David Oliver (born April 24, 1982), is a retired American

hurdling Hurdling is the act of jumping over an obstacle at a high speed or in a sprint. In the early 19th century, hurdlers ran at and jumped over each hurdle (sometimes known as 'burgles'), landing on both feet and checking their forward motion. Today, ...

athlete An athlete (also sportsman or sportswoman) is a person who competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed, or endurance. Athletes may be professionals or amateurs. Most professional athletes have particularly well-dev ...

. As a

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, he competed in the 110 meter hurdles event outdoor and the

60 meter hurdles 60 metres hurdles is a distance in hurdling which is generally run in indoor competitions. It is equivalent with the first 5 hurdles of a standard outdoor hurdle race. The current women's and men's world records are 7.68 seconds (Susanna K ...

event indoors. He is the former 110 meter hurdles champion winning the gold medal at the

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

in 2013 with a time of 13 seconds. He won the bronze medal in the 2008 Olympic Games and won another bronze at the

2010 IAAF World Indoor Championships The 2010 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics was held between 12 and 14 March at the Aspire Dome in Doha, Qatar. The championships was the first of six IAAF World Athletics Series events to take place in 2010. Bidding and organisation Th ...

. He was the American record holder in the 110 meter hurdles. Oliver is a four-time U.S. Champion, having won indoor and outdoor titles in 2008, a second outdoor title at the 2010

USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships The USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships is an annual track and field competition organized by USA Track & Field, which serves as the American national championships for the sport. Since the year 1992, in the years which feature a Summer Olym ...

and third outdoor title at the 2011

. He also won the gold medal at the

2008 IAAF World Athletics Final The 6th IAAF World Athletics Final was held at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Stuttgart, Germany on September 13 and September 14, 2008. A number of road races also took place on the second day of competition. There were seven different starting po ...

. He has a personal best of 12.89 seconds in the 110 m hurdles, placing him fifth on the all-time list at the time of his retirement from athletics at the end of the 2017 season (fourth at the time he ran it).

Career

College

Having been recruited from Denver (CO) East High School by

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a Private university, private, University charter#Federal, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classifie ...

's head coach, Michael Merritt, Oliver enjoyed his first successes on the track in the

Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) is a collegiate athletic conference whose full members are historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southeastern and the Mid-Atlantic United States. It participates in the National ...

(MEAC). He won four consecutive outdoor MEAC

110 metres hurdles The 110 metres hurdles, or 110-metre hurdles, is a hurdling track and field event for men. It is included in the athletics programme at the Summer Olympic Games. The female counterpart is the 100 metres hurdles. As part of a racing event, ten ...

titles, from 2001–2004. He was also a MEAC indoor champion in the 55 metres hurdles, winning in 2003 in 7.34 seconds. 60 m h Doha 2010

Oliver received his first

All-America The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...

n honor with a fourth-place finish at the 2003 NCAA Men's Outdoor Track and Field Championship, running a personal record 13.60 seconds in the process, adding to a long history of Howard University's Track and Field

NCAA Division I-A The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). A ...

All-Americans. This was Howard's most recent track and field All-American since Calvin Branch received the honor in 1989. The following year, he received a second All American honor, having taken fifth place at the NCAA Men's Indoor Track and Field Championship with a University record of 7.69 seconds in the

60 metres hurdles 60 metres hurdles is a distance in hurdling which is generally run in indoor competitions. It is equivalent with the first 5 hurdles of a standard outdoor hurdle race. The current women's and men's world records are 7.68 seconds (Susanna Ka ...

. Later that season, he recorded an outdoor Howard University record of 13.55 seconds for the 110 m hurdles at the

Georgia Tech Invitational Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,71 ...

. During his time at college, he also played wide receiver for the Howard Bison football team.David Oliver Biography
USATF. Retrieved on June 29, 2010. Mostly playing on

special teams In American football, the specific role that a player takes on the field is referred to as their "position". Under the modern rules of American football, both teams are allowed 11 players on the field at one time and have "unlimited free substitu ...

, Oliver's physical abilities drew the attention of NFL teams. He was invited for try-outs with the

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team pl ...

and

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansio ...

Professional

After leaving college, he pursued track and field professionally. In 2006, he won at the Internationales Stadionfest IAAF Golden League meet in

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and finished fifth at that year's World Athletics Final. At the 2008 Penn Relays, Oliver completed the fastest 4×120 yd

shuttle hurdle relays The original meaning of the word shuttle is the device used in weaving to carry the weft. By reference to the continual to-and-fro motion associated with that, the term was then applied in transportation and then in other spheres. Thus the word ma ...

of all-time with teammates

Aubrey Herring Aubrey Herring (born September 19, 1978) is an American track and field athlete. Herring was born in Oklahoma and moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1994 where he attended Warren Central High School and graduated in 1996. Herring was the 1996 Ind ...

, Joel Brown,

Aries Merritt Aries Merritt (born July 24, 1985) is an American track and field athlete who specializes in the 110 metre hurdles The 110 metres hurdles, or 110-metre hurdles, is a hurdling track and field event for men. It is included in the athletics prog ...

, finishing the rarely contested event in a record time of 53.31 seconds. In 2007, he was second at the USA Indoor Track and Field Championships after winning at the

Tyson Invitational The Tyson Invitational, is an annual indoor track and field meet which is held in early February at the Randal Tyson Track Center. It was first held in Fayetteville, Arkansas#Sports, Track Capital of the South, in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The compe ...

. Outdoors, he improved his personal best to 13.14 seconds, finishing runner-up at the

Qatar Athletic Super Grand Prix The Doha Diamond League is an annual one-day track and field meeting held at the Suheim bin Hamad Stadium The Suheim bin Hamad Stadium (), also known as Qatar SC Stadium, is a multi-purpose stadium in Doha, Qatar. It is currently used mostly for ...

, and was third at the

. This meant he qualified for the

2007 World Championships in Athletics The 11th World Championships in Athletics, () under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), were held at Nagai Stadium in Osaka, Japan from 24 August to 2 September 2007. 200 of the IAAF's 212 member federa ...

and he almost reached the final, being knocked out of the semi-finals after finishing fourth in his race. RoblesBeijing

In 2008 Oliver won his first national title in the 60 m hurdles. At the

2008 IAAF World Indoor Championships The 2008 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics were held at the Luis Puig Palace in Valencia, Spain, March 7–9, 2008. Bid Valencia was announced the winning bidder by the IAAF on November 13, 2005 at an IAAF Council meeting in Moscow, Ru ...

, he was knocked out in the semi-finals stage. Later in the year, he ran a personal best of 12.95 seconds at the Qatar Grand Prix. He ran a wind-assisted 12.89 seconds in the semi-finals of the

United States Olympic Trials The United States Olympic Trials are competitions held in certain sports to select the United States' participants in those sports at the Olympic Games. These events include: * United States Olympic Trials (curling) * United States Olympic Trials (d ...

and went on to beat Olympic and world silver medalist Terrence Trammell in the final with another windy run of 12.95 seconds. Oliver went on to claim the bronze medal in the 110 m hurdles at the

2008 Beijing Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nati ...

, finishing behind Dayron Robles who set an

Olympic record Olympic records are the best performances in a specific event in that event's history in either the Summer Olympic Games or the Winter Olympic Games, including: * Archery (list) * Alpine skiing (records recognized only by FIS) * Athletics (lis ...

and compatriot David Payne. He closed the year with victories at the ISTAF meet in Berlin and at the

. He was the second fastest 110 m hurdler of 2008. The 2009 season started promisingly for Oliver, as he recorded 13.09 seconds for his third win in Qatar, but a calf strain resulted in him missing the US Outdoor Championships, and thus the opportunity to qualify for the

2009 World Championships in Athletics The 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics () were held in Berlin, Germany from 15–23 August 2009. The majority of events took place in the Olympiastadion, while the marathon and racewalking events started and finished at the Brandenbur ...

. Oliver started the 2010 outdoor season with four straight wins over other competitors, among them victories at the Ponce Grand Prix, and the

Colorful Daegu Pre-Championships Meeting The Colorful Daegu Championships Meeting was an annual track and field competition at the Daegu Stadium in Daegu, South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of ...

over Dayron Robles. He scored his first IAAF Diamond League win at the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix in May, beating home favorite

Liu Xiang Liu Xiang or Liuxiang may refer to: People *Liu Xiang, Prince of Qi (died 179 BC), prince during the Han dynasty *Liu Xiang, Prince of Liang (died 97 BC), prince during the Han dynasty *Liu Xiang (scholar) (77 BC – 6 BC), Han dynasty scholar-off ...

with a meeting record of 12.99 seconds. The following month he set a new personal best of 12.93 seconds to win his second national title at the USA Championships. Oliver improved on his personal best in the 110 m hurdles on July 3, 2010, with a time of 12.90 seconds, equalling the area and national record held by Dominique Arnold. On July 16, 2010, Oliver ran 12.89 for the 110 m hurdles, which was the third fastest time ever at that point (after Dayron Robles and

). Additionally, he moved up to number six on the all-time lists in the 60 m hurdles with a win at the Sparkassen Cup, where his personal best of 7.37 seconds also brought him his first ever indoor victory over Dayron Robles. By the time 2010 came to an end, Oliver was unbeaten in 15 finals races and held the top five times and eight of the top nine times in the world.

2011 saw Oliver, during the outdoor season, win another U.S. Championship title and run under the 13 second barrier again. Indoor he produced his career best 7.37, just 0.01 off the American record. He finished the season ranked #3 in the world. 2013, Oliver was able to bounce back from back to back injury plagued seasons and he was able to win his first global title, winning the World Championships in 13.00 in Moscow, Russia. He also won his second IAAF Diamond League title.

Retirement from Athletics

At the end of the 2017 season, Oliver announced his retirement from athletics. He was subsequently appointed head of the track and field program at his alma mater,

Personal life

His mother, Brenda Chambers, also competed in

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

in the 400 m hurdles event. He graduated from

Denver East High School East High School is a historical public high school located in the City Park neighborhood on the east side of Denver, Colorado, United States. It is part of the Denver Public Schools system, and is one of four original high schools in Denver. Th ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

, in 2000. He lives in

Kissimmee Kissimmee ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Osceola County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 79,226. It is a Principal City of the Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, Florida, Metropolitan Statistical Area, wh ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...

and is trained by Aubrey Herring. He as well was formally coached by Brooks Johnson. He graduated from Howard University in 2004 with a

Bachelor of Business Administration Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) is a bachelor's degree in business administration awarded by colleges and universities after completion of undergraduate study in the fundamentals of business administration and usually including advanc ...

Marketing Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to empha ...

. Oliver is also a supporter of English football team Arsenal Football Club.

Personal bests

Competition record

*National outdoor championships – Winner: 2008, 2010, 2011, 2015. Runner-up: 2013 *National indoor championships – Winner: 2008. Runner-up: 2010.

Rankings

Oliver was ranked among the best in the US and the world in the 110m hurdles from 2005 to 2016, according to the votes of the experts of '' Track and Field News''.

Achievements and Accolades

In 2014, Oliver was elected to the Howard University Hall of Fame.

References

External links

* * *
Stuttgart 2006 was David Oliver’s ‘step forward’
– article from

IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body fo ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Oliver, David 1982 births Living people American male hurdlers African-American male track and field athletes Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for the United States in track and field Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics Howard University alumni Howard Bison football players Athletes (track and field) at the 2015 Pan American Games World Athletics Championships athletes for the United States World Athletics Championships medalists Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States Pan American Games medalists in athletics (track and field) Diamond League winners USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships winners IAAF Continental Cup winners World Athletics Championships winners Medalists at the 2015 Pan American Games 21st-century African-American sportspeople 20th-century African-American people