110 metres Hurdles, Men

The United States’ Grant Holloway was a heavy favorite in the men’s high hurdles. The 2019 World Champion, he had the only sub-13 second time in 2021 and had won the US Olympic Trials with a time just off the world record. His biggest challenger was expected to be Russian Sergey Shubenkov, running for the Russian Olympic Committee team, but he tweaked his Achilles’ tendon warming up for the event and could not start.

The heats only solidified Holloway’s favorite status as he ran 13.02 to win his first-round heat, the fastest ever heat time. Two of the semi-finals were won by Jamaica’s Daniel Levy and American Devon Allen, with Holloway winning the third.

The final was run on a very hot morning and Holloway took off, leading through six hurdles. He then had two overly high clearances and was suddenly challenged by Jamaican Hansle Parchment, who was on nobody’s form chart coming into Tokyo. Holloway still led after nine hurdles, but Parchment had a perfect clearance over the final hurdle and outleaned Holloway for the gold medal, as Levy took the bronze medal.

Parchment had been the bronze medalist in 2012 at London, and won silver at the 2015 World Championships, but had few top results to speak of since that time. He was also fortunate to even make it to the final. Parchment took the wrong bus on the morning of the final and it took him to the wrong venue. He needed to take a taxi to the athletics stadium but had no money on him. An Olympic volunteer, named Tijana Kawashima, loaned him the money for the taxi ride and he made it to the stadium in time to win gold.

The next day, Parchment tracked down Kawashima, re-paid her, showed her his gold medal, and gave her a Jamaican tee-shirt. The Jamaican government also later invited Kawashima and a guest to visit Jamaica for an all-expense paid full week vacation.