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

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 ...

and at the World Championships in

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 ...

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 and then the USC Trojans, 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 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), was the fastest 2015 prep time in the United States 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 The New York State Public High School Athletic Association (NYSPHSAA) is the governing body of interscholastic sports for most public schools in New York outside New York City.http://www.nysphsaa.org/ ''nysphsaa.org'', accessed 15-JAN-2008. Th ...

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 The 2015 CARIFTA Games took place between 3 and 6 April 2015. The event was held at the Silver Jubilee Stadium in Bird Rock, south-eastern suburb of Basseterre, Saint Kitts and Nevis. During the games, the stadium was officially renamed the "K ...

. Benjamin wanted to run for the USA, since he was born in New York, but at the

2013 World Youth Championships in Athletics The 2013 World Youth Championships in Athletics was the eighth edition of the biennial international athletics competition for youth (under-18) athletes. The five-day competition took place between 10 and 14 July at the RSC Olimpiyskiy stadium in ...

, he represented

Antigua Antigua ( ), also known as Waladli or Wadadli by the native population, is an island in the Lesser Antilles. It is one of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region and the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua and Bar ...

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 in Paris, 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 The Mt. SAC Relays are an annual track and field festival held primarily at Hilmer Lodge Stadium on the Mt. San Antonio College campus in Walnut, California. The Relays are held in mid-April each year since the first edition held on April 24-25, 1 ...

, that year at El Camino College in Torrance, California, 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

track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...

champion. As a college student-athlete, Benjamin earned three

Pac-12 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

conference titles, one Mountain Pacific Sports Federation title, and eight NCAA Division I All-America 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, 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 Summer Olympics, Olympic athletics (sport), athletics programme since 1900 Summer Olympics, 1900 for men and since 1984 Summer Olympics, 1984 for women. On a s ...

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 The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a Sprint (running), sprint running event. On an outdoor 400 metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run th ...

, and as part of a team that set a college indoor track record of 3:00.77 in the

4x400m relay Four-wheel drive, also called 4×4 ("four by four") or 4WD, refers to a two-axled vehicle drivetrain capable of providing torque to all of its wheels simultaneously. It may be full-time or on-demand, and is typically linked via a transfer case ...

. * 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 The 400 metres hurdles is a track and field hurdling event. The event has been on the Summer Olympics, Olympic athletics (sport), athletics programme since 1900 Summer Olympics, 1900 for men and since 1984 Summer Olympics, 1984 for women. On a s ...

. His time equalled Edwin Moses's for the second fastest time in history.

Personal life

Benjamin is the son of West Indies 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 striki ...

er Winston Benjamin.

Statistics

Information from World Athletics profile unless otherwise noted.

Personal bests

International championship results

Circuit wins

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 ...

(400 m hurdles) ** Rome:

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

** Doha:

* World Indoor Tour (300 m) ** Boston: 2019

National championship results

*NCAA results from Track & Field Results Reporting System.

Seasonal bests

Notes

References

External links

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

Videos

Michael Norman and Rai Benjamin at Mt SAC Relays 2019
via MyStyle Records on YouTube
Michael Norman 19.84 Wins Men's 200m – IAAF Diamond League Paris 2018
via IAAF Diamond League on YouTube (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