Karsten Warholm (; born 28 February 1996) is a Norwegian
sprinter who competes in the
400 metres
The 400 metres, or 400-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field competitions. It has been featured in the athletics (sport), athletics programme at the Summer Olympics since 1896 for men and since 1964 for women. On a standard outdoor runn ...
and
400 m hurdles. He’s the world record holder in the latter event.
In July 2021, he broke the 29-year-old world record in
400 metres hurdles
The 400 metres hurdles is a track and field hurdling event. The event has been on the Olympic athletics programme since 1900 for men and since 1984 for women.
On a standard outdoor track, 400 metres is the length of the inside lane, once a ...
. The following month at the
2020 Summer Olympics
The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July.
Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...
, he won the gold medal in the
400 metres hurdles
The 400 metres hurdles is a track and field hurdling event. The event has been on the Olympic athletics programme since 1900 for men and since 1984 for women.
On a standard outdoor track, 400 metres is the length of the inside lane, once a ...
with a time of 45.94 seconds, breaking his own world record by over three-quarters of a second.
Warholm has also won gold in the event at the World Championships in
2017
File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...
and
2019
File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...
, as well as the
2018 European
Championships. He is a two-time 400m hurdles
Diamond League
The Diamond League is an annual series of elite track and field athletic competitions comprising fourteen of the best invitational athletics meetings. The series sits in the top tier of the World Athletics (formerly known as the IAAF) one-day mee ...
champion. In 2021, he was voted
World Athletics
World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...
Male Athlete of the Year.
Career
Early career
In March 2013, Warholm won eight gold medals in the Norwegian Youth Indoors Championships.
[Malin Kjellstadli Korsnes and Tore Ellingseter (10 March 2013)]
Karsten Warholm tok åtte NM-gull på tre dagar
NRK
NRK, an abbreviation of the Norwegian ''Norsk Rikskringkasting Aksjeselskap, AS'', generally expressed in English as the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, is the Norwegian government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company, and ...
, retrieved 17 July 2013 In June at the 2013
Bislett Games
The Bislett Games is an annual track and field meeting at the Bislett Stadium in Oslo, Norway. Previously one of the IAAF Golden League events, it is now part of the Diamond League.
History
The first international athletics meeting at Bislet ...
, he competed in the 200 m. He finished seventh in his heat with a time of 22.25 s.
Usain Bolt
Usain St. Leo Bolt, , (; born 21 August 1986) is a retired Jamaican sprinter, widely considered to be the greatest sprinter of all time. He is the world record holder in the 100 metres, 200 metres, and 4 × 100 metres relay.
An eight- ...
won a different heat at the same meet with a time of 19.79 s. At the
2013 World Youth Championships in July, he won gold in the
boys' octathlon with 6451 points, a personal best.
[Kristian Stenerud and Jarle Mordal(11 July 2013)]
17-åring for de store anledninger
''Sunnmørsposten
''Sunnmørsposten'' () is a newspaper published by Polaris Media in Ålesund, Norway.
History and profile
In its early days, ''Sunnmørsposten'' competed with several other local newspapers, including ''Aalesunds Avis'' (1917–1957), '' Aalesu ...
'', retrieved 13 July 2013
In 2014, Warholm competed in the
decathlon
The decathlon is a combined event in Athletics (sport), athletics consisting of ten track and field events. The word "decathlon" was formed, in analogy to the word "pentathlon", from Greek language, Greek δέκα (''déka'', meaning "ten") and ...
as well as in specialised events. At the time, his possible future specialization were the
long jump
The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...
,
hurdling
Hurdling is the act of jumping over an obstacle at a high speed or in a sprint. In the early 19th century, hurdlers ran at and jumped over each hurdle (sometimes known as 'burgles'), landing on both feet and checking their forward motion. Today, ...
and
400 metres
The 400 metres, or 400-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field competitions. It has been featured in the athletics (sport), athletics programme at the Summer Olympics since 1896 for men and since 1964 for women. On a standard outdoor runn ...
. His weakest performances in the decathlon were in the throwing events.
In June 2014, Warholm set a Norwegian junior record in the 400 m with a time of 46.31 s.
In July 2015, he won silver in the 400 m at the
2015 European Junior Championships with a time of 46.50 s, 0.02 s behind
Benjamin Lobo Vedel
Benjamin Lobo Vedel (born 23 September 1997) is a professional track and field sprinter specialising in the 400 metres and competes for Denmark. He currently trains in Aarhus, Denmark. He is the national record holder on both the 200m and 400m i ...
. He also won silver in the decathlon with 7764 points, a personal best.
In July 2016, while participating in the semi-final of the 400 m hurdles at the
2016 European Championships, he broke the Norwegian national record with a time of 48.84 s. He then
finished sixth in the final, with a time of 49.82 s. In August, he made it to the
semi-finals in the 400 m hurdles at the
2016 Summer Olympics
The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...
.
World champion title
In July 2017, he won gold in the 400 m hurdles at the
2017 European U23 Championships, setting a
championship record of 48.37 s. He also won silver in the 400 m with a time of 45.75 s. In August, he
won gold in the 400 m hurdles at the
2017 World Championships with a time of 48.35 s. Two weeks after his success at the World Championships, he improved upon his own
Norwegian record in the 400 m hurdles with a time of 48.22 s at the 2017
Weltklasse Zürich
Weltklasse Zürich ( en, World Class Zurich) is an annual, invitation-only, world-class track and field meeting at the Letzigrund in Zürich, Switzerland, generally held at the end of August or beginning of September. Previously one of the IAAF G ...
.
![Karsten Warholm 2018 European Athletics Championships Day 4 (34) (cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/Karsten_Warholm_2018_European_Athletics_Championships_Day_4_%2834%29_%28cropped%29.jpg)
At the
2018 European Championships Warholm won the gold medal in the 400 metres hurdles event with a time of 47.64 s, setting his new personal best and the new
European U23 record.
In March, Warholm won gold in the 400 m at the
2019 European Athletics Indoor Championships
The 2019 European Athletics Indoor Championships was held between 1 and 3 March 2019 at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, Scotland. This was the second time this event was held in the city after the 1990 edition and the third time it was held in the ...
. His time of 45.05 s equalled the
European record set by
Thomas Schönlebe
Thomas Schönlebe (born 6 August 1965) is a retired East German track and field athlete who competed in the 400 metres. He won the gold medal at the 1987 World Championships. In that race, he set a European record of 44.33 seconds which still ...
in 1988. In June, at the Oslo Bislett Games he broke the European men's 400 m hurdles record with a time of 47.33. At the
Müller Anniversary Games
The London Athletics Meet, formerly known as the London Grand Prix and subsequently as the Anniversary Games and London Diamond League, is an annual athletics event held in London, England.
Previously one of the five IAAF Super Grand Prix events, ...
in July, Warholm improved on his 400 m hurdles time, taking it to 47.12 s. At
Weltklasse Zurich in August, Warholm set a new European record in the 400 m hurdles, with a time of 46.92, making him the third person to run under 47 seconds for the distance. He was chased to the finish line by
Rai Benjamin
Rai Benjamin (born July 27, 1997) is an American professional hurdler and sprinter specializing in the 400 m and 400 m hurdles. He is the second fastest man in history in the 400 m hurdles with a personal best time of 46.17 ...
, who became the fourth person to break 47 seconds, with a time of 46.98.
At the
2019 World Athletics Championships
The 2019 IAAF World Athletics Championships () was the seventeenth edition of the biennial, global athletics competition organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), since renamed World Athletics. It was held betw ...
in
Doha
Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor, it is home to most of the coun ...
,
Qatar
Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...
, he won the 400 m hurdles in a time of 47.42 seconds, retaining his championship from 2017.
On 11 June, Warholm competed in the Impossible Games in
Bislett Stadion
Bislett Stadium ( no, Bislett stadion) is a sports stadium in Oslo, Norway. Bislett is Norway's most well known sports arena internationally, with 15 speed skating world records and more than 50 track and field world records having been set here ...
(
Oslo
Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...
,
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
). He ran the
300 metres hurdles with a
world best
A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organization ...
time of 33.78, besting
Chris Rawlinson
Christopher "Chris" Lee Rawlinson (born 19 May 1972) is a former track and field athlete who competed in the 400 metre hurdles.
He also appeared in the 1995 series of the TV series ''Gladiators''.
After trying the pole vault, decathlon and ...
's time of 34.48 set in 2002. He also ran 400 m indoors with a time of 45.97. On 23 August in Stockholm, Warholm ran a personal best of 46.87, narrowly missing Kevin Young's world record of 46.78. With this performance, Warholm became the first person to break 47 seconds twice.
World records and Olympic title
On 1 July 2021, in his first race of the season at
Bislett Stadium
Bislett Stadium ( no, Bislett stadion) is a sports stadium in Oslo, Norway. Bislett is Norway's most well known sports arena internationally, with 15 speed skating world records and more than 50 track and field world records having been set here ...
in
Oslo
Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...
, Warholm broke
Kevin Young's 1992 world record with a time of 46.70 s.
Warholm later broke his own record by 0.76 seconds in the
2020 Olympic Games, winning gold in a new world record of 45.94 s, an enormous 1.63% improvement on the previous record – the previous improvement of that magnitude was either
David Hemery
David Peter Hemery, (born 18 July 1944) is a British former track and field athlete, best known as the winner of the 400 metres hurdles at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City.
Early life
Hemery was born in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, but ...
's 0.82 s improvement to 48.12 s in 1968 (1.68%, using
fully automatic time
Fully automatic time (abbreviated FAT) is a form of race timing in which the clock is automatically activated by the starting device, and the finish time is either automatically recorded, or timed by analysis of a photo finish. The system is c ...
), or
Glenn Davis's 0.9 s improvement to 49.5 s in 1956 (1.79%, by official records including hand timing by the rules in place at the time).
Warholm became the first European to win the event since
Volker Beck in
1980
Events January
* January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission.
* January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC.
* January 9 – ...
. Warholm's time, the first sub-46 s time for the 400m hurdles, was faster than 18 runners in the
men's 400m without hurdles.
The silver medalist in the final,
Rai Benjamin
Rai Benjamin (born July 27, 1997) is an American professional hurdler and sprinter specializing in the 400 m and 400 m hurdles. He is the second fastest man in history in the 400 m hurdles with a personal best time of 46.17 ...
, also beat the old record, with a time of 46.17 s; the bronze medalist,
Alison dos Santos
Alison Brendom Alves dos Santos (born 3 June 2000) is a Brazilian athlete specialising in the 400 metres hurdles. He is a bronze medalist at the 2020 Olympic Games, the 2022 World Champion and the third fastest athlete in the history of the e ...
, was 0.02 seconds short of the old world record with a time of 46.72 s, but joined the other two in bettering the old Olympic record of 46.78 s. Warholm broke the old record without using the new "super spikes" worn by many of his competitors; Warholm has criticized those spikes as "bullshit".
Career statistics
![DOH10094 warholm reeksen 400H (48910953616)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/DOH10094_warholm_reeksen_400H_%2848910953616%29.jpg)
*Information from
World Athletics
World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...
profile.
Personal bests
International championship results
Circuit wins and titles
*
Diamond League
The Diamond League is an annual series of elite track and field athletic competitions comprising fourteen of the best invitational athletics meetings. The series sits in the top tier of the World Athletics (formerly known as the IAAF) one-day mee ...
champion 400 m hurdles (2):
2019
File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...
,
2021
File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...
.
::(400 m hurdles wins, other events specified in parenthesis)
:*
2017
File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...
(2):
Oslo
Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...
,
Stockholm
Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
:*
2018
File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...
(1):
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
:*
2019
File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...
(5):
Stockholm
Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
,
Oslo
Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...
, London,
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
,
Zürich
Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...
:*
2020
2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...
Monaco
Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...
, Stockholm (400 m & 400 m hurdles),
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
:*
2021
File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...
(3): Oslo, Monaco, Zürich
Personal life
Warholm was born in the town of
Ulsteinvik
is a town in the municipality of Ulstein, Møre og Romsdal, Norway. The town is the commercial and administrative centre of Ulstein and as such, Ulsteinvik contains 74% of the municipality's population. The town has a population (2018) of 5,78 ...
on Norway's western coast.
Warholm is in a relationship with girlfriend Oda Djupvik.
He enjoys fishing, cars, and building Lego.
References
External links
*
*
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Warholm, Karsten
1996 births
Living people
People from Ulstein
Norwegian decathletes
Norwegian male hurdlers
Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Olympic athletes of Norway
World Athletics Championships athletes for Norway
European Athletics Rising Star of the Year winners
European Athletics Championships winners
World Athletics Championships winners
Diamond League winners
Norwegian Athletics Championships winners
Track & Field News Athlete of the Year winners
European Athlete of the Year winners
European Athletics Indoor Championships winners
Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics
Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics
Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field)
Olympic gold medalists for Norway
Sportspeople from Møre og Romsdal
World Athletics record holders