When you’re an elite athlete competing at the highest levels of the sport, people normally assume that you feel at home in the limelight. However, that’s not always true for everyone. While athletes like Noah Lyles love to revel under the spotlights, many others feel more comfortable away from all the attention. And it looks like Masai Russell also had to learn how to handle large crowds in one place.

Russell won her maiden Olympic gold in Paris earlier this year, solidifying her status as an elite hurdler. However, if that makes you believe she enjoys being in the middle of many people, you’d be in over your head. Instead, her experience at a football game was so bad that she hasn’t yet fully recovered from it.

Masai Russell’s turbulent introduction to the NFL

On November 11, the 24-year-old track and field star posted a video on YouTube talking about how life has been since her triumphant Parisian campaign at the 33rd Olympic Games. At one point in the video, Russell shares her outfit of the day with her fans as she explains she is getting ready to head over to a Baltimore Ravens match. She candidly confessed she hadn’t shown up in many NFL games in her life, and noted that it was only the second game she would be attending. But she also remembered her first time in a stadium and how it went.

“I think this is my first, maybe second, NFL game I think,” Russell says and recalls how the first visit went for her and her sibling. “The first one I was really young and I think me and my brother were both throwing up like the whole game,” the Olympian says with a shy grin on her face as her companions for the day express their astonishment at her words.

However, she seems ready to take on the NFL with renewed gusto and goes on to get ready for her upcoming plans. Russell and her girl gang show off their dresses and thankfully, her trip also gave her something to forget about her past dreadful encounter with football.

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Some respite to make her forget the past tryst

On September 29, Russell and her national teammate Quincy Wilson, the youngest gold medalist of the USA in Paris, were hailed at the M&T Bank Stadium at the game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Buffalo Bills. The athletes got special recognition before the game and also met with several stars from the Ravens’ camp.

The happiness on their faces could not be hidden, as both Wilson and Russell beamed gleefully at WNBA star Angel Reese. Masai was spotted sporting a Raven #10 jersey with pride.

Moreover, after the Olympics, Masai also co-headlined Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian’s ambitious project Athlos NYC along with stars like Gabby Thomas, Marie-Josée Ta Lou-Smith, and Nia Akins.

Needless to say, Russell turned quite a lot of heads at the Icahn Stadium, and we hope her career only gains more momentum from here onwards. What new heights would you like to see the Washington native achieve in the coming years? Tell us!