Rod Milburn

Rod Milburn , actually Rodney Milburn Jr. , (born March 18, 1950 in Opelousas , Louisiana , † November 11, 1997 in Port Hudson , Louisiana) was an American hurdler who was Olympic champion in the 110-meter distance in 1972 .

In 1971 he set a world record over 120 yard hurdles with 13.0 s.

In 1972 he got into shape only slowly and only barely qualified for the Olympic Games in Munich . There he won the world record time of 13.24 s with a hundredth of a second ahead of Guy Drut from France. Since hand times were officially held as a world record in 1972, Milburn only set the world record of 13.2 s with his time. It was not until 1977 that the 13.24 s was recognized as the first world record with electronic timing.

In 1973 Milburn set his world record for the yard distance before he improved the world record for the metric distance in Zurich with 13.1 s in early July. This meant that Martin Lauer's world record was undercut after fourteen years, like Lauer's record at Weltklasse Zürich in Letzigrund . Milburn confirmed this world record from Zurich shortly afterwards in Siena.

In 1975 he was once again best in the world, but in 1976 he was unable to qualify for the Olympic Games. After that, he took part in an attempt to establish professional athletics for a few years. In 1980 he was reamateurised and then took part in competitions until 1984.

Rod Milburn was 1.83 m tall and weighed 79 kg during his playing days. In 1997, at the age of 47, he died of poisoning while working in a paper mill.

Web links

• USA Track & Field Hall of Fame entry
• Rod Milburn in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )