Rai Benjamin - Track & Field Coach

Rai Benjamin

Title:
Volunteer Assistant Coach

USA 400m hurdles record-holder and 2020 Olympic gold and silver medalist Rai Benjamin has joined the USC staff as a volunteer assistant coach beginning with the 2021-22 season.

Benjamin broke the American record which had stood for 29 years and earned a silver medal in an epic men’s 400m hurdles final at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics with an amazing time of 46.17. Benjamin shaved 0.66 seconds off his previous best of 46.83 which he set in winning his second American hurdles title at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in June of 2021. Both Benjamin and Karsten Warholm of Norway, who won with a world-record time of 45.94, broke the previous world record in the event. Benjamin also earned a gold medal by anchoring USA’s 4x400m relay which won with a time of 2:55.70.
Benjamin won his first USA 400m hurdles title in 2019 and then went on to place second in the event at the 2019 World Championships, while also earning a gold medal as part of USA’s 4x400m relay.

Since he turned pro in 2018 he has enjoyed success on the Diamond League circuit, winning Diamond League 400m hurdles titles in 2019 in Rome and Stanford and in 2021 in Doha. He also won the Boston World Indoor 300m title in 2019.

Benjamin only competed for USC for the 2018 season, but he made it a memorable one setting two NCAA and school records and leading the Trojans to a fourth-place finish at the NCAA Championships. He won the 400m hurdles title with a collegiate record of 47.02 and ran on the school and NCAA record-setting relay which posted a time of 2:59.00, breaking the previous record which had stood for 13 years by nearly a full second. Benjamin’s winning hurdles time of 47.02 tied Edwin Moses for the second-fastest men’s 400m hurdles race ever recorded. During the 2018 indoor season, Benjamin took second in the 200m and ran on USC’s winning 4x400m relay which set the collegiate record with a time of 2:00.77. Benjamin began his career at UCLA and in 2017 placed second in the 400m hurdles at the NCAA Championships. The three-time hurdles All-American also placed sixth in the 400m hurdles at the NCAA Championships as a freshman in 2016.

Benjamin went to Mount Vernon High School in New York and was the 2015 New Balance 400m National Champion and the 2015 New Balance Outdoor 400m hurdles National Champion. In 2015 at the CARIFA U20 Games he placed second in the 400m (representing Antigua) and in 2013 at the World Youth Championships, he placed 15^th in the 400m hurdles (representing Antigua). Benjamin was able to apply for a transfer of allegiance in 2018 and began running for USA in October of 2018.

Benjamin, from Mount Vernon, N.Y., graduated from USC in 2019 with a Political Science degree. His parents are Winston Benjamin and Jeanette Mason. They are natives of Antigua. His father played cricket for the West Indies and he was part of their eight-year unbeaten streak.