Grant Holloway was just not feeling it this season. In the Wanda Diamond League, the Olympic champion finished a disappointing 10th, with a time of 13.72 on the clock. He didn’t fare much better at the Paris DL, finishing his race in 13.16s to place fifth. He did, however, record a win in the heats of the USATF Championships in 13.15, and he came in second during the semifinal with 13.18. However, he skipped the final since he had the BYE as reigning World Champion, entering the 2025 World Championships, and what unfolded there was yet another meet to forget.

As the reigning 100mH Olympic champion, Holloway was the one to beat, recent performances aside. But the tension started to rise when, in heat 5 of the 100mH, he clocked 13.27s to finish 4th. Yes, the reigning world champion could not even manage a top 3 in the heats, and what was feared for the semifinals became reality. Grant Holloway failed to qualify.

Tokyo National Stadium, 100m hurdles semifinals, and what was at stake was Holloway’s bid to become the first athlete to four-peat in the 110m hurdles. The gunshot pierced through the silence, and the Olympian launched off his block in 0.182s, but from second to second, he kept fading. The Olympic gold medalist finished in 6th place, thereby ending his gold medal aspirations in 13.27s. Jamaica’s Tyler Mason clocked a time of 13.12 to win the race, and Japan’s very own Rachid Muratake gave a big cheer to the fans with his 13.17 runner-up finish.

Ja’Kobe Tharpis is keeping hopes alive for America with his 3rd position finish in 13.19 seconds. But Holloway’s defeat is historic. After Omar McLeod of Jamaica in 2017, the 100m hurdles are going to have a new world champion.In 2019, Holloway took the title in 13.10s on the clock, and that was the start of an era. 13.03s in 2022, followed by 12.96s in Budapest.

Six years of sheer domination by the American hurdler have come to an end today, and not in a very flattering way. But what could be the reason? Maybe it could be his injury.

Grant Holloway hasn’t been the same after his injury

The only defeats the Olympic gold medalist had in the entire 2024 season were at the Lausanne Diamond League (13.14 – 2nd) and Galà dei Castelli (13.23 – 2nd), which was his last race of the season. His indoor season was perfect in the 60m hurdles, and he even won the World Athletics Indoor Championships. Holloway went undefeated for 10 consecutive races in the 110m hurdles that season, and he carried that form into 2025.

Once again, an amazing undefeated indoor season, and he also defended his World Athletics Indoor Championships. But then on April 17th, he announced in the Beyond The Records podcast, “I had 435 front squats on my back… and I could literally hear my knee kind of like popping as I was going down.” Thirty minutes later, that knee had swollen up like a balloon. Though this had happened before the indoor season, and despite good performances there, his outdoor season was just not it.

He started with a win in the heat of the Tom Jones memorial, recording 13.30 on the clock, and even though he cut this time down in the finals (13.18s), he could only manage second place. And then it was 10th at the Wanda Diamond League and 5th in Paris, all of which came to an end in the semifinals of the World Athletics Championships. Grant Holloway’s 6 years of domination are over. Will he rise again? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.