Most Successful Athletes
American athlete Glenn Davis had a prodigious start to his hurdling career, running his first race in April 1956 in 54.4 s. Two months later, he ran a new world record with 49.5 s and later that year he won the 400 m hurdles at the Olympics, and was also the first to repeat that feat in 1960.
In terms of success and longevity in competition, Edwin Moses' record is significant: he won 122 races in a row between 1977 and 1987 plus two gold medals at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montréal, and the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. He was undefeated for exactly nine years nine months and nine days, from August 26, 1977 until June 4, 1987. The U.S. boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow prevented him from winning a hat-trick of gold medals, but his career is nonetheless widely regarded as one of the most successful in hurdling. His winning streak lasted until he finished third in the 1988 Olympic final, the last race in his professional career. He also held the world record for sixteen years from when he first broke it at the Olympics on July 25, 1976 (twice in one day) until it was finally broken by Kevin Young at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.
- Olympic Games & World Championships victories
- Edwin Moses (USA), Olympic 1976, 1984, World 1983, 1987
- Sally Gunnell (GBR), Olympic 1992, World 1993
- Kevin Young (USA), Olympic 1992, World 1993
- Derrick Adkins (USA), Olympic 1996, World 1995
- Felix Sanchez (DOM), Olympic 2004, 2012, World 2001, 2003
- Melaine Walker (JAM), Olympic 2008, World 2009
- Two Olympic victories:
- Glenn Davis (USA), 1956 and 1960
- Edwin Moses (USA), 1976 and 1984 (also bronze in 1988)
- Angelo Taylor (USA), 2000 and 2008
- Félix Sánchez (DOM), 2004 and 2012
- Two World Championships:
- Edwin Moses (USA), 1983 and 1987
- Félix Sánchez (DOM), 2001 and 2003 (won silver in 2007)
- Nezha Bidouane (MAR), 1997 and 2001 (won silver in 1999)
- Jana Rawlinson (AUS), 2003 (as Jana Pittman) and 2007
- Kerron Clement (USA), 2007 and 2009
- Note: Edwin Moses and Kevin Young are the only male 400 m hurdlers to have been Olympic Champion, World Champion and broken the World Record.
- Note: Sally Gunnell is the only female 400 m hurdler to have been Olympic Champion, World Champion and broken the World Record.
Read more about this topic: 400 Metres Hurdles
Famous quotes containing the words successful and/or athletes:
“Someone is always at my elbow reminding me that I am the grand-daughter of slaves. It fails to register depression with me. Slavery is sixty years in the past. The operation was successful and the patient is doing well, thank you. The terrible struggle that made me an American out of a potential slave said “On the line!” The Reconstruction said “Go!” I am off to a flying start and I must not halt in the stretch to look behind and weep.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)
“To read well, that is, to read true books in a true spirit, is a noble exercise, and one that will task the reader more than any exercise which the customs of the day esteem. It requires a training such as the athletes underwent, the steady intention almost of the whole life to this object.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)