00:00As they launched off the starting line and she fought against the US runner for first place,
00:04she clipped a hurdle and then she slammed into a second. And by that point, there was no redeeming
00:09herself. Jasmine Camacho-Quinn had lost any hope of bringing Olympic glory to Puerto Rico. People
00:15had told her that she wasn't good enough to beat the US runners, and maybe that was true. But people
00:21only said that because she kind of was a US runner. After all, Jasmine was born in South Carolina.
00:28She grew up outside of Puerto Rico and she didn't even speak Spanish. So in the lead up to the
00:332016
00:34Rio Olympics, Jasmine shocked a lot of people when she decided to honor her mother's family heritage
00:40and compete for Puerto Rico instead of the US. People said that Jasmine wasn't Puerto Rican enough,
00:46but it wasn't just Puerto Ricans who were upset with Jasmine. Some Americans felt like she had
00:51betrayed the US, claiming that she was only competing for Puerto Rico because she wasn't competitive
00:56enough to qualify for the US team. After all, at the 2016 games, the US had the fastest women
01:02hurdlers in the world, with Brianna Rollins, Nia Ali and Christy Castlin dominating the podium,
01:08taking home the gold, silver and bronze respectively. The world record in women's hurdles was also held
01:13by US hurdler Kendra Harrison at the time. So it is true that Jasmine might not have even made it
01:19that
01:19far in 2016 if she hadn't been competing for Puerto Rico. As her nationality was being questioned,
01:25Jasmine started to feel like she wasn't accepted anywhere. And that was when Jasmine started receiving
01:30messages from the Puerto Ricans. She started anxiously opening each message, preparing herself
01:36to justify her decision to strangers online. But as she opened each message, she realized she hadn't let
01:42down Puerto Rico at all. The messages were overflowing with support, love and pride. They
01:48were thanking her for representing their flag on the world stage, regardless of her failure in the
01:52semifinals. Jasmine couldn't help but feel an overwhelming sense of hope and optimism. And she
01:58certainly didn't want to let that trust in her go to waste. Over the next few years, Jasmine continued
02:03improving on her personal best. And five years later, as she ran in the semifinals once again at the
02:09Tokyo Olympics, her hard work was clearly paying off. She destroyed the entire field and bolted to the
02:15finish line in a time of 12.26. Her fight wasn't over just yet. She still had to run in
02:21the finals,
02:21but she had smashed through the Olympic record and set one of the fastest times in the history of
02:27women's hurdles. Her time was only six hundredths of a second slower than the world record, held by US
02:32runner Kendra Harrison. So as Jasmine lined up at the starting line in the finals and she looked at the
02:38runner to her left, she couldn't help but feel a little nervous. Jasmine tried to stay focused and
02:45then... Camacho, Quinn and Harrison are going at it. Now the Puerto Rican is pulling away. It's goal for
02:52Puerto Rico for the very first time.
