David Hemery

David Hemery (born July 18, 1944 in Cirencester , Gloucestershire ) is a retired British athlete. In 1968 he became Olympic champion in the 400-meter hurdles .

David Hemery's father moved to the United States when he was a child for professional reasons . Here he went to school and studied in Boston . Nevertheless, he started for Great Britain as a 400-meter hurdler and won the gold medal at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City in the then world record time of 48.1 s. His Olympic gold medal made him Great Britain's Sportsman of the Year in 1968 .

He also started in the 110-meter hurdles , which was extremely rare in the world elite. His greatest success on this route was the silver medal at the European Championships in 1969 .

At the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich , Hemery won the bronze medal over the 400 meter hurdles behind John Akii-Bua from Uganda and Ralph Mann from the USA. He won a silver medal with the British 4-by-400-meter relay .

After finishing his active career, Hemery became a track and field coach in the USA. In 1998 he was elected President of the British Athletics Federation. He is also an athlete ambassador for the development aid organization Right to Play .

Web links

• David Hemery in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )