Karsten WARHOLM

Karsten Warholm is not only Norway’s most successful track athlete, but also the fastest 400m hurdler in history.

As a teenager, he was an all-round athlete - topping eight of his events at the 2013 Norwegian Youth Indoors Championships.

The 17-year-old even won the octathlon gold at the 2013 U18 World Athletics Championships before deciding to focus mainly on the 400m hurdles.

He clinched the first of his two senior world titles at London 2017, and successfully defended it at Doha 2019, wrapping up that entire season undefeated. His second back-to-back gold medal made him the fourth man to retain a world title over 400m hurdles.

In 2021, he ran the perfect race in front of a home crowd at the Diamond League in Oslo, to lower Kevin Young’s legendary world record of 46.78 seconds from the 1992 Barcelona Games, to 46.70.

But the Fjords native saved his greatest hurdle yet, for the biggest stage. Warholm won the Tokyo 2020 Olympics men's 400m hurdles gold, once again smashing the world record with his time of 45.94 seconds.