Miller finished her lap around the track in a personal best time of 49.44 seconds.
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But just as it looked like she would reach Olympic glory, Shaunae Miller, of the Bahamas, executed a desperation finish-line dive to edge Felix by seven-hundredths of a second. Exhausted, she laid on the track, breathing heavily, as judges sorted out the photo finish and she was declared the victor.
“It is such an emotional moment for me”.
Former track and field star Lolo Jones took to Twitter to quiet down the people outraged at Miller’s gold medal dive. “I don’t think I ever quite had a year this tough”.
So she did what any of us would claim we’d do in the circumstances, but what few would actually pull off: she dived over the line to win the race.
She stood up to survey the cuts on her arms with a smile on her face, celebrating with the flag of Bahamas, and declared afterwards: “But, hey, I got a medal out of it”.
American hurdler Ryan Wilson made another important point about Shaunae Miller’s win. “Before I came into the race I told myself, “This is the moment I’ve been waiting for” and I just gave it my all”. So in all fairness, Miller did just that.
Even as she dealt with the aftereffects of a lingering ankle injury and a disappointing turn through last month’s USA team trials, there was no stopping Allyson Felix from reaching the medal podium.
“She gave everything she had and her legs gave out at the line”. “I didn’t really have too many thoughts on it”. I just really wanted it.
As Miller lay on her back, gasping for breath and maybe even stunned herself at what she’d done, Felix sat on the ground stone-faced.
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There is a precedent for a runner diving across the finish line to take an Olympic medal: American David Neville did it in Beijing in 2008 to take a bronze in the 400-metre final.
