Athing Mu

Athing Mu (born June 8, 2002) is an American middle-distance runner. At the age of 19, she won a gold medal in the 800 meters at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, breaking a national record set by Ajee' Wilson in 2017, and a continental under-20 record. Mu set the world under-20 record in the women's indoor 800 m in early 2021 with a time of 1:58.40, and the world under-20 best in the indoor 600 meters in 2019 when she was 16 years of age. Her time over 600 m of 1:23.57 is the second fastest ever run indoors and the second fastest run by an American woman in any condition.

On February 24, 2019, Mu broke the American women's record at the 600 meter event at the 2019 USA Indoor Track and Field Championships with a time of 1:23.57. She bested the previous American women's record of 1:23.59 held by Alysia Montaño, and nearly broke the women's world record of 1:23.44, held by Olga Kotlyarova.

On February 6, 2021, Mu ran indoor 50.52 in the women's 400 meters, which was 0.3 seconds faster than Sanya Richards' official world under-20 record ratified by World Athletics. However, Mu's time was slower than the 50.36 set by fellow American Sydney McLaughlin, which was not able to meet the standards for world record ratification. On February 27, she ran 1:58.40 in the 800 meters to set an indoor collegiate and world under-20 record. She bested the previous collegiate record by more than two seconds. On April 17 in Waco, Texas, running outdoors, Mu set the 800 meter USA collegiate record with a time of 1:57.73. At the 2021 NCAA Championships in Eugene, Oregon on June 12, 2021, she lowered her Collegiate All-time Record mark to 49.57 in winning the 400m, before anchoring the Texas A&M Womens 4x400m relay squad to victory and a new collegiate record of 3:22.34 later in the day.

She qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the 800 meters, placing first at the US Olympic trials held in Eugene, Oregon with a time of 1:56.07 min, which was the 2nd fastest result in American history, the events' record and world-leading time.

At the delayed 2021 Olympic Games, Mu won the gold medal and broke the American record with a 1:55.21 performance in the final. The win breaks a 53 year Olympic win drought for the USA-the last American to have won the 800m was Madeline Manning in the 1968 Summer Olympics.

Mu was born in Trenton, New Jersey as the second youngest of seven siblings. Her family is of South Sudanese heritage. Mu is a Christian.

Personal bests

International competitions