EUGENE, Ore. — He is the three-time reigning world champion in the 110 meter hurdles. His career best time is one-hundredth of a second shy of the world record. He hasn’t lost a 60-meter hurdle race in more than a decade.
There’s really only one hole left in Grant Holloway’s unparalleled resume, an empty spot in his trophy cabinet that he’s eager to fill: the world’s most successful sprint hurdler has yet to win Olympic gold.
“You train for that moment,” Holloway said. “That moment only comes once every four years. If you’re not training to become an Olympic gold medalist, what the hell are you doing?
It’s easy to imagine Holloway, 26, checking that goal off his list later this summer after the way he dominated the 110 hurdles at the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials this week. In Monday night’s preliminary heat, Holloway became the first man to run a sub-13-second time this year. He’s repeated the feat twice since, once in Thursday’s semifinals and again in Friday night’s finals.
Holloway’s winning time of 12.86 seconds was just six-hundredths of a second slower than the world record set by Aries Merritt in 2012. As Holloway sees it, he might have eclipsed that record had he not cleared the eighth hurdle.
“I was a little angry with myself,” he said with a smile. “It was the first time in a long time that I hit a hurdle and that messed up my rhythm.”
Regardless, the pace Holloway kept helped make Friday’s final one of the fastest hurdle races of all time. Holloway cleared the hurdles so efficiently that number two Freddie Crittenden and number three Daniel Roberts both went under 13 seconds for the first time in their careers in an attempt to keep up with him. Cordell Tinch ran a blistering 13.03 — a time that would have brought gold at Tokyo 2021 — and failed to make the Olympic team.
When Holloway, Critteden and Roberts saw three men under 13 seconds in the same race for the first time, they all dreamed of a 1-2-3 US victory in Paris.
“If we all go out and run our best race,” Roberts said, “I don’t think anyone in any other country can beat us.”
When he saw his winning time, Holloway broke into a huge grin, clenched his fists, and raised both arms in the air. Moments later, he jogged to the stands near the finish line, put his hand to his ear, and responded to the roar and applause by asking for more noise.
It’s fitting that Holloway should, because all too often he doesn’t get the attention or accolades that some of his more famous American teammates do. He doesn’t run the sport’s glamour race like Noah Lyles and Sha’Carri Richardson, and his finest moments haven’t come on an Olympic podium like Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone.
In his only Olympic participation three years ago, Holloway had the nerve to finish second. Hansle Parchment, the third finisher at the Jamaican Olympic Trials, overtook Holloway and pulled off a stunning upset.
“Grant Holloway definitely deserves a lot more respect,” said U.S. 400 hurdles king Rai Benjamin, a teammate of Holloway’s on multiple Olympic and world championship teams. “He’s dominated for so long, from when we knew him in high school, all the way through college and now the pros. I think his accomplishments and what he can do fly under the radar.”
In an alternate reality, Holloway could now be playing wide receiver in the NFL. The former four-star recruit had SEC offers while attending Grassfield High in Chesapeake, Virginia.
Instead, Holloway went to Florida and became America’s top sprint hurdler, now setting his sights on gold in Paris.
“That’s my mentality,” Holloway said. “If I don’t win, I lose.”
