Olympic runner Shaunae Miller went to incredible lengths to win the gold medal in the women’s 400 meters Monday night, and it’s a move that’s likely to be remembered for years to come.
The reason Miller’s win became such a hot topic was because she dove across the finish line, beating Allyson Felix by seven-one-hundredths of a second. Miller’s torso crossed the finish line at 49.44 to Felix’s 49.51, reported KSDK.
That is a tiny amount of time, but those fractions add up. Miller knew the race was close, and she didn’t want to lose.
Miller, of the Bahamas, has taken some criticism for the dive, but according to Olympic standards, it was completely legal. The rules state that a win is determined by which athlete has any part of his or her torso cross the finish line first.
In fact, Miller could have jumped across the finish line backwards, and as long as her torso crossed the line first, she would have won the race.
It’s not traditional, and coaches don’t teach runners to compete this way, but sometimes the mind takes over in what can only be called an extreme effort to win.
Miller claimed the move wasn’t strategic, but more like a move of desperation and drive.
“I don’t know what happened. My mind just went blank,” Miller said. “The only thing I was thinking (about) was the gold medal, and the next thing I know, I was on the ground.”
That’s a remarkable finish to such a brutal race. Many might consider Miller’s dive controversial, but one thing’s for certain — it was a monumental effort to give the race everything she had.