Calvin Smith (athlete, 1961)

Calvin Smith
nation	United States
birthday	January 8, 1961
place of birth	Bolton (Michigan)
size	178 cm
Weight	69 kg
Career
discipline	sprint
Best performance	9.93 s ( 100 m ) 19.99 s ( 200 m )
status	resigned
Medal table
Olympic games 1 × 0 × 1 × World championships 3 × 1 × 0 ×
Olympic games gold Los Angeles 1984 4 × 100 m bronze Seoul 1988 100 m World championships gold Helsinki 1983 200 m gold Helsinki 1983 4 × 100 m silver Helsinki 1983 100 m gold Rome 1987 200 m

Calvin Smith (born January 8, 1961 in Bolton , Michigan ) is a former American sprinter and Olympic champion .

His sporting career was overshadowed by his compatriot Carl Lewis . Nevertheless, he broke the world record over 100 meters on July 3, 1983 in Colorado Springs and set the best time to 9.93 s. In 1983 he was also the only athlete who ran both the 100 meters under 10 seconds and the 200 meters under 20 seconds.

At the World Championships in Helsinki in 1983 he won the silver medal in the 100-meter run and the gold medal in the 200-meter run , as well as the team gold medal in the 4-by-100-meter relay , with the team setting a new world record 37.86 s. At the World Championships in Rome in 1987 he won the gold medal over 200 meters, and at the World Athletics Cup in Havana in 1992 he won bronze over 100 meters and the gold medal in the 4 x 100 meter relay.

At the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, he won the team gold medal over 4 x 100 meters together with his teammates Sam Graddy , Ron Brown and Carl Lewis, ahead of the teams from Jamaica (silver) and Canada (bronze). At the Olympic Games in Seoul in 1988 he won the bronze medal over 100 meters behind Carl Lewis (gold) and Briton Linford Christie (silver) through the subsequent disqualification of Ben Johnson .

His son Calvin Smith Jr. is also successful as a sprinter.

Web links

• Calvin Smith in the database of World Athletics (English)
• Calvin Smith in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )