Ato Boldon

Ato Boldon at the Sydney 2000 Olympics
Personal information
Nationality	Trinidad and Tobago
Born	(1973-12-30) December 30, 1973 (age 38) Port of Spain, Trinidad
Height	1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Weight	75 kg (170 lb)
Sport
Sport	Running
Event(s)	100 metres, 200 metres
College team	UCLA
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	100 m: 9.86 s (Lausanne 1999) 200 m: 19.77 s (Stuttgart 1997)
Medal record Men’s Athletics Competitor for  Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Games Silver 2000 Sydney 100 m Bronze 1996 Atlanta 100 m Bronze 1996 Atlanta 200 m Bronze 2000 Sydney 200 m World Championships Gold 1997 Athens 200 m Silver 2001 Edmonton 4 × 100 m Bronze 1995 Gothenburg 100 m Bronze 2001 Edmonton 100 m Pan American Games Silver 2003 Santo Domingo 4 × 100 m Commonwealth Games Gold 1998 Kuala Lumpur 100 m Goodwill Games Gold 1998 New York City 200 m Silver 1998 New York City 100 m World Junior Championships Gold 1992 Seoul 100 m Gold 1992 Seoul 200 m CAC Junior Championships (U20) Gold 1992 Tegucigalpa 100 m Gold 1992 Tegucigalpa 200 m

Ato Jabari Boldon (born December 30, 1973) is a former athlete from Trinidad and Tobago and four-time Olympic medal winner. Only 2 other men in history, Frankie Fredericks and Carl Lewis, have won as many Olympic individual event sprint medals. He is the current national record holder in the 50, 60 and 200 metres events with times of 5.64, 6.49 and 19.77 seconds respectively. He also held the 100m national record at 9.86, having run it four times, until Richard Thompson ran 9.85 on August 13, 2011. He also holds the Commonwealth Games record in the 100 m.

After retiring from his track career, he was an Opposition Senator in the Trinidad and Tobago Parliament, representing the United National Congress from 2006–2007. He is now a CBS and NBC Sports television broadcast analyst for track and field.

Career[link]

Junior athletics[link]

Boldon was born in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad to a Jamaican mother and Trinidadian father. He attended Fatima College (Secondary School) in Trinidad before leaving for the United States at age fourteen. In December 1989, as a soccer player at Jamaica High School in Queens, New York City, head coach Joe Trupiano noticed his sprinting abilities during a soccer practice session.

In his first track season, at age 16, he finished with 21.20 seconds in the 200 metres and 48.40 seconds in the 400 metres, recording a double win at the Queens County Championships in 1990 and earning MVP honors. After transferring for his final year from Jamaica High to Piedmont Hills High School in San Jose, California, Boldon was selected to the San Jose Mercury News' Santa Clara all-county soccer team. He also continued to sprint, placing third in the 200 m at the CIF California State Meet in 1991. Athletics became his primary focus and he won the Junior Olympic Title that summer in Durham, North Carolina, in 200 m.

At 18, Boldon represented Trinidad and Tobago at 100 metres and 200 m in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, but did not qualify in the first round of either event. Boldon returned to the junior circuit, winning the 100 m and 200 m titles at the IAAF World Junior Championships in Athletics in Seoul, South Korea to become the first double sprint champion in World Junior Championships history.

He was also an NCAA Champion while enrolled as a sociology major at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), in 1995 in the 200 m. He secured an NCAA 100 m Championship in 1996, in Eugene, Oregon, in the final race of his collegiate career, setting an NCAA meet record of 9.92 s which still stands.^[1] Boldon also held the collegiate 100 m record with 9.90 s from 1996 until it was broken by Travis Padgett, who ran 9.89s, in 2008. Ngonidzashe Makusha later equalled this record at the 2011 NCAA Championships in Eugene, Oregon .^[2]

Senior athletics[link]

Boldon won his first international senior-level medal at the 1995 World Championships, taking home the bronze in the 100 m. At the time he was the youngest athlete ever to win a medal in that event, at 21 years of age. The following year at the 1996 Summer Olympics, he again placed third in the 100 m and 200 m events, both behind world records. In 1997, he won the 200 m at the World Championships in Athens, Greece; his country's first and only world title to date in the Athletics World Championships. This made him one of only a few male sprinters to win both a World Junior and World Senior title.

The following year saw Boldon reaching the peak of his career, setting a new personal best and national record of 9.86 s in the 100 m at the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, California on 19 April and repeating the feat in Athens on 17 June.^[3] He picked up gold in the 100 m at the 1998 Commonwealth Games held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, setting a record time of 9.88 s, beating Namibia's Frankie Fredericks (9.96 s) and Barbados' Obadele Thompson (10.00 s). The Commonwealth Games 100 m record remains unbroken.^[4]

In 1999, Boldon ran 9.86 s twice in the 100 m before sustaining a serious hamstring injury which forced him to miss the World Championships in Seville - the only Championship he missed in his career due to injury.

A silver medal in the 100 m and a bronze in the 200 m were his results of the 2000 Summer Olympics, which was a personal victory, considering his comeback from a career-threatening injury the year before.

In 2001, Boldon tested positive at an early-season relay meet for the stimulant ephedrine, and was given a warning, but was not suspended or sanctioned, since ephedrine is a substance found in many over the counter remedies, and Boldon had been treating a cold. "It is in no way something where the blame is laid on the athlete,” said IAAF General Secretary Istvan Gyulai of the positive result.

Also in 2001, at the World Championships in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, Boldon finished fourth and out of the medals in the 100 m with 9.98 s, and then ran the second leg of his country's 4 x 100 metre relay, finishing third in the finals. This was Trinidad and Tobago's first 4 x 100 m relay medal in either World or Olympic competition and Boldon states that making national history with this team of young men (the average age of his teammates was 19) was his greatest accomplishment in his career. The colours of his 2001 World Championship medals would change in 2005 as both his placings were improved — he received bronze in the 100 m and the bronze relay medals were upgraded to silver after all the times and performances of the American sprinter Tim Montgomery (who was second in the 100 m and won the 4 x 100 m with the US team) were nullified due to serious doping violations. That brought Boldon's career total to four World Championship medals, to match his four Olympic medals.

Boldon was seriously injured in a head-on crash with a drunk driver in Barataria, Trinidad and Tobago, in July 2002, and never again ran sub-ten seconds in the 100 m or sub-twenty seconds for 200 m; something he had done on 37 separate occasions prior to 2002. In 2006, a judge in Trinidad found that Boldon was not at fault in that accident and he was paid substantial damages as a result. That accident left Boldon with a serious hip injury, and he was a shadow of his former self as a sprinter. In 2004 at the Athens Olympic Games, he failed to advance out of the first round of the 100 m heats but captained his country's 4 x 100 m relay team to their first-ever Olympic final, where they finished seventh.

Boldon is the eighth person to win a medal for Trinidad and Tobago at the Olympics and currently has the third most wind-legal sub-10 second 100 m performances in history, with 28, behind former training partner Maurice Greene, who has 52, and Jamaica's former 100 m World Record holder Asafa Powell.

On 20 April 2008 The Observer published the contents of a letter believed to be by Boldon to John Smith, his former coach, accusing Smith, Maurice Greene and his former agent, Emmanuel Hudson, of betraying him by obtaining banned drugs without his knowledge, lying about Greene competing without drugs and damaging his own career.^[5] But for a quote on the matter to HellenicAthletes.com, a website he wrote for at the time, Boldon has had no further official comment.^[6]

Broadcasting[link]

At the 1999 World Championships in Seville, Spain, Boldon could not compete due to a serious injury. The British Broadcasting Corporation hired him to do commentary and analysis for their coverage of those Championships. He proved popular with the audience and was invited back as a track-side analyst for the BBC coverage of the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials in 2000, from Sacramento, California.

Since 2005, Boldon has been in the broadcast booth for the U.S. Television network CBS as part of their commentary team for the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. In June 2007, he made his debut for NBC Sports as an analyst for the 2007 U.S. National Championships, and he also was an integral part of Versus and NBC's coverage of 2007 Osaka World Championships. In 2008, he was the sprint analyst at the US Olympic Track and Field Trials and the 2008 Summer Olympics for NBC Sports.^[7] Boldon was widely praised for his NBC work by the press, including the Los Angeles Times, USA Today and The New York Times which called him "one of NBC's best analysts, a blend of athletic smarts, charisma, precise analysis and brashness."^[8]

Politics[link]

Boldon was sworn in on 14 February 2006 as a Senator representing the Opposition United National Congress following the resignation of former Senator Roy Augustus, who resigned on 13 February in a dispute over the leadership style of then Leader of the Opposition Basdeo Panday. Boldon resigned on 11 April 2007 after 14 months as a senator, also citing issues with Panday's leadership ability.

Media[link]

In 2006, Boldon wrote, produced and directed a 73-minute DVD film entitled Once In A Lifetime: Boldon in Bahrain which documented his voyage with fellow fans and Trinidad and Tobago nationals to the Kingdom of Bahrain, where the country's soccer team, the Soca Warriors, defeated Bahrain 1–0 in a playoff to become the smallest country ever to qualify for the FIFA World Cup, qualifying to play at the Germany 2006 tournament.

Personal life[link]

Boldon married entertainment executive/manager Cassandra Mills in 1998 after a three-year courtship. Boldon and Mills divorced in 2005. He has 2 daughters.

In 2000, he was made a sports ambassador by the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, and given a diplomatic passport. He is widely viewed as one of the all-time leading sportsmen in the history of the Caribbean, as well as one of its most internationally recognizable and outspoken.

Boldon is a qualified pilot, having earned his private pilot's licence in August 2005. He is a member of AOPA, the Aircraft Owners and Pilot's Association, and flies frequently out of Van Nuys Airport, the largest general aviation airport in the world, close to his home in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley.

Achievements[link]

On November 4, 2011, Boldon will be inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame..

Competition record[link]

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Event	Notes
Representing  Trinidad and Tobago
1992	Central American and Caribbean Junior Championships (U-20)	Tegucigalpa, Honduras	1st	100 m	10.4   (0.0 m/s)
			1st	200 m	21.5   (0.1 m/s)
	World Junior Championships	Seoul, Korea	1st	100 m	10.30   (0.0 m/s)
			1st	200 m	20.63   (0.3 m/s)
	Olympic Games	Barcelona, Spain	4th (h)	100 m	10.77   (-0.3 m/s)
			5th (h)	200 m	21.65   (0.0 m/s)
1993	World Championships	Stuttgart, Germany	7th (qf)	100 m	10.48   (-0.1 m/s)
			4th (h)	200 m	21.31   (-1.2 m/s)
			5th (h)	4x100 m relay	40.24
1995	World Championships	Gothenburg, Sweden	3rd	100 m	10.03   (1.0 m/s)
			7th (qf)	200 m	21.81   (-0.1 m/s)
1996	Summer Olympics	Atlanta, U.S.	3rd	100 m	9.90   (0.7 m/s)
			3rd	200 m	19.80   (0.4 m/s)
1997	World Championships	Athens, Greece	5th	100 m	10.02   (0.2 m/s)
			1st	200 m	20.04 w   (2.3 m/s)
1998	Commonwealth Games	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	1st	100 m	9.88   (-0.1 m/s) GR
	Goodwill Games	New York City, U.S.	2nd	100 m	10.00
			1st	200 m	20.15
2000	Summer Olympics	Sydney, Australia	2nd	100 m	9.99   (-0.3 m/s)
			3rd	200 m	20.20   (-0.6 m/s)
			6th (sf)	4x100 m relay	38.92 NR
2001	World Championships	Edmonton, Canada	3rd	100 m	9.98   (-0.2 m/s)
			2nd	4x100m relay	38.58 NR
2003	World Championships	Paris, France	5th (sf)	100 m	10.22   (0.6 m/s)
			6th (sf)	4x100 m relay	38.84
2003	Pan American Games	Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic	2nd	4x100 m relay	38.53
2004	Olympic Games	Athens, Greece	4th (h)	100 m	10.41   (-1.1 m/s)
			7th	4x100 m relay	38.60

Personal bests[link]

• All information taken from IAAF profile.^[3]

References[link]

External links[link]

• IAAF profile for Ato Boldon
• "Boldon in Bahrain" DVD

Sporting positions
Preceded by Michael Johnson	Men's 200 m Best Year Performance 1997 – 1998	Succeeded by Francis Obikwelu
Preceded by Maurice Greene	Men's 100 m Best Year Performance 1998 – 1999	Succeeded by Maurice Greene

Jon Drummond

Personal information
Nationality	American
Born	(1968-09-09) September 9, 1968 (age 43) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Residence	Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.
Height	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Weight	160 lb (73 kg)
Sport
Sport	Track and field
Event(s)	100 metres, 200 metres
College team	Texas Christian University
Club	Nike
Coached by	Darrell Smith
Medal record Men's athletics Competitor for the  United States Olympic Games Gold 2000 Sydney 4×100 metres relay Silver 1996 Atlanta 4×100 metres relay World Championships Gold 1993 Stuttgart 4×100 metres relay Gold 1999 Seville 4×100 metres relay Universiade Gold 1991 Sheffield 200 metres

Jonathan ("Jon") A. Drummond (born September 9, 1968) is an American athlete, winner of gold medal in 4x100 m relay at the 2000 Summer Olympics.

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Jon Drummond is known for being among the world’s best starters. He is also well known for what could be called showmanship or taunting depending on one's perspective. Drummond has been called the "Clown Prince" of Track and Field.^[1][2]

In 1991, Drummond won the 200 m at the World University Games. At the 1993 World Championships, Drummond ran the opening leg on the American 4x100 m relay team, which won the gold medal and equalled the world record of 37.40. At the 1995 World Championships, he ran the second leg on the American 4x100 m relay team, which did not finish its heat after Drummond and Tony McCall failed to complete their pass.

Drummond was the opening leg of the silver medal-winning American 4x100 m relay team at the 1996 Summer Olympics and reached to the semi-finals of 100 m. In 1997, Drummond won his only US National Championships title in 200 m and at the World Championships, Drummond was seventh in 200 m. In 1999, Drummond suffered a third case of spinal meningitis, but managed to recover to run the opening leg in a gold medal-winning American 4x100 m relay team at the 1999 World Championships.

At the Sydney Olympics, Drummond was fifth in 100 m and ran again the opening leg on the American 4x100 m relay team, which won the gold medal. At the 2001 World Championships, Drummond was again selected to run the first leg in relay, but suffered a torn right quadriceps halfway to passing the baton to Mickey Grimes in the first round and did not run in the final. He did however complete the pass to Grimes in first place allowing the team to continue onto the finals.

In 2002, Drummond was fourth in 100 m and won the 4x100 m relay in the IAAF World Cup.

At the 2003 World Championships, he was disqualified in the quarterfinals of 100 m for a false start. However, he contested that he did not false start, repeatedly shouting "I did not move". He delayed competition for almost an hour by refusing to leave the Paris track where the meet was being held. He protested for a period of time by lying down on the track. He eventually left the track of his own volition, reportedly in tears. It is one of a number of cases which relate to the revised false-start policies.

Drummond worked as a fitness trainer at Daired's Pangea Spa in Arlington, Texas. He also coaches sprinter Tyson Gay.

He is also a member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity and was formerly a member of Kirk Franklin's group The Family.

References[link]

External links[link]

• IAAF profile for Jon Drummond
• Sports Reference
• USATF Bio

Kirani James

Kirani James at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics
Personal information
Nationality	Grenada
Born	(1992-09-01) 1 September 1992 (age 19) Gouyave, Grenada
Residence	Tuscaloosa, Alabama, U.S.
Sport
Sport	Running
College team	Alabama Crimson Tide
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	200 m: 20.41 (El Paso 2011) 400 m: 44.36 (Zürich 2011)
Medal record Men's athletics Competitor for  Grenada World Championships Gold 2011 Daegu 400 m World Junior Championships Gold 2010 Moncton 400 m Silver 2008 Bydgoszcz 400 m Pan American Junior Championships Gold 2011 Miramar 200 m Gold 2009 Port-of-Spain 400 m CARIFTA Games (Junior) Gold 2010 George Town 200 m Gold 2010 George Town 400 m Gold 2009 Vieux Fort 400 m Bronze 2009 Vieux Fort 4×400 m relay World Youth Championships Gold 2009 Brixen 200 m Gold 2009 Brixen 400 m Silver 2007 Ostrava 400 m Commonwealth Youth Games Gold 2008 Pune 400 m CARIFTA Games (Youth) Gold 2008 Basseterre 200 m Gold 2008 Basseterre 400 m Gold 2007 Providenciales 400 m

Kirani James (born 1 September 1992) is a Grenadian sprinter who specializes in the 200 and 400 metres. He is the reigning 400 metres world champion.

Prodigious from a young age, he ran the fastest 400 m times ever by a 14-year-old and a 15-year-old. He won a series of gold medals at the CARIFTA Games and the Commonwealth Youth Games and rose on the international stage with 400 m silver medals at the 2007 World Youth and 2008 World Junior Championships. James became the first athlete to run a 200/400 double at the 2009 World Youth Championships and was the 2010 World Junior Champion.

He gained an athletic scholarship at the University of Alabama and won back-to-back NCAA Outdoor Championship titles in his first two years. James is the third fastest of all-time indoors (44.80 seconds) and ran a personal best of 44.36 at the 2011 IAAF Diamond League in Zürich.

Career[link]

Youth career[link]

At the age of 14 James won the gold medal in the 400 m at the 2007 CARIFTA Games in the under 17 category with a time of 47.86 seconds. He went on to win a silver medals at the 2007 World Youth Championships with a time of 46.96 s a time which is the fastest run by a 14-year-old.

In April 2008 he defended his CARIFTA 400 m title, winning the 200 metres with a time of 21.38 s. In July that year he won silver medal at the 2008 World Junior Championships with a time of 45.70 s, which is his personal best nation youth and junior record and the fastest time ever run by a 15-year-old. In October he won the gold medal at the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games with a new games record of 46.66 s.

James made his third CARIFTA Games appearance in 2009 and, in his under-20 debut, he defeated the defending 400 m champion and fellow Grenadian Rondell Bartholomew to win in a personal best of 45.45 s. This easily set a new championship record, beating Usain Bolt's six-year-old mark of 46.35 s.^[1][2] In consequence, he was awarded the Austin Sealy Trophy for the most outstanding athlete of the games.^[1][3]

James became the first youth athlete to complete a 200/400 metres double gold at the 2009 World Youth Championships in Athletics. Noting that he would be a junior athlete for a further two years, he focused on upcoming events, pinpointing the 2010 World Junior Championships in Athletics and the 2012 Summer Olympics as future goals.^[4] Following this, he won the 400 m at the 2009 Pan American Junior Championships.^[5] He was declared the 2009 Grenada Sportsman of the Year.^[6]

College athletics[link]

At least ten colleges in the United States had expressed strong interest in recruiting James for their track team, including Baylor, Alabama, South Carolina, Florida State, and Arizona State.^[7] He accepted a scholarship offer from Alabama and in his first ever appearance on an indoor track he ran a 45.79 in the 400 meters, placing first and breaking the 10-year-old school record of 46.46 held by Cori Loving.^[8]

James ran a new indoor personal best of 20.94 in the 200 m dash at the Texas A&M Challenge at Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium in College Station, Texas on February 13, 2010.^[9] He was runner-up at the NCAA Indoor Championships, finishing behind Torrin Lawrence. James lowered his 400 m personal best to 45.02 s at the 2010 CARIFTA Games, where he took a 200/400 m double,^[10] and improved further to 45.01 in winning the SEC Championships 400 m title. He claimed the gold medal over 400 m at the 2010 World Junior Championships in Athletics, but stated he was only running for times and was not satisfied with his winning performance of 45.89 seconds.^[11] He won the NCAA Outdoor Championship title in his first year of collegiate competition.^[12]

James moved up to third on the all-time indoor lists in February 2011, recording 44.80 seconds to win at the SEC Indoor Championships. This left only Michael Johnson and Kerron Clement as the faster athletes indoors, and also bettered LaShawn Merritt's previous world best junior time of 44.93 seconds.^[13] He failed to reach the podium at the NCAA Indoor meet as he clashed with another athlete and fell mid-race.^[14] He managed to repeat as the collegiate champion outdoors, however, as he edged ahead of Gil Roberts by one hundredth of a second.^[15] After the end of the college season, he made his professional debut at the London Grand Prix Diamond League meeting and established himself among the world's best with a personal best run of 44.61 seconds – a time which made him the fastest man that year.^[16]

Professional career[link]

At the 2011 World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, both James and fellow Grenadian runner Rondell Bartholomew made the finals of the 400m event. James won the event in a personal best of 44.60 seconds, becoming the youngest 400m world champion at the age of 18.^[17][18] The medal is the first for Grenada in any event at the World championships in athletics.^[18] Nine days later, James won the 400m at the 2011 IAAF Diamond League in Zürich with a new personal best of 44.36 seconds.

Personal bests[link]

Achievements[link]

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Event	Notes
Representing  Grenada
2007	CARIFTA Games (U-17)	Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands	6th	200 m	22.10   (1.2 m/s)
			1st	400 m	47.86
	World Youth Championships	Ostrava, Czech Republic	2nd	400 m	46.96 PB
2008	CARIFTA Games (U-17)	Basseterre, Saint Kitts and Nevis	1st	200 m	21.38   (2.0 m/s)
			1st	400 m	47.87
	World Junior Championships	Bydgoszcz, Poland	2nd	400 m	45.70
	Commonwealth Youth Games	Pune, India	1st	400 m	46.66
2009	CARIFTA Games (U-20)	Vieux Fort, Saint Lucia	DQ (h)	200 m
			1st	400 m	45.45 CR
			DQ (h)	4x100 m relay
			3rd	4x400 m relay	3:11.93
	World Youth Championships	Brixen, Italy	1st	200 m	21.05   (-0.9 m/s)
			1st	400 m	45.24
2010	CARIFTA Games (U-20)	George Town, Cayman Islands	1st	200 m	20.76   (0.8 m/s)
			1st	400 m	45.02 CR
2011	World Athletics Championships	Daegu, South Korea	1st	400 m	44.60
2012	World Indoor Championships	Istanbul, Turkey	6th	400m	46.21

References[link]