"Pretty Terrible"- Masai Russell opens up on horrifying experience with food at the Paris Olympics

By Janhavi Shinde

Modified Oct 06, 2024 02:05 GMT

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Paris Olympics gold medalist Masai Russell recently shared her unsettling experience with food during the Paris Olympics, sharing light on the troubling situation. She competed in the 100m hurdles during her debut at the Olympic Games in Paris.

The 24-year-old clinched a gold medal in the women's 100m hurdles event after clocking a time of 12.33 seconds. To achieve this feat, she defeated France's Cyrena Samba-Mayela and Puerto Rico's Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, who posted 12.34 and 12.36 seconds, respectively.

Several athletes voiced their dissatisfaction with the food quality during the Olympics, sharing their concerns about nutrition and its impact on their performance. Athletes, including Tara-Davis Woodhall, Hezly Rivera, Aleah Finnegan, Raven Saunders, and Thomas Ceccon expressed their worry about the food and accommodation facility at the Paris Olympic Village.

Joining the chorus of complaints, she pointed out the poor quality of food, describing it as "pretty terrible" during an interview with Pivot podcast. However, she appreciated Team USA's efforts by highlighting the high-performance center they provided, which offered meals twice daily.

"I feel like my perspective is a little different, but what I could speak to was how poor the food was, that it's pretty terrible," Russell said. "But shoutout to Team USA once again they had a high performance center for us where they have meals two times in a day lunch and dinner."

"I can only appreciate and thank my parents" - Masai Russell expresses her gratitude towards her parents for sending her to Bullis School

Masai Russell during the game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Buffalo Bills in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Getty Images)

Masai Russell recently expressed her gratitude towards her parents for sending her to Bullis School.

The American hurdler is a class 2018 passed out from Bullis School. In the same interview, she reflected on when she wasn't fond of moving to a school that was farther away from her place and friends. However, she later realized the contribution of the school to her athletics journey.

"I can only appreciate and thank my parents because you know at a certain age your parents are the ones that direct your steps," Russell said. "Then at a certain point, you know you got to let your kid's wings fly and you know my dad putting me into Bullis, the high school that Quincy Wilson goes to, he doing his thing." (25:06 onwards)

Masai Russell added:

"I didn't want to go to school an hour away from my friend, friends in my area, my predominantly black area that I came from. But, you know it's what I had to do to be here now and it's just really crazy to just look back at all the sacrifices that were made from when I was a young girl."

The Paris Olympics was the only event whichMasai Russell won in 2024. After this, she finished fourth in the Silesia Diamond League and followed this up with a runner-up finish at the Rome Diamond League.

Russell then came third at the Zurich Diamond League before finishing as the runner-up at the Grand Prix Lombardia in Brescia. The 24-year-old ended her season with a third-place finish at the Athlos NYC.