When Cordell Tinch crossed the finish line to win World Championships gold on Tuesday, it was the final flourish in a long and complicated road to the top.
Tinch sailed down the track to the world title in Tokyo, coming in a clear stride or two ahead of runner-up Orlando Bennet and clocking his fifth sub-13-second time of the season with 12.99.
Yet as easy as his World Championship triumph win looked, the journey there has been one of setbacks, stormy seas and sheer determination for the 25-year-old American.
Tinch’s talent was never in doubt, but in 2020, he took a three-year break from elite sport, saying later that he was “not a very happy person”.
In his time away from the track, Tinch worked odd jobs to get by, including as a cellphone salesman and in a toilet-paper factory.
After returning to track in late December 2022, the Green Bay-born star faced a long, arduous climb to the top of his discipline.
Three years later, in 2025, he finally made it. “Coming into this year I carried myself a different way, and I think it’s shown both on and off the track. In order to compete with the best athletes in the world, you have to treat yourself as one of them,” he said ahead of the Wanda Diamond League Final in Zurich in August.
In the 2025 Diamond League campaign, Tinch wasn’t just one of the best. He was by far and away the best.
The American started his season in style, clocking a world lead of 13.06 at the Diamond League opener in Xiamen to claim his first ever win in athletics’ premier one-day series.
A week later, he followed it up with a breathtaking 12.87 in Keqiao, becoming the joint fourth-fastest 110m hurdler in history.
Following a brief mid-season lull which saw him lose to Jason Joseph in Rome and Trey Cunningham in Monaco, Tinch came back with a bang at the business end of the Road to the Final.
He equalled the meeting record with 13.03 in Silesia before dipping under 13 seconds again with 12.98 in Lausanne.
That made him the favourite heading into the Wanda Diamond League Final in Zurich, a crucial dress rehearsal for the World Championships.
Tinch didn’t disappoint, clocking 12.92 despite tricky conditions to claim his first ever Diamond League title and throw down the gauntlet to his fellow hurdlers ahead of Tokyo.
Just three years after he started again at the bottom, the American now heads home to Wisconsin with both a Diamond Trophy and a World Championships gold medal in his suitcase.
