New 400m world champion Marileidy Paulino (pictured above) follows no one on the track – but off it she’s pursuing Jesus.
The 27-year-old became the first Dominican to take one-lap world gold when she left the rest trailing by running 48.76 seconds in this year’s Budapest final.
That’s one above her silver medal at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, where the vocal Christian celebrated in front of the post-race cameras by raising a Bible and removing her right shoe to reveal the message: “God is my hope, amen”.
Running shoes have a special place in the heart of Paulino, who was once too poor to afford them, running barefoot before later having to borrow those of friends.
She’s from a single-parent family, the fifth of six siblings raised by her mother Anatalia in Nizao, Peravia province, in the south of the Dominican Republic. It’s a background that’s inspired her to set up a foundation to help orphans.
Paulino’s social media pages bear witness to her faith, with many photos of her holding a Bible and featuring the verse “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”.
She also posted: “Thanks to God for everything, whether I lose or win, whether I come first or last, I am always grateful to God”.
She recently prayed for God to help her country’s president, Luis Abinader, posting: “Thank you very much President Luis Abinader, may God continue to guide and help you as he has always done with Dominican sport”.
The president responded after Paulino’s gold medal that she had filled “the whole nation with pride”.
Paulino continued the theme with other media sources, telling El Gobierno de la Mañana she was “extremely happy that God gave me the opportunity to obtain this medal with faith”.
Her headline-grabbing gold-medal run put her more than 0.8 seconds ahead of Polish silver medallist Natalia Kaczmarek and Barbadian Sada Williams in third.
The world championship final time of Paulino – the 400m Diamond League winner in 2022 and 2023 – was only 0.02 seconds behind fellow Christian 400m runner Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s 2023 world best of 48.74.
The US runner missed the world championships in Hungary with a knee injury but is expected to be back for the Olympics in France in the summer, setting up a tantalising Christian head-to-head.
McLaughlin-Levrone is the world record holder at 400m hurdles, switching to the flat in 2023 and immediately running 49.71 in Paris, leading to speculation she could smash the world’s best at her new event.
