If Matthew Hudson-Smith looked incredulous, it was because he had just glanced up at the clock. 43.44: that is faster than even Michael Johnson, the consummate master over one lap, ran for either of his two Olympic title-winning displays. It was a staggering seven tenths quicker than any other European had ever run 400 metres and still it somehow yielded him only a silver. By rights, he should have been giddy with happiness. But as he watched American Quincy Hall hurl himself raggedly across the line to deny him, he wore an expression of the purest horror.
There are multiple reasons why the 400m is regarded as the most brutal track race: it is the ultimate test of speed, endurance, cadence and technique, not to mention sheer bloody-minded capacity to maintain your form even as every muscle in your body is screaming for mercy. Hudson-Smith is, by a yawning chasm, the best exponent of the craft Britain has seen. And yet when he realised how he had let Hall steal in at the death, he screamed in rage. At 27, in the form of his life, he understood how his golden moment needed to be here, and it needed to be now.
In time, Hudson-Smith is sure to find consolation in having recorded the fifth fastest time in history. He is bound to take pride in almost winning the only 400m race where five men have gone under 44 seconds. But “almost” can be freighted with unbearable pathos in an Olympic context. If you are to convert exceptional talent into true greatness, these are the chances that must be seized.
Hudson-Smith did not even make it to the starting line in Tokyo three years ago, having withdrawn, according to the British team, “on medical grounds”. Rarely had there been a more coldly inadequate description of an athlete’s ordeal. For as he would later spell out, he had been enduring a period of psychological torment so acute that he had attempted suicide. He had lost not just his fitness, but any semblance of self-confidence, too. Having moved to the United States to dedicate himself fully to his craft, this former Asda cashier was grappling with serious debt. It left him without medical insurance, unable to obtain a Green Card, and feeling as if his very sense of purpose had vanished.
It is the background that explains why he coveted this prize so desperately. Tormented in 2021, Hudson-Smith has been a man not so much rejuvenated as reborn in 2024. Running pain-free for the first time since he can remember, he has reached far beyond conventional British expectations in this event. As a sub-44 performer, he knew he was in the condition to take charge of this final and see it through to a glorious conclusion. But he reckoned without the prodigious closing pace of Hall, who edged him out here by four hundredths in a blur of flailing limbs.