Leroy Burrell
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| Medal record | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Men’s Athletics | |||
Competitor for  United States |
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| Olympic Games | |||
| Gold | 1992 Barcelona | 4x100 m relay | |
| World Championships | |||
| Gold | 1991 Tokyo | 4x100 m relay | |
| Gold | 1993 Stuttgart | 4x100 m relay | |
| Silver | 1991 Tokyo | 100 m | |
Leroy Russel Burrell (born February 21, 1967) is a former American athlete who twice set the world record for the 100 meter sprint, setting a time of 9.90 seconds in June 1991. This was then broken by Carl Lewis within a month. Burrell set the record for a second time when he ran 9.85 seconds in 1994, a record that stood until the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, when Donovan Bailey ran 9.84.
Burrell grew up in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania and attended Penn Wood High School. Suffering from poor eyesight accentuated by a childhood eye injury, he was poor at other sports but excelled on the track from an early age. He studied at the University of Houston, where he was a successful participant in its track program.
Burrell was plagued by injuries and bad luck throughout his career, particularly around major championships. He won the silver in the 100 meters behind Lewis at the 1991 World Championships, and at the 1992 Summer Olympics was false-started in the 100 metre final and, when the race finally restarted, his reaction off the line was slow and finished fifth. He did though manage to win a relay gold as part of the US team at Barcelona.
Since his retirement in 1998, Burrell has replaced his old college mentor, Tom Tellez, as coach of the University of Houston's track team.
He married Michelle Finn, also a sprinter, in 1994, and they have two sons. His younger sister Dawn also competed in track and field on the highest level.
[edit] Personal life style
According to the essay from PETA, Leroy Burrell has been a vegetarian, beating the world record in turns with Carl Lewis [1].
[edit] Notes
- ^ PETA. Winning Athletes Powered by Veggies. Retrieved on 5 March 2008.
[edit] External links
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