The Dominican Republic was celebrating twice as much this Friday after Marileidy Paulino not only won the gold medal in the women’s 400 meters in athletics at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games but also set an Olympic record in the event.
The Dominican athlete was the clear dominator of the final that took place on the track of the Saint-Denis stadium where she managed to finish her course with a time of 48.15, leaving behind the record held by the French Marie-Jose Perec at the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games (48.25).
Behind the Dominican Marileidy Paulino, Salwa Eid Naser from Bahrain crossed the finish line with a time of 48.53, and Natalia Kaczmarek from Poland with a time of 48.98 to take the silver and bronze medals, respectively.
With her victory on Friday in the French capital, Dominican Marileidy Paulino became only the fourth fastest woman in the history of this event, leaving her name in the record books of the Olympic Games.
Marileidy Paulino Made History at the Olympic Games
From the qualifying rounds, Paulino showed overwhelming dominance, controlling both the heats and the semi-final, and consolidating herself as the big favorite for the final. She surprised everyone with her ability to slow down in the final meters of both events, which only underlined her superiority on the track.
With this victory, Paulino broke a streak without gold medals for the Dominican Republic at the Olympic Games, a drought that dates back to London 2012, when Felix Sanchez won the 400-meter hurdles. Paulino had already been close to gold in Tokyo, where she took silver in both her individual event and the mixed 4×400-meter relay.
Before the final, she promised that he would “hit the ground running” on the track, and she more than delivered.
The First Dominican Woman With an Olympic Gold
Marileidy Paulino’s feat of winning the gold medal in the 400 meters of women’s athletics at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games allowed the 27-year-old athlete to join a select group of athletes from the Dominican Republic who had managed to climb to the top of the Olympic podium.
In fact, there are only two athletes in this group, and both are men. The first to achieve this feat was the legendary athlete Felix Sanchez, who won gold in the 400m hurdles in Athens 2004 and then repeated the feat in London 2012.
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Sanchez followed in the footsteps of boxer Felix Diaz, who was proclaimed Olympic champion in the super lightweight division in Beijing in 2008. It took 12 years for an athlete from the Dominican Republic to climb to the top of the Olympic podium again, in this case, Marileidy Paulino.
Dominican Republic Surrendered to Marileidy Paulino
After winning the gold medal in the women’s 400 meters in athletics at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Marileidy Paulino, the Dominican athlete received congratulations from the highest authority in the Caribbean country, President Luis Abinader.
“Marileidy Paulino fills us with pride once again. With her gold in Paris 2024 and an Olympic record of 48:15 seconds, she has elevated the name of the Dominican Republic to the highest level,” the president wrote on his official account on the social X handle( formerly known as Twitter).
