Dalilah Muhammad - The Ruler

TRACK & FIELD - 400m HURDLES - WORLD RECORD HOLDER - TEAM USA

ARCHETYPE: THE RULER

Day 19/135

Athletic Accomplishments

Dalilah Muhammad, the reigning world record holder for the 400m hurdles, has marked just about every square on her BINGO card:

• 4x NCAA All-American

• 3x American national champion (2013, 2016, and 2017)

• Gold medal at the 2019 World Championships

• Gold medal at the 2016 Olympics

• World Champion 4x400m

And of course, there is the fact that she bested her own world record time, leaving the new mark at 52.16 seconds. BINGO.

In 2019, she won the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Award—the highest accolade given out by the USA Track and Field Federation (USATF), and Track and Field News voted her World Women’s Athlete of the Year.

Notably, Muhammad is also a Muslim athlete. While for most of her career, she did not observe Ramadan, she did in 2019. This meant fasting—no food or water—from dawn to sunset, including during her training. While she admits she did not make it the whole month, just trying to fast while training and competing at the highest level takes such acute focus and mastery, it’s kind of mind-blowing.

Character Archetype: The Ruler

Dalilah Muhammad admits that she’s not the most expressive person. In interviews, it seems that she’s pretty unknowable aside from her performances on the track. Some might call it cold. Others might see the true story she’s writing. Muhammad is focused on one thing: staying on top.

With Sydney McLaughlin—the up-and-coming American 400m hurdle star—nipping at her heels, Muhammad needs to keep scraping hundredths of a second off her time. What does she care about the media, who pay attention to her once every four years? Is the media going to get her to that next gear?

Muhammad is not here to win hearts and minds. She wants that gold medal. She wants to keep that world record. She wants to assert her position and her dominance as the best to ever run the 400m hurdles. More than she wants you to love her, she just wants to keep her crown.

Can you blame her?