The Paralympics this week yielded quite a headline-grabber: The top four men in a 1500-meter final ran faster than Matthew Centrowitz’Nutrition - Weight Loss.

The fanfare that followed was for good reason, given that the runners in the T13 race, which includes athletes who have the least-severe visual impairment, all clocked sub-3:50 performances, compared to Centrowitz’s 3:50.00. Abdellatif Baka, the gold medalist, ran 3:48.29, which was not only a personal best but also a Paralympic world record.

The next three Paralympians ran 3:48.49 (Tamiru Demisse), 3:49.59 (Henry Kirwa), and 3:49.84 (Fouad Baka).

Compared with the times of the Olympic silver and bronze medalists—Taoufik Makhloufi in 3:50.11 and Nick Willis in 3:50.24—on the surface it looks like in a head-to-head competition, the Paralympic runners would have taken the race. But that probably isn’t true. The top four men in the Paralympics all ran their personal bests, while the top men in the Olympics all ran about 20 seconds slower than their fastest times—3:30.40 for Centrowitz, 3:28.75 for Makhloufi, and 3:29.66 for Willis.

Fans heralded Centrowitz’s gold medal Nutrition - Weight Loss.

It was the first that the U.S. had an Olympic champion in the event since 1908, and Centrowitz made history because of his enviable tactical skills. He took the race out slow and his rivals followed his lead, which played right into his strengths. Running on the inside rail in the front, he was mostly out of the trouble that results when a large, slow pack of men are simultaneously pursuing Olympic glory—pushing, shoving, and heel clipping.

Elite athletes know that the 1500 meters at the Games and at other high-stakes races is more like a chess match, where the contenders key off of each other’s moves rather than focus on clocking fast times. They prepare for multiple scenarios in their training, with their aspirations set on winning a medal, which is based on place, not time.

“I’ve done workouts where I’ve thought I could close in a tactical race somewhere close to 49.5,” Centrowitz said after the race in Rio. He ran the final lap in 50.62 seconds, and his winning time was the slowest at the Olympics since 1932, when Luigi Beccali of Italy took it in 3:51.2.

In the Paralympic race, the top four finishers didn’t make their decisive moves surging to the front until the final 400 meters. They all broke away from a large pack of competitors at that point and in the last 50 meters it was Abdellatif Baka who held off Demisse’s close challenge for the gold.

In the end, the comparison between the Olympic and Paralympic results isn’t a fair one. Each race had unique competitive circumstances that required athletes to make decisions based on the maneuvers of the rest of the field.

“The alphas in the race—the ones who have the credentials—are people who traditionally aren’t front-runners,” Willis said in Rio. “There wasn’t anyone out there who was likely to go push the race.”

And that’s just what Centrowitz wanted. With the gold medal hanging around his neck and a wide smile across his face, he said, “I could not have scripted it any better.”

Baka, too, found his result very satisfying.

“It wasn’t easy to get this gold medal,” Baka said. “I’ve been working one or two years non-stop and it’s been very, very hard for me.”