Steven Gardiner of the Bahamas won the 400m Olympic gold medal becoming the first male athlete from this island country to win the most prestigious Olympic award.
The 25-year-old ran a season best 43.85 finishing ahead of Colombia’s Anthony Jose Zambrano with 44.08 and the 2012 Olympic champion Kirani James from Grenada who ran 44.19.
With this victory, Gardiner added the Olympic gold to the 2019 World Championship gold on 400 meters.
Gardiner is not only the first male gold medalist for the Bahamas at the Olympics, but he is also just the second Bahamian to take back-to-back World and Olympic victories in athletics, joining Tonique Williams who accomplished that feat in 2004 in Athens and 2005 in Helsinki.
Gardiner was absolutely dominant during the race with his upright running style and even looked to ease up near the finish line to become Olympic champion.
“I’m ecstatic, and I’m proud to be the one to do it,” said Gardiner. “All of my hard work has paid off. It’s all about who crosses the finish line first and I was able to do that. I just wanted to make everyone proud and myself also. It’s all done and the pressure is now off my shoulders.”
“It feels amazing. My first Olympic Games didn’t go well for me but this one here, I’m cherishing this moment. Olympic champion,” Gardiner said.
“When the gun went off I stumbled a bit coming out, but I recovered, I kept it moving, and with 200m to go, I started to push a little bit. And 100m to go, I gave it all I’ve got.”
“I came across the line and saw my name on the big screen and I was in the first place. I’m just happy.”
