Jasmine Camacho-Quinn won first place in the women’s 100m hurdle on Monday — Puerto Rico’s first-ever gold medal in track and field.
The 24-year-old athlete redeemed herself five years after she was disqualified from the Olympics when she crashed into a hurdle.
She beat Team USA’s Keni Harrison by .15 seconds in a historic upset that shattered Harrison’s previous world record in the event and made her the second Puerto Rican athlete in history to win a gold medal.
“It really means a lot,” Camacho-Quinn said following the win.
“This year I trained really hard. I don’t have a training partner, I train by myself, so I gave it all I had and this is what I wanted for this year. I wanted to be a gold medalist and I got it.”
Puerto Rico, a US territory, competes under their own flag in the Olympics and while Camacho-Quinn was born in South Carolina and raised in the US, her mother is from the island and the runner wanted to represent her heritage.
“I am pretty sure everybody [in Puerto Rico] is excited,” the athlete said, according to People.
“For such a small [territory] it gives little people hope. I am just glad I am the person to do that.”
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In 2016, Camacho-Quinn failed to advance to the finals in Rio de Janeiro after she crashed into a hurdle and was disqualified from the event.
“I felt embarrassed, like I let the whole country down,” she said previously.
On Monday, she admitted the disqualification still stings and was concerned history would repeat itself in Tokyo.
“It stays with me all the time because I am constantly reminded. Somebody always messages me and says sorry for what happened. Yesterday I kind of had a breakdown because I didn’t want the same thing to happen again,” Camacho-Quinn said.
Despite the pressure that comes with competing in the Olympics, the runner tried to remember what she learned in her practice sessions and keep a clear head.
“I just had to treat every race like there is no difference to any other competition. Just because it’s the Olympics doesn’t mean you should change up something,” the athlete explained.
“I ran my race and what I’ve done in the races is what I always do in practice. I repeated everything.”
With Post wires
