110H Olympic Final: Holloway vs. Parchment @ Tokyo
How Parchment Won Gold - the answer will surprise you & video analysis will show you
How did Parchment win in Tokyo?!
I always video. I always analyze the video. My reasoning for taking and looking at videos is to figure out where athletes are losing time. Sitting down and analyzing data lets me know where an athlete is thriving and failing. Of course, much of this can be done with the naked eye, but no matter how good your eyes are, video gives the coach FACTS and data.
CONTINUE AT YOUR OWN RISK:
Before you read more, don’t get it twisted (please). I am not bashing Parchment, Holloway, or their coaches. I’m just showing how I gather data from a race and move forward with that information in hopes that it helps a coach progress their athletes to success.
This week, I sat down and looked at video1 of Grant Holloway and Hansle Parchment from the 2021 Olympics (you know…the COVID Olympics). I would consider Holloway losing to Parchment to be one of the bigger T&F Olympic upsets of my lifetime. Prior to that Olympic Championship, I watched his races and had always been a bit baffled by how athletes gained on Grant by the end of the race. Holloway has incredible start and acceleration, fantastic speed in between hurdles, toughness, and solid technique (and he’s the 60m Hurdle World Record Holder). But typically, the field gains on him.
In the Olympic Finals, the Jamaican Hansle Parchment was able to run down Holloway by hurdle 10 and get to the line first. Holloway’s intense and perfectly timed lean paid off and kept him in second place to earn the silver; that is the only thing that kept him at silver because third (bronze) was .01 away and 4th (Devon Allen) was .05 away.
In honor of the 2024 Olympic Games, I thought I would explore how Hansle Parchment made one of the biggest upsets only three years ago. I screen-recorded the race in a couple different views and went to work!
The first thing I did was record hurdle splits. These are from the Dartfish app on my iPad. I recorded times/splits in the same way I do for my athletes. I started the clock on each lead foot touch down. I documented each hurdle split, as shown below, to see where the athletes lost/gained speed in the race. The information below lets us know if athletes are losing time, picking up, or staying the same down the track. The data can help pinpoint where issues are arising and guide us to focus on specific parts of the race. Then we look deeper into why an athlete is losing speed in a specific area, whether it be fatigue-related, technique-related, or distance to take off.
Grant -.24 (he lost time to Hansle by -.24)
Hansle +.29 (he gained time on Holloway by +.29)
When viewing the race, it looks as if Holloway is massively blowing the field away, especially Parchment. The hurdle splits show the truth. Parchment is gaining on Holloway early in the race, starting at hurdles 3, 4, and 5. Holloway’s start to hurdle one and ability to maintain most of that speed is what makes him the best 60m Hurdler in history. Hurdle 6 is Holloway’s fastest hurdle, but it is the last time he will have any advantage over Parchment in the race. Parchment maintains speed (in terms of hurdle splits) better than Holloway for the remainder of the race. Holloway loses a total of .10 from hurdle 6 to hurdle 10, whereas Parchment only drops .02 from hurdle 6 to hurdle 10.
I looked closer at the race to find where and how this was happening. First, I compared the amount of time in between hurdles. I did this by timing the lead foot touchdown to the takeoff foot touchdown in between the hurdles. I found the results fascinating in that Parchment was not moving any faster than Holloway in between the hurdles. They were nearly identical. So where was Parchment gaining these fractions of seconds and Holloway losing?
THE ANSWER: hurdle clearance and airtime.
I found that Parchment was gaining on every hurdle from one simple thing: he was faster over the top of the hurdle & his hurdle clearance had less airtime over each barrier. Parchment wasn’t faster between hurdles—he was faster over the hurdles!
Parchment’s ability to stay sharp, composed, and square going in and out of the hurdles allowed him to maintain speed at a higher rate through the race. Holloway seemed too close to hurdles causing him to plant his foot outward and break. Instead of a quick cut step he reached with a long breaking step. He ended up getting more airtime and losing fractions of seconds each hurdle. The increased airtime continued to get worse and worse towards the end of the race…and it caught up to him. A very impressive lean with aggression at the perfect time helped Holloway secure a medal.
Parchment kept technique, limited false movements, kept speed (especially over the top of the hurdle), stayed sharp between the hurdles without reaching, came off the hurdles square, and gave a powerful, smooth sprint into a lean at the line to secure gold.
In professional races, every movement counts, which is proven in this race and so many races we’ve already seen in the 2024 Olympic games like Noah Lyles at Paris in the 100m final. It’s not just how you start. It’s not just how you finish. It’s how you start, transition to the middle, maintain, and finish all together that matters. Practice doesn’t make perfect. But practice makes progress and earns medals.
ANY medal at a world championship level is an enormous achievement that most of us will never be in the mix for. Parchment, Holloway, and their coaches are legends in the sport for a reason.
This is some of the data I found. That’s all.