| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Women's athletics | ||
| Competitor for the United States | ||
| World Championships | ||
| Gold | 2011 Daegu | 4×400 m relay |
Francena McCorory (born October 20, 1988) is an American track and field athlete, known primarily for running the 400 metres. She is the NCAA and American indoor record holder in that event and is a United States representative to the 2011 World Championships in Athletics.
McCorory attended Bethel High School in Hampton, Virginia where she displayed her talent for the 400 metres. A notable performance was at the 2005 Virginia Group AAA Eastern Region meet, where McCorory took her team's baton as much as 80 metres behind the leaders of the race, but cruised to victory past six other teams.[1] Later, she set the National High School Indoor record at 51.93, a record previously held by future champion World Champion Sanya Richards, in her only attempt at the distance.[2]
Despite being recruited my larger universities, McCorory continued to hometown Hampton University. She won the 2009 NCAA Women's Indoor Track and Field Championships[3] and later in the year finished third in the NCAA Women's Outdoor Track and Field Championships.[4] In 2010, she went to Fayetteville, Arkansas to defend her championship. Instead of merely repeating as champion, she won the race by over a second, setting the NCAA record and beating Diane Dixon's 19 year old American record in the event, running 50.54.[5] Later that year she won the NCAA Outdoor championship, in 50.69, actually slower than her Indoor record.[6] A few weeks later, she improved her personal best to 50.52 while finishing second at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.[7]
After graduating Hampton, she improved her best to 50.49 again in second at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships[8], which qualified her for the 2011 World Championships in Athletics. A month after that, she took her best down to 50.29 at the Herculis meet in Monaco. She took it down one more time to 50.24 in the semi-finals of the 2011 World Championships in Athletics. In the finals, she wasn't quite as fast, finishing in fourth place in her first experience on the world stage. A few days later she anchored the United States team to a gold medal in the 4×400 m relay.