From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Shawn Crawford (born January 14, 1978) is an
American sprint
athlete
from the United States. He competes over in the 100 meters and 200 meters events.
He won gold at the 2004 Summer Olympics and silver at
the 2008 Summer Olympics in the
200 m.
Biography
Crawford was born in Van
Wyck, South
Carolina. He attended Indian Land High School before leaving
for Clemson University, where he claimed
11 All-America honors and three National Championships.
In a successful 2001 Crawford started the year with a victory at
the Indoor World
Championships in the 200 m. He then went to the World Athletics
Championships where he tied with Kim Collins of Saint
Kitts and Nevis for the 200 m. bronze medal. He then
travelled to the Goodwill Games where he claimed his
second gold medal of
the year.
The next two years of Crawford's career were most memorable for
his outrageous antics and lack of focus. At a 2002 meet in Milan,
he put on a Phantom of the
Opera mask just prior to the beginning of his 200 m race.
The mask became dislodged during the race obstructing his vision
and causing him to run out of his lane and be disqualified.[1]
He claimed to have tested the mask in advance by sticking his head
out of a car window while wearing it.
In January 2003, Crawford starred in an episode of the Fox TV show
Man vs.
Beast in which he raced a zebra and a giraffe in the
100 m on dirt. In the first race he easily bested the giraffe
(which was separated from him by a metal fence and may have been a
bit disoriented). The zebra race was very close with the zebra
slowly pulling ahead for victory. Accusing the zebra of a false
start, he re-raced the zebra getting out of the blocks first and
taking a lead. This caused the zebra to speed up, finishing in
9.90 s to Crawford's 10.80 s time. Later he boasted to
ESPN the Magazine, "tell the zebra I
coulda whooped him."[1]
According to the USATF website Crawford refers to himself as
"Cheetah Man." He has publicly expressed his desire to run in war
paint and urges spectators to look out for him at every meet.
After the relatively unsuccessful and unfocused 2002 and 2003
Crawford burst back in March 2004 where he was fancied for the
60 m. world indoor title. Unfortunately he came up against an
inform Jason
Gardener from Great Britain who edged him into the silver medal
position by just three hundredths of a second.
In the trials for the 2004 Summer Olympics Crawford
gained his place in the team by claiming third in the 100 m.
with a personal best of 9.93 s. behind winner Maurice Greene and second
placed Justin
Gatlin but bettered that seven days later with first place in
the 200 m. with a time of 19.99 s. this time pushing
Gatlin into second with Bernard Williams taking
third. In June Crawford improved on his 100 m personal best
when running 9.88 s in Eugene, Oregon, to leave him as a real
medal contender for the Athens Games.
Shawn Crawford (left) and
Walter Dix (right) at the 2008 Olympics 200
m final
At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Crawford ran the
100 m final in 9.89 s finishing in fourth place just
0.04 s behind first place finisher, Justin Gatlin, his friend and training
partner. That was the first race in history with four competitors
under 9.90 s. Crawford went on to win the gold medal in the
200 m in 19.79 s. Later, he claimed a silver as part of
the US 4x100 m relay team.
He qualified for the 2008 Summer Olympics in the
200 m dash, finishing second at the trials after failing to
qualify in the 100 m. He originally finished fourth in the
200 m final but was later promoted to 2nd, winning silver,
after fellow countryman Wallace Spearmon and Churandy
Martina of the Netherlands Antilles were both
disqualified for lane infringements. Crawford gave his medal to
Martina on August 28, 2008 in a tremendous show of
sportsmanship.[2] On
March 6, 2009, the Court of Arbitration for
Sport rejected an appeal by the National Olympic Committee of
the Netherlands Antilles against
Martina's disqualification.[3]
He won the 200 m at the 2009 US
Championships, and qualified to represent the United
States at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics. He ran
19.89 seconds in the final
of the competition, his best of the season. However, he was
pipped to the bronze medal by Spearmon, and was some distance
behind winner Usain
Bolt who set a new world record of 19.19 seconds.
Statistics
- As of 5 July 2009 (2009 -07-05)
Personal
bests
| Date |
Event |
Venue |
Time (seconds) |
| February 28, 2004 |
60 meters |
Boston, Massachusetts, United States |
6.47 |
| June 19, 2004 |
100 meters |
Eugene,
Oregon, United States |
9.88 |
| August 26, 2004 |
200 meters |
Athens, Greece |
19.79 |
| June 7, 2009 |
300 meters |
Eugene,
Oregon, United States |
32.47 |
- All information from IAAF Profile[4]
Major
achievements
- 2001
- 2004
- 2008
- 2008 Summer Olympics 200 m
Silver Medal
- On January 31, 2009 according to the Associated Press "Shawn
Crawford confirmed that he gave his Olympic silver medal to
Churandy Martina, the sprinter who finished second in the 200
meters but was later disqualified for running out of his lane"
References
External
links
| Persondata |
| NAME |
Crawford, Shawn |
| ALTERNATIVE
NAMES |
|
| SHORT
DESCRIPTION |
American sprinter |
| DATE OF BIRTH |
January 14, 1978 |
| PLACE OF
BIRTH |
Van Wyck, South Carolina |
| DATE OF DEATH |
|
| PLACE OF
DEATH |
|
Joshua J.
Johnson
Konstadinos Kederis
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