Dawn C. Burrell (born November 1, 1973) is an American chef and retired

long jumper The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...

. She won the gold medal at the

2001 IAAF World Indoor Championships The 8th IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics were held at the Pavilhão Atlântico in Lisbon, Portugal from March 9 to March 11, 2001. It was the first time the Championships had been held in Portugal. There were a total number of 511 part ...

Burrell strikes gold

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC television, radio and online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadcasting the sport live or alongside flag ...

(2001-03-10). Retrieved on 2011-01-05. and represented the United States at the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

. In her culinary career, she was a semifinalist in 2020 for a

James Beard Foundation Award The James Beard Foundation Awards are annual awards presented by the James Beard Foundation to recognize chefs, restaurateurs, authors and journalists in the United States. They are scheduled around James Beard's May 5 birthday. The media award ...

. Burrell is the younger sister of former 100 m world record holder

Leroy Burrell Leroy Russel Burrell (born February 21, 1967) is an American former track and field athlete, who twice set the men's 100 metres world record progression, world record for the 100 metres, 100 m Sprint (running), sprint. Early life Burrell g ...

.Dawn Burrell

USATF USA Track & Field (USATF) is the United States national governing body for the sports of track and field, cross country running, road running and racewalking (known as the sport of athletics outside the US). The USATF was known between 1979 and ...

. Retrieved on 2011-01-05.

Athletic career

Dawn Burrell at the 2000 Olympic games in Sydney

Burrell attended

Penn Wood High School Penn Wood High School is a high school that occupies two campuses. One in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, USA, and one in Yeadon, Pennsylvania, USA. Organization Penn Wood High is managed by the William Penn School District. The school serves the boroug ...

and enjoyed her first athletic successes in 1991 when she won four

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

state titles in the jumps and

hurdles 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, ...

and won a

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receive ...

at the United States Junior Championships. She initially started out in the 100 meter hurdles and reached the event final at the

1992 World Junior Championships in Athletics The 1992 World Junior Championships in Athletics was the fourth edition of the international athletics competition for athletes aged 19 years or under. It was held in Seoul, South Korea from September 16 to September 20, 1992. Results Men Wome ...

. Burrell gradually began to focus more on the

long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...

and it was in this event that she made her first senior international appearance, taking fifth place in the final at the

1995 Pan American Games File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake strike ...

. She represented the

University of Houston The University of Houston (UH) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1927, UH is a member of the University of Houston System and the List of universities in Texas by enrollment, university in Texas ...

at the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

Track and Field Championships from 1993 to 1995 and was graduated the following year. In 1997 she won the long jump title at the

USA Indoor Track and Field Championships The USA Indoor Track and Field Championships is an annual indoor track and field competition organized by USA Track & Field, which serves as the American national championships for the sport. In years which feature a World Indoor Championships in ...

, and repeated the feat the following year with a personal best jump of 6.92 meters.US Indoor Championships (Women)
GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2011-01-06. That year she also set an outdoor best of 6.90 m and took the bronze at the

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 ...

. She came fourth at the

1998 Goodwill Games The 1998 Goodwill Games was the fourth edition of the international sports competition the Goodwill Games, which were created by Ted Turner in reaction to the political troubles surrounding the Olympic Games of the 1980s. The competition was held i ...

(two centimeters off third-placed

Niki Xanthou Niki Xanthou ( el, Νίκη Ξάνθου, , born 11 October 1973 in Rhodes) is a Greek long jumper. Xanthou set nine national records in long jump during her career. Her personal best, and national record, is 7.03 metres, achieved in August 199 ...

) and competed at the

1998 IAAF Grand Prix Final The 1998 IAAF Grand Prix Final was the fourteenth edition of the season-ending competition for the IAAF Grand Prix track and field circuit, organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations. It was held on 5 September at the Luzhn ...

, where she finished eighth. Burrell was runner-up to

Shana Williams Shana L. Williams (born April 7, 1972) is a retired American track and field athlete who competed in the long jump. She is a two-time Olympian, having competed in her event at the 1996 and 2000 Summer Olympics. Williams won the silver medal ...

at the national indoor championships, but still was selected for the

1999 IAAF World Indoor Championships The 7th IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics were held in the Green Dome Maebashi stadium in Maebashi, Japan from March 5 to March 7, 1999. It was the first time the Championships were staged outside Europe or North America. Primo Nebiolo, ...

and she finished eighth in the long jump final.Burrell Dawn

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 for ...

. Retrieved on 2011-01-06. She won her first and only outdoor American title with a personal record of 6.96 m in

Eugene, Oregon Eugene ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast. As of the 2020 United States Census, Eu ...

. She reached the long jump final at the

1999 World Championships in Athletics The 7th World Championships in Athletics, a World Athletic Championships event held under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held at the Estadio Olímpico, Seville, Spain, between the August 20 and Augu ...

alongside fellow Americans

Marion Jones Marion Lois Jones (born October 12, 1975), also known as Marion Jones-Thompson, is an American former world champion track and field athlete and former professional basketball player. She won three gold medals and two bronze medals at the 200 ...

and Shana Williams. Burrell finished sixth at what would be her first and only appearance on the outdoor world stage. In 2000, she was the runner up at the United States Olympic Track and Field Trials, jumping a wind-assisted 6.97 m and earning selection for the upcoming

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...

. In August, she set an outdoor career best mark of 6.98 m to win the long jump at the

DN Galan BAUHAUS-galan, formerly known as DN-Galan is an annual, international athletics meeting that takes place at the Olympic Stadium in Stockholm. Previously it was one of the five IAAF Super Grand Prix events until 2010, and has since been part of th ...

meeting in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

. Representing the United States at the

2000 Sydney Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

, she reached the event final as the third best qualifier behind

Heike Drechsler Heike Gabriela Drechsler (; ; born 16 December 1964) is a German former track and field athlete who represented East Germany and later Germany. One of the most successful long jumpers of all-time, she is a former world record holder and ranks ...

and Marion Jones, having cleared 6.77 m; however, Burrell could not match her earlier form and ended the competition final with a sole legal jump of 6.38 m, finishing in tenth place. She closed her season with a

silver medal A silver medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc ...

in the long jump at the

2000 IAAF Grand Prix Final The 2000 IAAF Grand Prix Final was the sixteenth edition of the season-ending competition for the IAAF Grand Prix track and field circuit, organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations. It was held on 5 October at the Khalifa ...

, where she had a wind-assisted jump of 6.99 m behind Drechsler. She also ran in the 100 m hurdles at the competition and was seventh in the final. The 2001 season held significant career highs and lows for the athlete. She started the year by taking her third U.S. Indoor title in the long jump. She was chosen to compete at the

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

, Portugal. Burrell gave the greatest performance of her career with a jump of 7.03 m – her first time over the seven-meter mark. This was enough to win the

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have bee ...

some five centimeters ahead of the defending champion, Russian athlete

Tatyana Kotova Tatyana Vladimirovna Kotova (russian: Татьяна Владимировна Котова, born 11 December 1976) is a track and field athlete who competed for Russia in the long jump. Her personal best jump of 7.42 m at Annecy in 2002, is th ...

. The jump brought Burrell into the top ten long jumpers on the all-time indoor lists and made her the second best American indoors, behind

Jackie Joyner-Kersee Jacqueline Joyner-Kersee (born March 3, 1962) is a retired American track and field athlete, ranked among the all-time greatest athletes in the heptathlon as well as long jump. She won three gold, one silver, and two bronze Olympic medals in tho ...

. She began preparing for the outdoor season, but suffered an

anterior cruciate ligament injury An anterior cruciate ligament injury occurs when the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is either stretched, partially torn, or completely torn. The most common injury is a complete tear. Symptoms include pain, an audible cracking sound during inju ...

to her knee in April which ruled her out for the entire season. The injury effectively ended her career as she competed sparingly thereafter but never again won a national title.

Culinary career

After retiring from her athletic career, Burrell turned to the food world, enrolling at the Art Institute of Houston to study culinary arts. Her first restaurant jobs included working for chef

Tom Aikens Tom Aikens (born 1970), also named Tom Aitkens, is an English Michelin-starred chef. Aikens briefly worked for chefs in London and Paris restaurants. Under his tenure from 1996 to 1999 as head chef and then chef patron, Pied à Terre earned it ...

in London and Monica Pope in Houston. She next went to work for

Tyson Cole Tyson Cole (born September 3, 1970) is a chef and restaurateur based in Austin, Texas, USA. Biography Cole had begun his culinary career as a dishwasher at a Japanese restaurant named Kyoto in downtown Austin, Texas. Attrition among the rest ...

at the restaurant Uchi's Houston location, then became sous chef at Uchi’s sister restaurant in

Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

, Uchiko. From there, Burrell became executive chef at Kulture, a Houston restaurant focused on dishes of the

African diaspora The African diaspora is the worldwide collection of communities descended from native Africans or people from Africa, predominantly in the Americas. The term most commonly refers to the descendants of the West and Central Africans who were e ...

, described as “global comfort” food. For her work at Kulture, Burrell was a semifinalist for a

for “Best Chef: Texas” in 2020. She left the role following the outbreak of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

; at the time, she was caring for her mother who had recently had a stroke and the COVID exposure involved in working in a restaurant would have endangered her. Burrell appeared as a contestant on the ''

Cutthroat Kitchen ''Cutthroat Kitchen'' is an American cooking show hosted by Alton Brown that aired on the Food Network from August 11, 2013 to July 19, 2017. It features four chefs competing in a three-round elimination cooking competition. The contestants face ...

'' episode "Fowl Play," the "Knife Strife" episode of ''Chopped'', and the Man vs. Master episode "Dim Sum You Lose Sum". In 2020 she competed on '' Top Chef: Portland'', which aired in the spring of 2021. She finished in the top three, making it to the season finale. She said of her success on the show, “My platform is extremely important ��I’m happy to reveal on national TV that Black women can cook at a high level. Let’s normalize it.”

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Burrell, Dawn 1973 births Living people Track and field athletes from Philadelphia American female long jumpers American female hurdlers Olympic track and field athletes of the United States Athletes (track and field) at the 2000 Summer Olympics Pan American Games track and field athletes for the United States Athletes (track and field) at the 1995 Pan American Games World Athletics Championships athletes for the United States Houston Cougars women's track and field athletes African-American female track and field athletes World Athletics Indoor Championships winners Competitors at the 1998 Goodwill Games Chefs from Texas Women chefs Top Chef contestants African-American chefs American women chefs 21st-century African-American sportspeople 21st-century African-American women 20th-century African-American sportspeople 20th-century African-American women U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program