It took a dramatic dive by Shaunae Miller of Bahamas at the finish line to win the women’s 400-meter final, preventing American Allyson Felix from capturing a record fifth Olympic gold medal.
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Miller lost against Felix in the 400 meters at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing.
The Los Angeles Times reported that no one initially knew who won the race, and that the crowd paused until Miller’s name appeared on the scoreboard as the victor.
Although Felix’s silver medal put her ahead of Jackie Joyner-Kersee as the most-decorated female American in Olympic track and field history, Allyson seemed too hurt by the loss against Miller to speak about the accomplishment.
“I’ve never done it before”, Miller said of her dive.
What was in my mind was I had to get a gold medal.
Two weeks later, her grandfather passed away right before she headed to Rio – to say 2016 has been full of heartache is an understatement.
The youngster claimed that her instincts kicked in as she dived for victory and her first Olympic medal. It is the first for the Lady Bulldogs since Hyleas Fountain won the silver medal in the heptathlon in 2008. “I don’t know kind of what happened”, she said.
For beating Allyson Felix, Shaunae Miller gets a gold medal. “I just gave it my all”.
As Miller, who formerly competed for University of Georgia, lay on her back, gasping for breath and maybe even stunned herself at what she’d done, Felix sat on the ground stone-faced.
Ppl are mad Miller won with a dive but most pro’s at one point have used that tactic to win.
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During the 400-meter race, United States of America track and field athlete David Neville dove into the finish line to win the bronze and narrowly beating Bahamian athlete Chris Brown by 0.04 seconds. While that is an accomplishment on its own, it also makes it clear that this was her last shot to win the gold in this event.
