Merlene Ottey

Merlene Ottey
Merlene Ottey 2011
nation	Jamaica / Slovenia
birthday	May 10, 1960
place of birth	Cold Spring ,  Jamaica
size	173 cm
Weight	59 kg
Career
discipline	100 m , 200 m , 4 × 100 m
National squad	since 2002 Slovenia
status	active
Medal table
Olympic games 0 × 4 × 5 × World championships 3 × 4 × 7 × Indoor World Cup 3 × 2 × 1 ×
Olympic games bronze 1980 Moscow 200 m bronze 1984 Los Angeles 100 m bronze 1984 Los Angeles 200 m bronze 1992 Barcelona 200 m silver 1996 Atlanta 100 m silver 1996 Atlanta 200 m bronze 1996 Atlanta 4 × 100 m bronze 2000 Sydney 100 m silver 2000 Sydney 4 × 100 m  World championships silver 1983 Helsinki 200 m bronze 1983 Helsinki 4 × 100 m bronze 1987 Rome 100 m bronze 1987 Rome 200 m bronze 1991 Tokyo 100 m bronze 1991 Tokyo 200 m gold 1991 Tokyo 4 × 100 m silver 1993 Stuttgart 100 m gold 1993 Stuttgart 200 m bronze 1993 Stuttgart 4 × 100 m silver 1995 Gothenburg 100 m gold 1995 Gothenburg 200 m silver 1995 Gothenburg 4 × 100 m bronze 1997 Athens 200 m  Indoor world championships silver 1987 Indianapolis 200 m bronze 1989 Budapest 60 m gold 1989 Budapest 200 m silver 1991 Seville 60 m gold 1991 Seville 200 m gold 1995 Barcelona 60 m
last change: August 14, 2012

Merlene Ottey ( Merlene Joyce Ottey , during her marriage Ottey-Page ; born May 10, 1960 in Cold Spring , Hanover Parish ) is a Jamaican athlete who took on Slovenian citizenship in 2002 and has competed for Slovenia since then.

Career

Ottey is one of the most successful sprinters in the history of athletics , despite never becoming an Olympic champion . When she missed victory by less than a nose at the World Championships in Stuttgart in the final of the 100-meter run in 1993, she threatened to go down in sporting history as the "eternal runner-up". At that time, however, she finally won gold over 200 meters , which the audience celebrated with a standing ovation lasting several minutes .

She came under suspicion of doping when a laboratory discovered traces of nandrolone in a doping test in June 1999 . Ottey and her association appealed against the two-year ban imposed by the IAAF , during which they missed the 1999 World Championships. In July 2000, the IAAF Court of Arbitration upheld the objection over alleged deficiencies in the work of the laboratory.

At the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000 , Ottey won silver in the 4 x 100 meter relay . In 2009 she was subsequently awarded the bronze medal over 100 meters because of Marion Jones' disqualification for doping reasons . At 40, Ottey is the oldest medalist in Olympic running competitions.

In 2002, the athlete , who has been living in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana since 1998, took on the citizenship of Slovenia and competed for the seventh time in a row at the Olympic Games in Athens for her adopted home in 2004 . The then 44-year-old reached the semi-finals over 100 meters and failed to reach the final just under fifth. She also started over 200 meters, surprisingly reached the semi-finals in this competition, but sustained an injury immediately after the start. It was her 52nd Olympic race. With her seven participations Ottey is one of the athletes with the most participations .

In mid-July 2006 she ran the 100 meters in Maribor (Marburg / Slovenia) in 11.45 s. With that she achieved a Masters world record in the class over 45 years. At an athletics event that was one of the “Austrian Top 4” and was held on July 28, 2006 in Wolfsberg (Carinthia, Austria), Ottey improved her Masters world record to 11.41 seconds under normal conditions.

Merlene Ottey started on August 8, 2006 at the European Championships in Gothenburg . There she reached the semi-finals as third in the women's 100-meter run in 11.41 s, twelfth overall of all forerunners. She narrowly missed the final on August 9 with 11.44 seconds as the tenth of all semi-finalists.

At the 2007 World Championships in Osaka , she - meanwhile 47 years old - started again on the 100 meter course. However, with 11.64 s she was only fourth in her prelim and was not one of those who could qualify over time. In 2008 Ottey missed the Slovenian Olympic standard and was not nominated for the Beijing Olympic Games.

Parts of this article seem out of date as of 2013 .
Please help to research and insert the missing information .

In 2010 she set a new world record over 100 meters in the age group over 50 in Nove Mesto with 11.67 seconds . In 2012, she was the oldest participant in the Slovenian women's 4 x 100 meter relay at the European Championships , but failed as sixth in her preliminary run. Her next goal was to take part in the 2013 World Championships .

Personal

The 1.73 m tall and 59 kg heavy athlete is the fourth of seven siblings. She graduated from the University of Nebraska with a Bachelor of Arts . On February 3, 1984, she married the hurdler Nat Page ; the marriage was short-lived.

Between 1979 and 1995 Ottey was voted Jamaica's Sportswoman of the Year 13 times , making her the record holder for this award.

Top performances

• 100 m: 10.74 s (September 7, 1996)
• 200 m: 21.64 s (September 13, 1991)

Hall top performance

• 60 m: 6.96 s (February 14, 1992) = former WR
• 200 m: 21.87 s (February 13, 1993) = WR

Awards

• 1990: World Sportswoman of the Year ( La Gazzetta dello Sport )

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede: The Modern Olympic Century 1896–1996. Track and Field Athletics. Berlin 1999 (published by the German Society for Athletics Documentation eV )

Web links

Commons : Merlene Ottey  - Collection of Images

• Merlene Ottey in the database of World Athletics (English)
• Danish Fansite (Engl.)

Footnotes

1. ^ Spiegel Online : Doping: Merlene Ottey's career before the end , September 16, 1999
2. ^ Spiegel Online : Doping: Ineligibility against Merlene Ottey lifted , July 4, 2000
3. ↑ Details of the Merlene Ottey Decision iaaf.org July 6, 2000
4. ^ IOC decision: Olympic gold nine years late. In: Spiegel Online . December 9, 2009, accessed December 9, 2009 . 
5. ↑ Michael Reinsch: Fifty and not a bit tired . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , August 2, 2010, p. 21