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Aggies Star Athing Mu is First American Woman to Win 800m World Championship

The Texas A&M track star makes history at just 20 years old.

Timm Hamm

On Monday, Texas A&M track & field star Athing Mu became the first American woman to win an 800m world championship at the 2022 World Athletics Championships.

Mu, 20, entered the final on Sunday as the top-ranked runner, recording the fastest semifinal run at 1:58.12.

In the final on Monday, Mu kicked it up a notch and recorded a 1:56.30, beating Great Britain's Keely Hodgkinson by a mere .08 seconds.

Mu leaves Oregon with yet another gold medal after Monday's win and her 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games 800m gold medal.

Mu also holds the world under-20 best in the indoor 600m, set in 2019 when she was just 16 years old. Her time then of 1:23.57 is the second fastest ever run indoors and the second fastest run by an American woman in any condition.

At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Mu won two gold medals. Her aforementioned Women's 800m victory and the Women's 4 x 400 relay.

In her first post-Olympic race, she set an American 800m record of 1:55.04 at the Prefontaine Classic, despite running the final lap by herself. With those accolades, Mu was voted World Athletics women's Rising Star.

Mu, a native of Trenton, New Jersey, is the youngest of seven siblings. Her parents immigrated to America from South Sudan and she began competing in track at six years of age.

You can follow Timm Hamm on Twitter at @IndyCarTim

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Timm Hamm
TIMM HAMM

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