Leroy Burrell

Leroy Burrell
Full name	Leroy Russell Burrell
nation	United States
birthday	February 21, 1967
place of birth	Lansdowne, Pennsylvania
size	183 cm
Weight	82 kg
Career
discipline	sprint
Best performance	9.85 s ( 100 m )
society	Santa Monica Track Club
status	resigned
End of career	1998
Medal table
Olympic games 1 × 0 × 0 × World championships 2 × 1 × 0 ×
Olympic games gold Barcelona 1992 4 × 100 m  World championships gold Tokyo 1991 4 × 100 m silver Tokyo 1991 100 m gold Stuttgart 1993 4 × 100 m

Leroy Russell Burrell (born February 21, 1967 in Lansdowne , Pennsylvania ) is a retired American athlete and Olympic champion .

Poor eyesight from an eye injury in childhood made many sports impossible for him, but even in his youth he was an amazing runner. He graduated from the University of Houston and successfully participated in the athletics program. Burrell has been plagued by injuries and bad luck throughout his athletic career.

In June 1991 he set a world record of 9.90 s over 100 meters, which was broken two months later by Carl Lewis . In 1994 he set a new world record of 9.85 s, which this time was valid until 1996. At the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo in 1991 , he won the silver medal in the 100-meter run and the gold medal in the 4-by-100-meter relay.

At the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona he had a false start over 100 meters. When he repeated the start, his reaction fell by the wayside and he was too slow to leave the starting blocks to have a chance of winning a medal. In the 4 x 100 meter relay , he won the gold medal together with his teammates Michael Marsh , Dennis Mitchell and Carl Lewis, ahead of the teams from Nigeria and Cuba . At the 1993 World Championships in Stuttgart, he only took part in the relay. With this he achieved a world record in the semifinals and won the gold medal.

After retiring from active sports, Burrell has replaced former college mentor Tom Tellez as the coaching successor to the university's athletics team. In 1994 he married the sprinter Michelle Finn . He lives in Houston with her and their three sons .

Awards

• World Sportsman of the Year ( La Gazzetta dello Sport ): 1994
• World Team of the Year: 1993 with the 4 x 100 meter relay (together with Jon Drummond , Andre Cason and Dennis Mitchell )

Web links

• Leroy Burrell in the database of World Athletics (English)
• Athlete portrait at USA Track & Field
• Leroy Burrell in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Man Of the Century ( English ) Sports Illustrated . June 24, 1991. Retrieved January 27, 2017.
2. ↑ Leroy Burrell Breaks Mark For 100 Meters ( English ) nytimes.com . July 7, 1994. Retrieved January 27, 2017.
3. ^ University of Houston Athletics: Player Bio: Leroy Burrell