TOKYO — Athing Mu is bringing home the gold medal for the 800-meter race.
Mu, 19, represented the United States in her first-ever Olympics, clocking in at 55.21 seconds.
Trailing behind was Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson, who won the silver medal in 1:55.88, and Raevyn Rogers, who finished in 1:56.81, securing herself a bronze medal.
“It’s awesome. I feel like I’ve just accomplished one of my goals,” she said after the race per Olympics.com. “I just wanted to be a medallist. I wasn’t really putting gold on that, but as it got closer to the final today, I was like, ‘Yeah, we want gold’.”
She continued, “It’s an accomplishment that I wanted off my list. I am just happy, blessed and excited to be here and took care of this experience as well as I could. Coming into the race, I was just at peace. I wasn’t too anxious about it. You know I knew I wanted to get the gold medal and I just told myself I’m going to do all I have to do to get there.”
Mu broke the American indoor 600-meter record at just 16, just 0.13 seconds shy of the world record. She then went on to break numerous more records, including six collegiate records, including the indoor 600m, indoor 800m, indoor 4×400m relay, outdoor 400m, outdoor 800m and outdoor 4×400m relay as a freshman at Texas A&M.
“Just whatever it takes. I wasn’t thinking about pace I wasn’t thinking about how the race is going to go. I knew I was ready, I knew I was relaxed, confident so I just wanted to keep that going into the start of the race.”
Americans across the country are also celebrating U.S. gymnast Simone Biles today after she took bronze on the balance beam. Biles also won bronze for balance beam in Rio de Janeiro in 2016
