Attention to Detail the Key to Murphy's Sensational Rise

Published by IAAF on December 17, 2016

The distance travelled by Clayton Murphy between the first and second of David Rudisha’s Olympic 800m gold medals is hard to comprehend.

Four years ago at the time of Rudisha’s maiden Olympic success in London, Murphy was a good though far from spectacular 17-year-old high school athlete whose personal aspirations extended to carving out a college career as a middle-distance runner. He can’t even recall if he watched the London final and Rudisha’s world record heroics live.

Fast forward to August 2016 and Murphy has just demolished his previous PB by nearly a second-and-a-half with a 1:42.93 run en route to Olympic bronze – behind Rudisha – at the Rio Games.  

“At the time I was preparing for my senior year at high school for the cross country season,” Murphy said. “Back then I never would have laid down at night and thought the goal is to win a medal in the 800 metres in 2016 Rio Olympic Games.”