Kevin Young (athlete)
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| Olympic medal record | |||
| Men's Athletics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Gold | 1992 Barcelona | 400m hurdles | |
Kevin Curtis Young (born September 16, 1966) is a former American athlete, winner of 400 m hurdles at the 1992 Summer Olympics.
Born in Watts, California, Kevin Young, as an University of California, Los Angeles "walk-on", won the NCAA titles in 400 m hurdles in 1987 and 1988.
Young made his debut at the international scene by finishing second at the 1987 Pan American Games. At the 1988 Summer Olympics, Young finished fourth. At the 1991 World Championships, Young was again fourth.
In 1992, Young won his first US National Championships title and was unbeaten prior the Barcelona Olympics, which he won with a new world record of 46.78. As of 2006 the record still stands, and he is also the only person to have run 400 m hurdles in less than 47 seconds. This was achieved using 12 strides between hurdles (nearly 9 feet per stride) switching to 13 later in the race, a technique only Young has ever perfected.
Young's world-record run is noteworthy in one other respect: it could have been even faster. During the Olympic final, Young not only failed to clear the last hurdle cleanly (he grazed it and stumbled slightly as he descended from his jump), but being so far ahead of the field, he slowed down and raised his arm in celebration as he crossed the finish line. Despite this, he set a world record which still stands fourteen years later. Young became the first ever ESPY award winner in track presented by ESPN.
In 1993, Young won his second US National Championships title and had 25 consecutive wins until he was beaten by Samuel Matete from Zambia just two weeks before 1993 World Championships. In the World Championships final, however, Young again made a decisive move between hurdles 7 and 8. He held this lead until the finish, beating Matete by 0.42 seconds.
It is well noted that Young through out the 1992 season prior to Barcelona, placed small pieces of paper with the numbers 46.89 in each running spike. He had mentally convinced himself that running under 47 seconds was not impossible.
| Preceded by Sergei Bubka |
United Press International Athlete of the Year 1992 |
Succeeded by Miguel Indurain |
| Olympic champions in men's 400 m hurdles |
|---|
| 1900: John Tewksbury | 1904: Harry Hillman | 1908: Charles Bacon | 1920: Frank Loomis | 1924: Morgan Taylor | 1928: David Burghley | 1932: Bob Tisdall | 1936: Glenn Hardin | 1948: Roy Cochran | 1952: Charles Moore | 1956: Rex Cawley | 1960: Glenn Davis | 1964: Glenn Davis | 1968: David Hemery | 1972: John Akii-Bua | 1976 Edwin Moses | 1980 Volker Beck | 1984: Edwin Moses | 1988: André Phillips | 1992: Kevin Young | 1996: Derrick Adkins | 2000: Angelo Taylor | 2004: Felix Sanchez |
