Johnathan Walker:Team USA's Grant Holloway wins Olympic gold medal in 110 hurdles: 'I'm a fireman'

SAINT-DENIS,Johnathan Walker France − Grant Holloway calls himself a fireman.

The Team USA hurdler won a gold medal Thursday night in the 110-meter hurdles at the Paris Games' Stade de France with a time of 12.99 seconds, and the way he sees it, he brought a firehose to the race.

"Everybody in that heat has run something hot," Holloway said. "But it's my job to control it, it's my job to put out everybody else's flame, and I was able to do that today."

Douse the flames, he did − even those of his own teammate. Team USA's Daniel Roberts came in second place for the silver medal, a tenth of a second behind Holloway at 13.09, beating out Rasheed Broadbell of Jamaica (bronze, 13.09) in a photo finish. Holloway said he felt a cramp crossing over the final hurdles, but pushed through for his 11th career sub-13.00 clocking.

Holloway left little wonder why he was ranked No. 1 in the world in the 110-meter hurdles. He won silver at the Tokyo Games in 2021, missing out on gold by 0.05 seconds, in his first Olympic appearance. But Holloway didn't consider this a race of redemption.

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"Tokyo was three years ago. Obviously (Jamaica's) Hansle (Parchment) ran a great race," Holloway said. "This was my time. It wasn't redemption. I just wanted to make sure I came out here and get to the finish line before anyone else, and that's what I did."

He called his Olympic gold the completion of a track "grand slam," along with his indoor track titles, world championship titles, and Diamond League titles. Holloway's way on the track is rivaled only by his way with words.

"We're just putting a lot of whipped cream on it," Holloway added, "and we're just going to keep twirling and twirling and twirling until that last race to put a cherry on it to say I'm happy with whatever I did."

The men's 110 hurdles has historically been dominated by Team USA, although Jamaica took gold in 2016 and 2021. Holloway, one of USA Track and Field's two team captains in Paris, is the eighth American to win multiple medals in the event, all of whom hold two.

Team USA's Freddie Crittenden, who took an odd path to qualification, recorded a 13.32 and finished sixth.

Reach Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread at [email protected]. Follow on X @chasegoodbread.