What to know in regards to the Dominican sprinter – NBC New York

Dominican sprinter Marileidy Paulino has her eyes on the prize: to win the gold medal within the girls’s 400-meter closing on the 2024 Paris Olympics Friday afternoon.

Paulino dominated the qualifying spherical and the semi-final to turn into a prime contender for the ultimate. In each occasions, it was notable how Paulino slowed down within the metres earlier than the end line.

If Paulino wins the gold medal, she is going to turn into the primary Olympian to take gold since Félix Sánchez in London 2012, when he dominated the 400m hurdles.

Paulino got here near taking gold in Tokyo, however needed to accept silver within the particular person occasion and within the blended 4x400m relay.

“Whether it is crucial (to interrupt the document) to win the gold medal, I’ll do it,” Paulino stated.

The Olympic document for the ladies’s 400m belongs to the French Marie-José Pérec, who clocked 48.25 in Atlanta 1996. The world document of 47.60 has been held by the German Marita Koch since 1985.

With out the reigning Olympic champion from the Bahamas, Shaunae Miller-Uibo, the Bahraini sprinter Salwa Eid Nasser, who was world champion in Doha 2019, is a prime rival for Paulino. Nasser clocked the very best time within the semi-finals (49.08). One other rival is the Polish Natalia Kacz Marek.

The 27-year-old, the second youngest of six siblings, has no sporting background within the household, in accordance to her official Olympics biography. She grew up taking part in pick-up sports activities in her native Don Gregorio, positioned an hour away from Santo Domingo.

Her athletic skills have been observed when she was 18 and taking part in handball. In keeping with the Olympics.com, it was at the moment that the nation’s sports activities minister observed her expertise and she or he was recruited to the athletics federation.

Paulino was finally supplied a month-to-month wage to hitch the Dominican Air Pressure as a observe and area athlete, a sport she began to actually dedicate and focus her time on in 2015.

Though she began out as a 100m and 200m sprinter, she moved to 400m in 2020.

“I began operating barefoot, then wore socks, trainers after which borrowed spikes till I used to be in a position to purchase a pair,” she beforehand advised Olympics.com. 

Paulino was chosen as a flag bearer for the Dominican Republic within the 2024 Paris Olympics.

American Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone obliterated her personal world document within the girls’s 400-meter hurdles, retaining her Olympic title with a time of fifty.37 seconds.