Queen Quedith Claye née Harrison (born September 10, 1988) is an American

hurdler 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 sprinter who competed in the

400 metres hurdles The 400 metres hurdles is a track and field hurdling event. The event has been on the Olympic athletics programme since 1900 for men and since 1984 for women. On a standard outdoor track, 400 metres is the length of the inside lane, once ...

at the 2008 Summer Olympics. She was a six-time collegiate All-American at

Virginia Tech Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also has educational facilities in six re ...

where she was elected to its sports hall of fame. Queen is a meet director for Virginia's Best Track and Field Classic -

VHSL The Virginia High School League (VHSL) is the principal sanctioning organization for interscholastic athletic competition among public high schools in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The VHSL first sponsored debate and also continues to sponsor sta ...

meet hosted in Richmond, Virginia started in 2017. Born in

Loch Sheldrake, New York Loch Sheldrake is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Town of Fallsburg, New York, United States, in Sullivan County. The zip code for Loch Sheldrake is 12759. The community was originally named Sheldrake Pond after a deep, glacia ...

, Harrison attended Hermitage High School in Richmond, Virginia, where she competed in events including hurdling,

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 ...

, and

triple jump The triple jump, sometimes referred to as the hop, step and jump or the hop, skip and jump, is a track and field event, similar to the long jump. As a group, the two events are referred to as the "horizontal jumps". The competitor runs down th ...

. She went on to attend

. She set a school record of 55.81 in the 400 meter hurdles while placing third at the 2007 NCAA Championship. Harrison made

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 ...

history in 2010 by becoming the first woman to ever win both the 100m and 400m hurdles titles at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. She also won the 60m hurdle title at the 2009 NCAA Indoor Championships making her a 3-time national champ while at Virginia Tech. Queen Harrison set an

ACC ACC most often refers to: * Atlantic Coast Conference, an NCAA Division I collegiate athletic conference located in the US *American College of Cardiology, A US-based nonprofit medical association that bestows credentials upon cardiovascular spec ...

record in the 400 meter hurdles. Harrison placed second at the 400 meter hurdles at 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials with a time of 54.60. Harrison became the first track and field athlete from

to compete at the Olympics. At the 2008 Summer Olympics, Harrison was eliminated in the 400 meter hurdles semifinals after finishing with a time of 55.88 seconds. On December 16, 2010, Queen Harrison won

The Bowerman The Bowerman is an annual track and field award that is the highest accolade given to the year's best student-athlete in American collegiate track and field. It is named after Oregon track and field and cross country coach Bill Bowerman and is ...

, the "Heisman of Track and Field". 2011-06-09 Queen Harrison 400H

She qualified to the

2011 World Championships in Athletics The 13th IAAF World Championships in Athletics () was an international athletics competition that was held in Daegu, South Korea. It started on 27 August 2011 and finished on 4 September 2011. The United States topped the medal standings in th ...

, but did not make it out of the semi-final round. At the 2012 Olympic trials, she narrowly missed qualifying for the finals in the shorter 100 meters hurdles. At 400 hurdles, was the slowest time qualifier into the semis-final round and ran even slower in that semi-final. Since 2012, her IAAF profile shows no results in the longer race. Instead she has focused her efforts into the shorter race. She finished second at the 2013 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships setting her personal best at 12.43. That ranks her tied for the 16th best performer on the all-time list. That qualified her to the

2013 World Championships in Athletics The 14th IAAF World Championships in Athletics (Moscow 2013) () was an international athletics competition held in Moscow, Russia, from 10–18 August 2013. Initially, Russia won the most gold medals to top the table for the first time since 200 ...

in the new event. She finished fifth in the final. She placed fourth at the 2015 National Championships from which she was selected to compete at the

2015 Pan American Games Fifteen or 15 may refer to: *15 (number), the natural number following 14 and preceding 16 *one of the years 15 BC, AD 15, 1915, 2015 Music * Fifteen (band), a punk rock band Albums * ''15'' (Buckcherry album), 2005 * ''15'' (Ani Lorak al ...

where she won the gold medal. Queen placed fourth in the 100 meter hurdles in 12.57 at the 2016 United States Olympic Trials (track and field) on July 8. Queen married fellow US athlete

Will Claye Will Claye (born June 13, 1991) is an American track and field athlete of Sierra Leonean descent who competes in the long jump and triple jump. He won a bronze medal in 2011 World Championships in Athletics and the gold medals at the 2012 IAAF Wo ...

in October 2018. Claye proposed immediately after winning the silver medal in the

at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.

References

External links

*
NBC Olympics Profile
from ''New York Times'' *
QUEEN HARRISON - ASICS TRACK ATHLETE
{{DEFAULTSORT:Claye, Queen 1988 births Living people American female hurdlers Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic track and field athletes of the United States Athletes (track and field) at the 2015 Pan American Games Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States Pan American Games medalists in athletics (track and field) African-American female track and field athletes Medalists at the 2015 Pan American Games People from Fallsburg, New York 21st-century African-American sportspeople 21st-century African-American women 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women