Source: Jean Catuffe / Getty
Jasmine Camacho-Quinn broke two records when she crossed the finish line at the women’s 100-meter hurdles during the Tokyo Olympics. The 24-year-old won Puerto Rico their first gold medal in track and second gold in Olympic history when she won with a record-breaking finish of 12.37 seconds. She also set a new Olympic record of 12.26 seconds in the semifinals race. She beat Keni Harrison, who was representing the United States by .15 seconds.
“This was what I wanted for this year,” Camacho-Quinn told reporters after her win. “I wanted to be a gold medalist.”
The South Carolina native said she even though she was gunning for the win, she was shocked she secured the victory.
“I was really running for the record, I hit the hurdle — but everything happens for a reason,” she told Reuters. “I crossed the line like, ‘wait — I just won!’”
This win marks a comeback for Camacho-Quinn. In 2016, she suffered a heartbreaking disqualification during the semifinals during the Rio Olympics in 2016 when she tripped over the fences and fell. Her mother, María Milagros Camacho, told El Nuevo Dia that Camacho-Quinn used her devastating loss as motivation to come harder in Tokyo.
“She said she wasn’t going to think about what happened in 2016,” Camacho said. “She stayed focused. What happened to her made her strong. That was hitting rock bottom, but now I was ready. I wasn’t going to work hard for two years (for the same thing to happen). Regardless of whether she won gold, silver or bronze, she was going to go (in Tokyo) to the end.”
Even though Camacho-Quinn, who is Black and Puerto Rican, was born in the United States, she made the decision to run for Puerto Rico.
Her brother, NFL player Robert Quinn, gushed about his sister’s win to the Chicago Tribune.
“She still had the gold medal around her neck,” Quinn said. “I’m still in disbelief like, ‘Naw, that’s not real.’ That’s my baby sister and she’s an Olympian. I don’t know, man. I can brag about that.”
