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With the 2024 Paris Olympics now only six months away, preparations are underway for athletics’ biggest showpiece.
One man who will be heavily expected to win gold this upcoming summer is Karsten Warholm. A phenom in the men’s 400m hurdles, Warholm has been crowned world champion three times and will be looking to defend the 400m hurdles crown that he won at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
A true superstar of the sport, let’s take a more detailed look at the huge list of achievements of one of finest hurdlers to ever grace the track.
Early beginnings
Despite its relatively small population and size, Norway are a Goliath when it comes to the Olympics, not the summer, but the Winter Games.
Dominating events such as Cross Country Skiing and Biathlon, if a young Karsten Warholm was to go on to Olympic success many would have believed it would have been on the snow, rather than on the track.
A talented young sportsman, Warholm spent most of his early years playing football and running but it was on the track where he excelled.
Warholm’s first taste of athletic success came in the octathlon. A winner of the event at the 2013 World Youth Championships, it was Warholm’s impressive 110m hurdles time that really caught the imagination.
Talented across many different athletics events, Warholm made the decision to focus on the 400m hurdles in 2015, in the hope he could represent Norway at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Still new to the sport and clearly talented, Warholm’s Olympic journey ended in the semifinals, but he would go on to use that trying experience brilliantly.
Warholm becomes the first Norwegian sprint medallist in World Championship history
With the Olympics behind him, Warholm’s attentions would quickly turn to the 2017 World Championships.
With Warholm gaining more and more experience in the event, he was victorious in the European Under 23 Championships and arrived at the Worlds full of confidence.
Qualifying for the final with ease, the final was ran amidst some horrible rainy conditions but Warholm seemed at ease. Setting off like a train he put the race favourite, Kerron Clement under severe pressure and Clement was unable to respond.
With the effects of a gruelling race starting to take its toll, Warholm needed the line and thankfully it arrived.
Crossing the line in first, Warholm had not only won Norway’s first ever World Championship gold medal for a sprint event, but it was also the country’s first medal of any colour within various sprinting disciplines.
Karsten Warholm (Getty)
Warholm dominates the 400m hurdles event and becomes Olympic champion
Now recognised as one of the world’s best in the 400m hurdles, Warholm would go on to win gold at the 2018 European Championships and would be crowned 2019 European Indoor champion at 400m.
With the weight of a nation on his shoulders, he once again won the World Championship in Doha before all attentions turned towards the Olympics.
Due to the effects of the COVID pandemic, Warholm would have to wait two years before getting a shot at Olympic glory but he arrived at the Tokyo Games as the heavy favourite for gold.
Showing absolutely no signs of nerves, Warholm set a world record of 45.94.
The world seemed his oyster.
Karsten Warholm (Getty)
Injury strikes, Warholm eyeing up second Olympic title
With Warholm dominating all before him, a hamstring injury would see him lose his 2022 World Championship crown and for the first time in his career, the superstar Norwegian looked vulnerable.
Hamstring injuries can so often be cruel to sprinters, but it seemed to have no effect on Warholm.
Bouncing back with authority, he has gone on to win the 2023 European Indoor Championships and wrestled back his World Championship when winning the 2023 world title.
Now his intentions are solely focused on the Olympics. Only a handful of athletes have gone on to repeat Olympic success and Warholm will have hopes of joining Felix Sanchez, Angelo Taylor, Ed Moses and Glenn Davis as two time Olympic champions.
With his body fully fit and firing, betting sites in the UK have made Warholm the overall favourite for the event and for many he is a banker for gold.
Still only 28, Warholm still has time to potentially be the first athlete in Olympic history to win three consecutive gold medals in the 400m hurdles. A summer of destiny awaits.