100-meter hurdles.
Courtesy of USATF.

One one-hundredth of a second. “That’s faster than we can even blink,” says Masai Russell.

For Russell, it was a mere centisecond that changed her life when she won a gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics in the 100-meter hurdles by edging out France’s Cyrena Samba-Mayela by one one-hundredth of a second.

The 24-year-old Russell was born in Washington, D.C., and went to high school at Bullis School in Potomac, Maryland. “Going to high school there, it was honestly an amazing experience,” Russell says. The choice to go to the Montgomery County school “ended up being one of the best decisions I made in my life.”

For the newly crowned Olympic champion, it was her parents that helped set her on a path that propelled her to stardom.

Russell’s mother, Dr. Sharon Russell, is an oral and maxillofacial surgeon, while her father, Mark, is not only the CEO of her mother’s medical practice; he was also Russell’s first track coach.

“Both of my parents played a major role in my life, throughout my career,” Russell says.

Citing Sharon Russell’s ability to successfully juggle the responsibilities of taking care of her patients and running her medical office, Russell says she gets her work ethic from her mother.

As for her father, “he played a tremendous role in my track career,” Russell says. “He’s really the one that made it happen on the track.”

Russell believes that her involvement in track and the success she has achieved stems from “always being undersized and feeling like you have something to prove.”

She thinks back to her childhood and points to growing up with only brothers as something that continually motivated her.

“I was always doing my best to stay relevant with my brothers, and then when I ended up competing against people that were much bigger than me, faster than me, older than me, I always had a drive within myself to just become great, never stop and get what you want,” Russell says. “I always had a fire within me.”

Masai Russell. Photo by Erica Calhoun.

Russell went to the University of Kentucky, where she shone on the track and excelled in the classroom, including becoming the NCAA record holder in the 100-meter hurdles and earning a spot on the SEC Spring Academic Honor Roll multiple times.

“My mindset is if I’m going to be great, I’m going to be great at anything that I do. And academics always come first. Academics is the gateway to be able to compete,” Russell says.

“Track is going to end one day, and you have to have the knowledge in whatever space that you want to end up pursuing … without the education, without the knowledge, then you have nothing … One day, I’m not going to be a track runner, but I’m going to need be something else in life. And if you don’t have that knowledge, then you’re failing yourself,” she adds.

A first-time Olympian, Russell says, “it means the world” and is “pretty unreal” to have had the opportunity to represent the United States in Paris.

“It’s everything that I have dreamed of, everything that I’ve worked for my entire career … it’s such a blessing and such an honor to just compete and be among the best athletes in the world, to be on the boat with LeBron James and Stephen Curry. It’s just like, wow, this is the life that I truly believed that I could have one day, and the fact that I’m living it at such a young age, at 24 years old, when I didn’t even believe I could be an Olympian just three years ago, it’s just crazy. I just say it’s nothing but God.”

As she walked out of the tunnel and onto the Olympic track before the final of the 100-meter hurdles, Russell was incredibly focused.

“I was telling myself, it’s possible, it’s possible, it’s possible,” Russell says, recalling the moments leading up to the race. “I worked hard every day … this is my moment. This is my time.”

“When I walked out, I heard the crowd and I was just so locked in,” she says. “I was thinking, my life can change within the matter of the next 30 seconds … I was just so determined, and I was so poised.”

As she settled into Lane 5, Russell worked hard to keep her emotions in check and not get overwhelmed by the enormity of the moment, reminding herself that in front of her were the same 10 hurdles that are in every race.

When the race got underway, several runners were seemingly in a dead heat. In fact, Russell was not the first one to clear the final hurdle—that was France’s Cyrena Samba-Mayela. Yet, Russell closed strong and surged ahead, crossing the finish line in a blazing 12.33 seconds in a photo finish. After a brief wait, Russell was declared the winner. Samba-Mayela won the silver medal, while Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico took the bronze.

“I came off that last hurdle, and I just sprinted to the line as hard as I could. And once I crossed the line, I knew I was in medal contention, but I didn’t know exactly where … I was just looking up at the board and I was like, ‘come on, come on, show me’ … It was about 10 to 15 seconds. So, it didn’t feel like a lifetime. But it was just long enough that I started to stress out,” Russell says.

“I have worked so hard my entire career and come up short every single time … I’ve never won an NCAA title … I’ve never won an outdoor SEC title. I didn’t win the USA Championships last year … It was like, I had to go through all those hardships, and I had to go through all those tough times to get to where I am now. Honestly, it was a dream come true … I just won the Olympics … no one can take that from me,” Russell says.

Russell competes in the 2024 Paris Olympics. Courtesy of USATF.

Before this track season began, Russell wrote down several goals: Break the indoor world record, become the indoor world champion, win the U.S. Olympic trials, win the Olympics and break the world record. Those are big goals, but for Russell, it is important to identify her objectives, aim high and work hard to try and achieve them.

“Setting goals means everything to me,” she says. “If you’re not striving to be the best ever, it’s just like, why are you doing it? Why are you selling yourself short? … I think the power of the mind, everything that you believe and think, you don’t notice how much of an impact it plays until you truly do it, have faith in it, work in it and manifest it.”

Russell has a huge presence on social media, with more than 1.2 million followers across her various platforms. The Olympic gold medalist believes her massive following is largely attributable to the fact that people appreciate that she promotes herself in a genuine manner that is consistent with who she is as a person.

“I just like to keep it super authentic to who I am … I’m glad that I feel like I do have such a positive impact on … the community … I’ve inspired so many people by just being myself,” she says. “I’m just showing people that even if the end of the tunnel does look dark, just keep going, because you’ll eventually see that light.”

For Russell, her gold medal win in Paris is not the end of her journey, but rather another step in her pursuit of excellence, and she is looking forward to the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

“The goal right now is to get through world championships for the next two years and then do my thing in LA once again and try to get that title back. ‘Two-time Olympic champ’ has a great ring to it,” she says, noting that she will keep “trying to do the same thing I did this past Olympics, and just keep that good momentum going with a smile on my face and inspiring and impacting those people around me.”