Can you perceive three-hundredth of a second? Most human beings would say it’s nothing; it is meaningless; that it has no value. But ask it to Olympic athletes. Ask it to sprinters. Ask track and field stars Jasmine Camacho-Quinn and Masai Russell what 0.03 seconds mean to them. They will say it’s the difference between a gold and bronze medal at the Olympics. That’s how close the 2024 Paris Olympics 100m women’s hurdles race was.

For Masai Russell, it was the triumph of gold, while Jasmine Camacho-Quinn settled for bronze. In such a close race, all of their eyes were fixed on the official timer for confirmation. When the times were confirmed, Jasmine didn’t have any notable expression on her face except maybe a feeling of a bit of sadness because she couldn’t defend her historic Tokyo Olympics gold.

But things could have been worse, given the state she was in going into the Olympics. The former track and field star Justin Gatlin posted a clip on X on February 21 from his podcast Ready Set Go, where bronze winner Camacho-Quinn was the guest star. In the clip, the Puerto Rican shared how she was struggling in 2024 months before the Olympics.

Camacho mentions, “This year, man, mentally tapped out. I’m not even gonna lie. You know, you like, you know, I wasn’t there.” It was almost like she was going through the motions: “We went to the China diamond leagues. My head was if I win, I win. If I lose, who cares? That’s not me.” She had her China Diamond League race in April, just around 4 months before the Paris Olympics.

She even concedes she wouldn’t have made it to the Olympic finals if she hadn’t changed something. Her coach, John Coghlan, also realized the 2023 World Championships silver medalist was not right. Jasmine shared, “I just started crying and John’s like, what’s wrong? And I’m like, I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m just not there.”

Camacho felt lost. She couldn’t shake off the sinking feeling. She wanted to get out of this mental state somehow. The 28-year-old continued, “I don’t know what it is. It’s four years in a row because I haven’t really had a break.”Since 2021, Jasmine Camacho-Quinn has been crushing it in the international circuit. In these 4 years, we have seen her participate in 2 Olympics where she got a gold and a bronze.

In 2022 and 2023, there were the World Athletic Championships, where she won the bronze in 2022 and silver in 2023. Other than this, she won the gold medal in the 2023 Central American and Caribbean Games. And this is just skimming the surface. She participated in numerous USATF Grand Prix and Diamond League meets, besides the FBK Games and the Prefontaine Classic.

The list is endless. Maybe she has pushed herself too hard. But this isn’t just her. Track and field athletes are known for their hard games and the stress they cause their bodies too. Camacho herself mentions, “I think from there, that’s when it kind of switched for me… So I had to make some shape then. I wasn’t even in tip-top shape.”

But despite what was likely less than adequate training, she went to Paris. And while she couldn’t secure another gold, she got herself a bronze. Being positive, she mentions, “

I’m grateful. It’s normal for me to be mad because who wants to lose? But the fact that I wasn’t in tip-top shape and I still grabbed the medal, I had to ask myself, Did you give a hundred percent all year?”

The 2024 Diamond League Gold winner said, “I wasn’t myself. I wasn’t moving how I was supposed to move. Like nothing was working for me. The fact that I wasn’t a hundred percent and still was able to grab a medal and barely lost by this much. All right.” That’s true, to be honest. That Paris Olympics women’s 100m hurdles race was a photo finish. 1st placed Masai William clocked 12.33 seconds. And Jasmine Camacho-Quinn? Add 0.03 seconds. Yes, with all her issues, she clocked 12.36 seconds to win the bronze.

Furthermore, do you know her 12.36 seconds at the Paris Olympics were faster than the 12.37 seconds at the Tokyo Olympics for which she got the gold? She now knows what she can do when she is at 100%. That’s her aim—to be at her best when the next competition arrives. But we do not have to wait for long for that.

How has Jasmine recovered since the Olympics and what’s next for the track and field star?

Despite her difficult 2024 Olympics episode, she didn’t fade away. In fact, she has been quite at the top of her game. She clinched her only Diamond League gold at Brussels on September 14. Then, she followed it up with the Athlos Track Meet win on September 26, 2004, defeating her fellow rival Masai Russell in the process.

This rivalry has been going on for a while and it has shaped up nicely, especially with the upcoming Grand Slam Track in 2025. Masai Russell and Jasmine Camacho-Quinn have both signed up for the lucrative Grand Slam Track, announced by sprinting legend

Michael Johnson. Along with Masai and Jasmine will be other stars like Cyréna Samba-Mayela and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone.

Cyréna Samba-Mayela was incidentally the one who clinched the silver medal between Russell and Camacho-Quinn at the Paris 2024. It’s a star-studded affair without a doubt and the winner gets to be the best among the best, just like in the Olympics. Jasmine has trumped Masai 10 times in 11 head-to-head clashes, although the one time Jasmine missed was in the Paris Olympics.

In turn, Jasmine Camacho-Quinn has met Cyréna Samba-Mayela 9 times, coming ahead of the Paris Olympics 100m women’s hurdles silver medalist 6 times. Samba-Mayela has come out to the top of Masai on only 1 occasion. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Jasmine Camacho-Quinn have faced only once in their career, back in 2021.

Participating in the USATF Grand Prix at Eugene, the Puerto Rican finished first while the US sprinter came fourth. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s personal best (PB) in 100m hurdles is 12.65 registered in May 2021, while Jasmine Camacho-Quinn clocked a PB of 12.26 in August 2021. Masai is 0.01 seconds quicker than Jasmine at 12.25, registering it in June 2024. Lastly, Cyréna Samba-Mayela clocked a PB of 12.31 in June 2024. They have a little Mexican standoff going on between themselves and the Grand Slam Track will renew it altogether.