Dalilah Muhammad set to rep the World’s Borough at the Tokyo Olympics

Queens-born Olympian Dalilah Muhammad is headed to Tokyo for her second shot at gold. AP photo by Ashley Landis

By Rachel Vick

A Rochdale-raised track star will bring the “World’s Borough” to the “World’s Stage” next month. 

Dalilah Muhammad, who won gold in the 2016 Rio games, qualified for Team USA and is headed to Tokyo for the Summer Olympics, which begins at the end of July.

“I am so extremely grateful to be representing team USA in my second Olympics,” Muhammad wrote on Instagram. “I am so thankful for my entire support team.”

 “I couldn’t be more proud,” she added. “What a year it has been and it is really just beginning.”

Muhammad, who competes in the 400 meter hurdles, came in second at the trials on Sunday, logging her third fastest time in the event. 

The record she set at the 2019 world championships was broken during the event by 21-year-old New Jersey resident Sydney McLaughlin, who became the first woman to run the event in under 52 seconds — a feat celebrated by Muhammad.

Since setting the record in 2019, the Benjamin N. Cardozo High School graduate battled a hamstring injury and contracted COVID-19.
“That definitely impacted my training,” she said ahead of the finals, according to the New York TImes. “But I kind of got my fitness back right when I needed to.”