EUGENE, Oregon – He is the three-time reigning world champion in the 110-meter hurdles. His career-best time is one-hundredth of a second off the world record. He hasn’t lost a 60-meter hurdles race in more than a decade.
In reality, there remains only one gap on Grant Holloway’s incomparable CV, an empty space in his trophy cabinet that he is eager to fill: the world’s most successful sprint hurdler has yet to capture Olympic gold.
“You’re training for that moment,” Holloway said. “That moment only comes around every four years. If you’re not training to be 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 this week’s U.S. Olympic track and field trials. In Monday night’s preliminary heat, Holloway became the first man to run a sub-13-second time this year. He then repeated that feat twice more, once in Thursday’s semifinal and again in the final on Friday night.
Holloway’s winning time, 12.86 seconds, was just six-hundredths of a second slower than the world record set by Aries Merritt in 2012. In Holloway’s opinion, he could have eclipsed that record had he not cleared the eighth hurdle.
“I was a little bit mad at myself,” he said with a smile. “The first time in a long time I hit an obstacle and that put me off my rhythm.”
Regardless, the pace Holloway set helped make Friday’s final one of the fastest steeplechases of all time. Holloway cleared the obstacles so efficiently that Freddie Crittenden, in second, and Daniel Roberts, in third, also went under 13 seconds for the first time in their careers trying to keep up with him. Cordell Tinch ran an impressive 13.03, a time that would have allowed him to win gold at Tokyo 2021, and failed to make the Olympic team.
The sight of three men under 13 seconds for the first time in the same race had Holloway, Critteden and Roberts dreaming of a 1-2-3 American sweep 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 smiled broadly, clenched his fists and raised his arms in the air. Moments later, he ran to the stands at the finish line, put his hand to his ear and responded to the roars and cheers by asking for more noise.
It’s fitting that Holloway has to do that because he so often doesn’t receive the attention and praise that some of his more famous American teammates receive. She doesn’t run the sport’s glamorous career like Noah Lyles and Sha’Carri Richardson, nor did her best moments come on an Olympic stage like Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone.
Three years ago, in his only Olympic appearance, Holloway had the nerve to finish second. Hansle Parchment, who placed third at the Olympic trials in Jamaica, edged out Holloway and pulled off a stunning upset.
“Grant Holloway definitely deserves a lot more respect,” said American 400-meter hurdles king Rai Benjamin, Holloway’s teammate on multiple Olympic teams and world champions. “He’s been dominant for a long time, from when we first met him in high school, through college and now into the pros. I think his accomplishments and what he’s capable of do go unnoticed.”
In an alternate reality, Holloway could be playing wide receiver in the NFL right now. The former four-star recruit had SEC offers when he was at Grassfield High in Chesapeake, Virginia.
Instead, Holloway went to Florida and became America’s best hurdler. He now has his sights set on gold in Paris.
“That’s my mentality,” Holloway said. “If I don’t win, I lose.”