His athletic identity is a complex intertwining of numerous connections. He is simultaneously an individual competitor and a loyal team player, an American star and the son of Caribbean parents. Rai Benjaminis an American track and field athlete, one of the world’s strongest competitors in the 400-meter hurdles and the sprint over the same distance. But few know that one of the stepping stones to the sporting Olympus for him was Donetsk, Ukraine. Read on i-new-york.com for this and other interesting facts from the life of the New York champion.
From Antigua to the American Dream
Rai Benjamin was born in Mount Vernon, New York, into a family with strong athletic roots. His father, Winston Benjamin, was a famous West Indies cricketer who was part of a legendary team that remained undefeated for eight years. From his father, Rai inherited not only speed and endurance but also a thirst for competition—a trait that defined his career on the track.
Even as a high school student, the young man was collecting medals at New York State competitions, setting records in the 300 and 400-meter hurdles. His times—49.97 in the 400m hurdles and 46.19 in the outdoor 400m—made Rai one of the country’s most promising young athletes. However, the path to the international level was far from easy.
At 15, Rai made his first appearance on the world stage, representing not the U.S. but Antigua and Barbuda at the World Youth Championships in Donetsk. Although it was a thrilling experience, he remembers feeling isolated among a foreign team.
“I saw the athletes from the U.S. supporting each other, and I realized that was what I was missing,” he recalls.
It was then that the dream of competing for Team USA was born. The transition process turned out to be long: two seasons of waiting, dozens of documents, and moments of doubt. Finally, sitting in Spanish class at eight in the morning, Rai received a fateful letter—his transfer was approved.
“That was the moment that changed everything. I became part of the team I dreamed of,” says Benjamin.
Today, Rai Benjamin is not just an Olympic medalist and a world champion, but a symbol of two cultures, two homelands. This is the story of a boy who started as a lonely teenager in Donetsk and became the face of a new generation of American track and field.
University Legend
When Rai Benjamin first stepped onto the collegiate track, no one suspected that a few years later he would rewrite the history of university sports. Even in his freshman year, Rai demonstrated clean technique, confidence, and incredible fluidity of motion. But his true breakthrough came after transferring to the University of Southern California (USC)—a place where champions are born.
In 2017, Benjamin became a sensation at the Pac-12 conference, winning the 400-meter hurdles (49.52) and taking silver at the NCAA Championships (48.33). He transformed running into an art form: rhythmic, fluid, yet powerful, as if every stride were meticulously planned.
But 2018 was the climax—the moment Rai Benjamin stopped being just a student-athlete and became a legend. He won the NCAA Championships with a record time of 47.02 seconds in the 400m hurdles—a result that tied him with the great Edwin Moses and became the second-fastest time in history. That same year, he helped the USC team set a record in the 4x400m relay—2:59.00, one of the fastest relays of all time.
His indoor performances were also stunning: third place in the 200m (20.34), victory in the 400m (45.94), and a record relay time of 3:00.77—these were moments when Rai seemed to transcend human limitations.
Throughout his collegiate career, Benjamin became a three-time NCAA Champion, an eight-time All-American, and a holder of numerous Pac-12 titles.
USC gave him not just knowledge and a diploma, but the wings from which he soared into the world of major track and field.
Achieving World Fame
When Rai Benjamin left the USC collegiate track, he was already more than just a student-athlete. Rai entered the professional world not as a newcomer but as a future star, with an aura of calm, confidence, and that particular elegance reserved for the chosen few.
After turning pro in 2018, Benjamin immediately made his presence known. Paris, summer heat, a packed stadium—and he conquered the 200 meters in 19.99 seconds, becoming one of the few in the world to “break” the 20-second barrier. He also began training under Bob Kersee—a legendary coach who once guided Florence Griffith-Joyner and Jackie Joyner-Kersee.
2019 was the year of his debut at the World Championships in Doha. Anxiety, long training sessions, late-night starts, and his first major silver medal. His time of 47.66 seconds in the 400m hurdles placed him behind only the Norwegian Karsten Warholm. With Team USA, Rai won gold in the 4x400m relay. Thus began the new rivalry of the decade—Benjamin versus Warholm: speed versus endurance, technique versus raw power.
August 3, 2021. The final of the Tokyo Olympics. 46.17 seconds—it was a race where no hurdle seemed like an obstacle. Rai finished second, just tenths of a second behind Warholm, but the way he ran became a benchmark for technique. After Tokyo, Rai Benjamin couldn’t be stopped. In 2022 in Eugene, he won silver again, almost perfectly mirroring the previous result. But in 2023 in Budapest, his moment arrived—his first World Championship gold. It became clear then—Benjamin isn’t just following the greats; he has become part of their pantheon.
In parallel, Rai dominates on home turf—winning the USATF National Championships six years in a row, setting standards for new generations of sprinters. His victories in the Diamond League events are impressive: Monaco, Rome, Stockholm, Zurich—each start transforms into a master class in precision.
2024: The Season of Surrender and Victory
The 2024 season for Rai Benjamin was more than just another stage—it was a year of reset, reevaluation, and true revitalization. He started the season with a decision that changed everything: going to his coach Joanna Hayes and honestly saying, “I want to enjoy competing again.” And she understood. Together with the team, they created a new approach that left no room for fear or overstrain. Benjamin calls it his “season of surrender”—a moment when he allowed himself just to be, to trust the process, and to stop trying to control everything around him.
One of the main challenges was the decision to skip the Prefontaine Classic. For an athlete of his caliber, this sounded highly unusual. But Rai felt that if he started with an injured quadriceps, he risked the entire season. And he did the unthinkable—he said “no.” The decision was not easy, but it saved his form. By July, at the Diamond League event in Monaco, he was back to his old self—winning and feeling completely confident for the first time in a long time before the main start of the year.
At the Olympic Games in Paris, Rai was unbeatable. His 400-meter hurdles were a masterpiece of technique, power, and cold calculation. But the true culminating moment was the 4×400-meter relay. He ran the anchor leg, the one that decides everything. The stadium roared. In the final meters, he had no energy left, but he pushed toward the finish line, whispering:
“Please, God, just get me to the line.”
When he crossed it, it was more than a victory. It was liberation. For Benjamin, that medal meant more than personal gold. Because it represented not just his speed, but trust, brotherhood, and team synchronicity.
“We weren’t just running for each other,” he said later. “We were running for the whole country.”
Returning home, Rai won the U.S. National Championship, demonstrating not just speed but maturity. He was no longer rushing, panicking, or reacting to others’ paces. When Caleb Dean surged ahead, Benjamin remained calm. He knew the opponent would “burn out” after the sixth hurdle. And he waited for his moment—precise, cold, like a shot. This was the kind of experience that transforms an athlete into a master.
Off the track, Rai lives just as actively. In 2024, he launched the podcast “Beyond the Records” alongside Noah Lyles and Grant Holloway, where athletes speak candidly about life outside of competition. In his free time, Benjamin rides his bike through the streets of Los Angeles—not for training, but just to feel the movement, the freedom, and the same wind that once accompanied him at his first starts.
He has become a symbol of balance between mind and body, speed and serenity. His hurdles are not just segments of the track but metaphors for life: sometimes you have to stop so you can run farther than ever before.