Hurdles Queen

WORLD 400m HURDLES CHAMPION KORI CARTER TELLS STUART WEIR WHY SHE’S SWITCHING TO 100m HURDLES IN 2018 AND ABOUT HER ‘GAME FACE’ POSE FROM LONDON 2017

- Stuart Weir

KORI CARTER’s win the 400m hurdles in London 2017 surprised a few people but not the athlete herself. From not making the US team in Rio to being world champion a year later is quite a story.

Growing up in a family of athletes, she was always into sport. “I pretty much did everything except track and field,” she remembers. “I played soccer, football, basketball and softball.

“I got bored with softball because it was too slow a sport for me and I decided, because I play all these sports, that I would try track and field.

“When I started, I was the multi-event person because I figured that I might as well try all these sports. I was a pentathlete and 800/1500m girl and as I was training for all the events I basically fell in love with hurdles.

“I hated the 800m and I couldn’t care less about the shot and so it progressed until I became a hurdler because I loved the event. That is basically how I started doing track in seventh grade. I thought I was going to be a multi-eventer so I tried all the events and became a hurdler.

“Because of my height, I don’t think anyone would have pushed me towards the hurdles initially.”

She has also always been equally comfortable with 100m and 400m hurdles. Her first international competition was the 2008 World Junior Championships where she ran the 400m hurdles. The following year she was selected for the World Youth Championships and hoped to do both events. But when the schedule made doubling up difficult, she opted for the 100m hurdles and won a silver medal behind Isabelle Pedersen, with whom she has been friends ever since.

Carter says of the two events: “I am one of the few people to have made teams in 100m hurdles and 400m hurdles. I have always been in love with the hurdles.