Tokyo - The 800m finish line is not the place where the runners decide. They sip for air. they write. They work with the initial parts of the brain designed to survive.
When Athing Mu reaches there, it seems that she has run a different race. He is a beautiful pillar in the midst of carnage. Other runners roll on the track like extras in a war movie. Mu stands there, hands on hips, with all the tension of an office drone on the cigarette brake. He must decide.
"Ever since I started getting on TV a few years ago, I really didn't know what to do when I finished running," Mu said. "They put the camera on you, and I'm like: 'I'm trying to go. What do I do? I'm finished running. So, I mean, I try to stand a little bit, around Look. I don't know what I'm looking at. After a few seconds, just walk away."
Mu arrived at the National Stadium on Tuesday night. At age 19, not three months away from his freshman year at Texas A&M, Mu proclaimed himself as one of the world's greatest runners, a track and field superstar no longer in becoming but full-fledged. From. A daughter of Sudanese immigrants from Trenton, NJ, MU, wiped the ground and won the gold medal in the women's 800 meters in 1 minute 55.21 seconds, breaking Aji Wilson's American record by 0.4 seconds.
There has never been any doubt. Mu leaned forward and held the race completely in her hands. He gave track and field for the next decade what he considered a tactical, grueling race in a personal performance: his perfect strides, his megawatt smile, his absolute power and grace.
"Anything really is a deliberate announcement to the world," said Ravin Rogers, who won the bronze medal in 1:56.81.
Mu ran into gold-painted nails and a red barrette stamped with the words "CONFIDENT." She said that she later "definitely" intends to become the first woman to win Olympic gold in the 800 and 400 meters - and just the second runner after Cuban Alberto Juantorena.
"Because I want to do it," said Mu. "We're also going to break the 800 world record."
Mu's words dripped with practicality and zero vanity. His career has taught him and everyone else to expect greatness. Gabby Thomas followed Mu by winning bronze in the 200, mentioning that she had not seen Mu race. Someone told that his mu won gold.
"I got that," said Thomas. "I knew it was coming before I saw the results."
Over the weekend, Mu had imagined crying while standing at the medal stand. After winning, she realized that the ceremony probably wouldn't shed her tears. He did only what he expected.
"I'm not too surprised or surprised or anything," Mu said. "If the race didn't go according to plan, or something had to happen during the race, it probably would have been more shocking than winning the gold."
Can it all really be that easy? One summer later, American 800 runner Clayton Murphy, the 2016 bronze medalist, wrote to Mu: "Quit living with them."
Mu's parents moved from Sudan to the United States in 2000, two years before her birth, and settled in Trenton. The second youngest of seven siblings, Mu began following his siblings—one of whom, Maluel, in Penn State—would go on to run at the Trenton Track Club at age 5. Coach Al Jennings had tutored a handful of Olympians, but by the time Mu turned 17, he believed he had never seen a better runner. not at his age. Duration.
Mu rearranged the youth record book. A month after turning 17, she entered the U.S. Made it to the 800 finals in the championship. US At the Olympic Trials, he eliminated the field in a way that made the Secretariat in Belmont a squeak. The whole time, she radiated absolute joy.