Three years removed from an underwhelming silver medal in an empty Olympic Stadium in Tokyo, Grant Holloway changed course and became an Olympic champion. 

This time, in front of 80,000 fans at Stade de France. 

Capping off one of the best sessions of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, Holloway kept his composure, was smooth over the hurdles, and went wire-to-wire to win his first Olympic gold in 12.99 seconds.

It didn't take a world record. It didn't take a career best. It didn't even take his best effort of the Olympic Games. But Holloway left Thursday night in Paris with a gold medal. 

American Daniel Roberts won silver in a photo-finish with Jamaica's Rashed Broadbell, claiming the finish in 13.09 seconds -- and needing a heroic lean at the line to achieve the feat by three-thousands of a second. The podium marked the first time since 2012 that American men went 1-2 in the event.

Heading into Paris 2024, Holloway had already achieved nearly everything else you could hope for as a 26-year-old. 

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The the three-time defending world champion in the 110mH, he was also two-time defending champion indoors over 60mH. He was chasing after Aries Merritt's world record of 12.80. 

But the Virginia native from Grassfield High School is going to have to wait. He's still the the second-fastest man in world history, just two-hundredths of a second away from Merritt. 

One of the final accolades that Holloway has been missing from his legendary career was Olympic gold. 

After a long three years, today was finally the day for another shot at redemption and history.