Rai Benjamin (born July 27, 1997) is an American professional

hurdler 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 sprinter specializing in the 400 m and

400 m 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 ar ...

. He is the second fastest man in history in the 400 m hurdles with a personal best time of 46.17 s. He won a silver medal at his first

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...

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and at the

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in the men's 400 m hurdles, and gold medals in the relay at the same competitions. In college Benjamin ran for the

UCLA Bruins The UCLA Bruins are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Los Angeles. The Bruin men's and women's teams participate in NCAA Division I as part of the Pac-12 Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) ...

and then the

USC Trojans The USC Trojans are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Southern California (USC), located in Los Angeles, California. While the men's teams are nicknamed the ''Trojans'', the women's athletic teams are referred ...

, where in early 2018 he was part of the team that set the world best time in the indoor relay with a time of 3:00.77. At the time, his relay split time of 44.35 s was the fastest ever recorded in an indoor race. In June of the same year he also helped set the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

record in the same event but outdoors, and ran what was at the time the second fastest 400 m hurdles race of all-time in 47.02 s.

Early life and career

Rai Benjamin, from

Mount Vernon High School (New York) Mount Vernon High School (MVHS) is a public high school in the Chester Heights section of the City of Mount Vernon in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is part of the Mount Vernon City School District. The current Mount Vernon High ...

, was the fastest 2015 prep time in the

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in the 400m hurdles with a time of 49.97, fastest 400 m indoor time in the country with a 46.59 and the third fastest outdoor time 46.19. Benjamin won the 2015 New York Indoor State meet with a national leading time of 33.17 in the 300 meters. He was a three-time New York State Public High School Athletic Association champion in the 400m hurdles. He was the 2015 New Balance 400 meters National Champion and the 2015 New Balance Outdoor 400-meter hurdles National Champion. Just after completing his second year, he represented Antigua and Barbuda at the 2013 World Youth Championships. Just after graduating, he won a silver medal in the 400 meters at the 2015 CARIFTA Games. Benjamin wanted to run for the USA, since he was born in New York, but at the 2013 World Youth Championships in Athletics, he represented Antigua in the

. In 2017, the IAAF suspended all transfers of allegiance, meaning Benjamin could not represent the United States until transfers were reinstated in summer 2018. In October 2018, Benjamin's transfer request was approved, allowing him to represent the United States abroad and compete in USATF Championship events. At the 2018

Meeting Areva Meeting de Paris (formerly known as the Meeting Areva and Meeting Gaz de France) is an annual track and field meeting at the Stade Sébastien Charléty in Paris, France. Previously one of the IAAF Golden League events, it is now part of the Diamon ...

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, he ran 19.99 in the 200 meters to take .65 of a second off his previous personal best. He became the 72nd person to break 20 seconds, in what is perhaps his third best event on the track. At the 2019 Mt. SAC Relays, that year at

El Camino College El Camino College (Elco or ECC) is a two-year public community college located in the unincorporated area of Los Angeles County known as Alondra Park.Torrance, California Torrance is a city in the Los Angeles metropolitan area located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city is part of what is known as the South Bay region of the metropolitan area. Torrance has of beachfront on the Pacific O ...

, Benjamin joined his training partner and previous college teammate, Michael Norman running the 400 meters. Benjamin ran his personal best of 44.31, the 50th best time in history behind Norman's 43.45, which turned out to be the fastest 400 run in the 2019 season and tied him as the 4th fastest of all time.

College career

Benjamin is a three-time

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athletic ...

track champion. As a college student-athlete, Benjamin earned three Pac-12 conference titles, one

Mountain Pacific Sports Federation The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) is a college athletic conference with members located mostly in the western United States, although it now has members as far east as Pennsylvania. The conference participates at the NCAA Division I ...

title, and eight

All-America The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...

honors (five outdoor, three indoor). Benjamin's All-America honors were for these accomplishments: * 2016 indoor, as part of a seventh-place team finish in the indoors

distance medley relay The distance medley relay (DMR) is an athletic event in which four athletes compete as part of a relay. With its inclusion in the IAAF World Relays program, the IAAF announced on May 1, 2015 that the event would be an official world record event. ...

, with a time of 9:34.9. * 2016 outdoor, for a sixth-place finish in the

400-meter 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 ar ...

in 49.82. * 2017 outdoor, for a second-place finish in the 400-meter hurdles in 48.33, and as part of a team finish of 39.89 in the 4x100m relay. * 2018 indoor, for a third-place finish in the 200m, and as part of a team that set a college indoor track record of 3:00.77 in the 4x400m relay. * 2018 outdoor, as part of a team that won the 4x400m relay in 2:59.00, and for a college record time of 47.02 in the 400m hurdles. His time equalled

Edwin Moses Edwin Corley Moses (born August 31, 1955) is an American former track and field athlete who won gold medals in the 400 m hurdles at the 1976 and 1984 Olympics. Between 1977 and 1987, Moses won 107 consecutive finals (122 consecutive races) and ...

's for the second fastest time in history.

Personal life

Benjamin is the son of

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

international and Antiguan

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

Winston Benjamin Winston Keithroy Matthew Benjamin (born 31 December 1964) is a former Antiguan cricketer who played 21 Tests and 85 One Day Internationals for the West Indies. He is also the father of world champion athlete Rai Benjamin. Domestic career Ben ...

Statistics

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 fo ...

profile unless otherwise noted.

Personal bests

International championship results

Circuit wins

* Diamond League (400 m hurdles) **

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** Stanford:

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 count ...

* World Indoor Tour (300 m) **

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

: 2019

National championship results

*NCAA results from Track & Field Results Reporting System.

Seasonal bests

Notes

References

External links

* * * (USC) * (UCLA)
Rai Benjamin
bio at

Rai Benjamin
bio at

Videos

Michael Norman and Rai Benjamin at Mt SAC Relays 2019
via MyStyle Records on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

Michael Norman 19.84 Wins Men's 200m – IAAF Diamond League Paris 2018
via

IAAF 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 ...

(Rai Benjamin 2nd in 19.99) {{DEFAULTSORT:Benjamin, Rai 1997 births Living people American male hurdlers American male sprinters African-American male track and field athletes Sportspeople from Mount Vernon, New York Track and field athletes from New York (state) United States collegiate record holders in athletics (track and field) UCLA Bruins men's track and field athletes USC Trojans men's track and field athletes World Athletics Championships athletes for the United States World Athletics Championships medalists World Athletics Championships winners USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships winners Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the United States in track and field Olympic silver medalists for the United States in track and field 21st-century African-American sportspeople Mount Vernon High School (New York) alumni