Matthew Hudson-Smith sprints to Olympic silver in the 400m
Having finished eighth in the 400m final at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, British sprinter Matthew Hudson-Smith had a score to settle at the Paris Games this summer.
And he delivered.
Following first-place finishes in both his heat and semi-final, the European 400m record holder was in fine form to finish first in the final, too. Powering round the concluding bend of the purple track in the Stade de France last night (7 August), Hudson-Smith was firing on all cylinders at the front and just moments away from the win.
However, with 30m remaining, the USA's Quincy Hall seemingly steamrolled ahead out of nowhere from behind, stealing the win on a phenomenal super-sprint finish by o.o4 seconds.
Hudson-Smith, who ran a blindingly-fast 43.44 to set a new PB, break his own European record and become the fifth-fastest 400m runner of all time, appeared to do nothing wrong in that final - he was simply bettered by another unbelievable athlete on the night.
'Sometimes, the journey is better than the outcome – and it's been a hell of a journey,' he said to the BBC after the race. 'I'm just grateful. 'I came away with an Olympic silver – not many people in the world can say that... It's just the start.'
If this is just the start, then we have a lot to get excited about – because, already, Hudson-Smith has attained more than many athletes could wish for.
At this year’s London Diamond League on 20 July, for instance – held on the same track used for the 2012 Olympic Games in London, just six days before the Opening Ceremony in Paris – the 29-year-old clocked an outstanding then-PB of 43.74. At the time, this doubled as the fastest 400m in the world this year.
What's more, he also owns a sizeable collection of World and European Championships medals in the individual 400m or 4 x 400m relay, including four European golds And, while one lap of the running track is his specialism, he has also shown exceptional pedigree over half the distance, having shot to 200m gold at the UK Athletics Championships in June – his result of 20.34 giving him a 200m PB and cementing his selection for the Olympics.
While the future for Hudson-Smith is bright, let’s take a moment to look back on where it all started for the talented Olympian.
Formative years
Despite being a talented runner from an early age, Hudson-Smith had a passion for football as a child and played for the Wolves Academy as an 11-year-old. However, he says that his relaxed attitude meant that he was eventually booted out of the team for not being aggressive enough as a fullback. ‘When someone went past me, I’d go, “I’ll see you later.” That’s just me.’
At the age of 10, he also joined his local athletics club, Birchfield Harriers. Here, he became a 200m specialist, eventually winning the English Schools title in 2013 after finishing as the runner-up in 2011 and 2012.
Back then, he didn't like running the 400m very much and would avoid it if he could. 'There was a lovely lady named Hazel Gregory who used to bribe me to do it with food,' he chuckles. 'I then had a coach called Nick Radburn, and he wanted me to do the 400m because we were in the Young Athletics League, and we didn't have any points. I think I posted 52 seconds. It was good because I qualified for English Schools, but it wasn't standout.'
His next coach then diverted him away from the 400m for several years while he developed his strength and stamina. 'He said to me, "you're not strong enough" and knocked me back down to ones and twos.'
In 2013, aged 19, he came back to the distance an improved and more experienced athlete. He made his debut for Great Britain at the European Junior Championships, contesting the 200m and 4 x 400m and took bronze in both. ‘I ran a 44.00 split in the 4 x 4 and everyone was like, what was that? My training partners called it my best kept secret.’
He was working at Asda at the time and starting to think about what he wanted to do with his life. ‘I took a gap year to try and figure things out; I didn’t want to go to university, I didn’t want to get a nine to five job, because I knew that kind of life wouldn’t be for me – I was too agitated and found it hard to sit down and be behind a desk. I signed up to the Army because I didn’t know what I was going to do.’
His coach advised him to continue with his training – and to start to take it more seriously following his successful junior debut for Team GB. And that advice soon paid off. He ran 46.4 at the Florida Relays in April and then 45.80 at an Athletissima athletics meeting in Belgium in late May. ‘It wasn’t a crazy fast time, but it got alarm bells ringing and people were like, who is this guy? I then ran the Midland Championships and became the fastest person in the Midlands, and then went to trials, but I got disqualified because I stepped on the line! But then I randomly got invited to a Glasgow Diamond League meet.’
The top-tier track and field series organised by World Athletics, Hudson-Smith says he didn’t appreciate at the time the scale or significance of the Diamond League series. ‘I went with my Birchfield Harriers vest on and ran a 44:97. My life just changed then. I had £100 in my bank account and suddenly I had an agent and a shoe deal. I thought, what is going on? As soon as I ran that race, I quit my job at Asda. They were like, “are you sure you want to leave?” and I said, “yeh, I probably should!”’
Little did those colleagues know he had just qualified for the Commonwealth Games. ‘It was a whirlwind from there,’ he says. ‘I did the Commonwealth and won the 4 x 400m, then it was Europeans, and I came second [individually in the 400m]. I didn’t have chance to sit down and reflect on what was going on.’
Overcoming challenges
The next few years saw Hudson-Smith’s star rise. In 2016, he won the British Championships and qualified for the 400m final at the Rio Olympics. Then, in 2017, he qualified for the World Championships, where he made it through to the 400m semi-final, and won bronze as part of the men's 4 x 400m relay.
But during this time, unbeknown to most, Hudson-Smith was battling demons, and he considered quitting athletics altogether. His mum gave him a talking to and told him not to let his talent go to waste, adding, ‘What else are you going to do?’
That spurred him into action. ‘I made the decision that I didn’t want to be one of those ‘what-if’ people,’ he said. ‘I wanted to make the big step to get a medal. Really and truly I could have stayed in Birmingham. I love Birmingham. I never thought I’d leave Birmingham. When I moved it was now or never.’
On a whim, he moved to Florida to train, ditching England’s cold and wet winters for hot, humid, year-round sunshine – and it paid off. Less than 12 months later, he took 400m gold in the 2018 European Championships in Berlin.
But the years that followed sadly saw Hudson-Smith grappling with a number of setbacks, including serious mental issues, which plunged him into a very dark place.
Ahead of the 2022 World Championships in Eugene, Hudson-Smith opened up about the darkness that had enveloped his life since the start of the pandemic. Speaking in a press conference at the time, he said that he’d suffered ‘achilles tears, hamstring tears, mental health struggles…’ – and that people didn’t know the half of it. In fact, he was experiencing ongoing battles with depression, involving an attempt to take his own life in 2021.
‘I had huge debts because I didn’t have American health insurance,’ he said. ‘During Covid in 2020, I was stuck in America by myself.
‘I couldn’t do the [Tokyo] Olympics for several reasons. I was also racing knowing that I was hurt all the time. But it’s also been mental. A lot of people would have cracked.’
The deaths of two significant coaches and mentors – former UK Athletics head coach Neil Black and his friend and former Team GB coach Lloyd Cowan – also deeply affected him. Family members convinced him to give it one more year, their support helping him to pull through.
World Championships recognition
During those 12 months, he managed to secure a sponsor, Puma, to provide the funding he needed to train full-time. And with a sponsor on his side, Hudson-Smith found he had a renewed vigour to dig deep with his athletics.
In 2022, he picked up a breakthrough bronze at the World Championships in Eugene, before clinching silver at the Commonwealth Games in his hometown of Birmingham just a few weeks later. Then, to cap off an extraordinary year, he took 400m gold for a second time at the European Championships in Munich.
The following year, at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, Hudson-Smith upgraded his 400m bronze to a silver, clocking a sensational 44.31 and giving Great Britain its first 400m World Championships medal since Roger Black’s silver in 1991.
Even so, Hudson-Smith still pinned his hopes on gold, which he missed by a painful 0.09 seconds. After the race, he struggled to conceal his disappointment, revealing also that he’d been fighting achilles tendonitis. ‘I came here looking for gold,’ he said at the time. ‘You are never satisfied and you’re always going to want more.’
Watch out, Paris
In his Olympic year, Hudson-Smith has never been hungrier to secure a major championship gold medal – and that has shown in his results. He opened the 2024 season with a 200m personal best of 20.39 in Florida, before beating his own 400m European record at the Bislett Games in Oslo in May, knocking that down to 43.74 just a few weeks ago in London.
‘It’s basically taken me 10 years to be able to fulfil the potential I was showing in 2014 – there have been a lot of ups and downs, heartbreaks and successes,’ he reveals. ‘It wasn’t always as rosy as it is now, and it’s taken a lot of hard work and dedication.’
He says, however, that the last decade has taught him a lot about what it takes to be a champion. ‘When I was younger, I used to think you just put the work in on the track and I didn’t pay that much attention to the diet, the physio, the mental side or anything like that. Whereas, as I’ve got older and grown in experience in the sport, I’ve learned that you have to do the whole package, because it’s not just one thing that makes a champion – it’s a lot of things.’
One of those things has been having the right team around him, which he says has been pivotal to his success. ‘They put me in the right position to succeed,’ he explains. ‘I can do the physical aspect of training, but I have family, friends, management and physios who have all played a part in getting me to where I am today.’
He also credits his sponsor, Puma, for the ongoing support. ‘Puma has been amazing,’ he says. ‘They have been very hands-on. With other brands they see you as an employee, but with Puma, they see you as a person. I’m very proud and happy to represent them.’
And while it’s natural to feel nervous on a major championships start line, the Puma athlete can still stay calm and collected when it matters most. ‘Everyone’s nervous before a big race and the heats of the first round can be overwhelming,’ he admits. ‘When you walk to the line and you look down and you see the Olympic rings, it genuinely hits you, like, “Oh my god, this is the Olympics.” It’s four years of hard work and then you think, I’m here. But once you get through that first round, it’s business as usual.’
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