Team USA’s Quincy Hall pulls off improbable comeback in 400 meters for Olympics gold

Another race, another incredible late rally to win a track and field gold medal for Team USA at the Paris Olympics. First it was Noah Lyles in the 100 meters, then it was Cole Hocker in the 1500 meters, and now it’s Quincy Hall in the 400 meters.

Coming off the turn in the final, Quincy Hall was in fourth place behind gold medal favorite Great Britain’s Matthew Hudson-Smith, Trinidad and Tobago’s Jereem Richards, and the legendary Grenadian Olympic champion Kirani James. It would’ve been a major credit to Hall to get even a bronze medal, as he did when he rallied in last year’s World Championships in Budapest, but he gritted his teeth, fought through the pain, and gutted out a remarkable rally past everyone to claim the gold medal in one of the fastest times ever run.

With a blistering new personal best of 43.40 seconds, Hall has the fifth-fastest 400-meter time in history and only world record holder Wayde Van Niekirk, Michael Johnson, and Butch Reynolds have run faster. Hudson-Smith’s 43.44 silver-medal winning performance was the fastest non-winning time ever, while Zambia’s Muzala Samukonga ran a national record 43.74 and had his own rally from fifth to bronze for his country’s third ever Olympic medal. It’s the second straight major championship that Hudson-Smith was in position to win gold, only to get beaten right before the finish line.

Jereem Richards and Kirani James also ran sub-44 seconds but did not medal, marking the first time we’ve ever had five athletes go under the coveted 44-second mark in any 400m race.

Hall is the first American Olympic men’s 400m gold medalist since LaShawn Merritt, who led a USA sweep in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. He previously competed in the 400m hurdles, winning the 2019 NCAA championship at the University of South Carolina. While Hall had collegiate experience in the flat and the hurdles, he focused on the hurdles in 2021 and missed the Tokyo Olympics. Hall also did not qualify for the World Championships in Eugene the following year. Hall made the decision to permanently ditch the hurdles in 2023, and it’s paid immediate dividends in the form of a World Championship bronze medal and an Olympic gold.

“I really like the 400m hurdles, but it’s just not my event,” Hall told FloTrack after his win on the Diamond League circuit in Monaco last month.

Hall might not have been the gold medal favorite, but his 2024 season could not have played out any better in terms of peaking at the right time. He improved his time over eight consecutive races from his Doha Diamond League opener in May (45.98 seconds) to his US trials win in June (44.17 secs) and his Monaco Diamond League win (43.80 seconds) in July. Now he’s the Olympic champion with an epic finish.

And for anyone who’s noticed Hall’s running form isn’t the smoothest or cleanest you’ll ever see, he’s aware, he doesn’t care, and the results show that it works for him.