Floyd Wayne Heard (born March 24, 1966, in

West Point, Mississippi West Point is a city in Clay County, Mississippi, United States, in the Golden Triangle region of the state. The population was 11,307 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Clay County and the principal city of the West Point Micropolitan ...

) is a retired

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 ...

sprinter from the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

, best known for setting the 1986 world's best year performance in the men's

200 m The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400 metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run the race. A slight ...

. He did so on 7 July 1986 at a meet in

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 ...

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

, clocking 20.12s. A year later he won the title in the men's 200 m at the

1987 Pan American Games The 1987 Pan American Games, officially known as the X Pan American Games, was a major international multi-sport event held in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, on August 7–23, 1987. Over 4,300 athletes from 38 countries in the America ...

. Heard's personal best for the 200 m was 19.88 seconds, set at the U.S. Olympic Trials in

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

on 23 July 2000. That was the race where favorites Michael Johnson and Maurice Greene were pitted as rivals by the media. In a head-to-head battle, both pulled up during the race, leaving Heard to pick up the pieces behind newcomer

John Capel John Capel Jr. (born October 27, 1978) is an American former track and field athlete who was a world champion sprinter. Capel played college football for the University of Florida, where he was also a member of the Florida Gators track and fie ...

, at age 34 becoming the oldest sprinter to make his first American Olympic team.

Background

Heard attended John Marshall High School in

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee i ...

(graduating 1985) and

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

. While at A&M, Heard worked with world-renowned conditioning coach

Istvan Javorek István Javorek (born January 6, 1943 in eastern Europe) is a United States sports conditioning coach. Coach Javorek is the retired head strength and conditioning coach at Johnson County Community College, Kansas, United States. He supervised th ...

. Floyd Heard also owns the American record as part of the

Santa Monica Track Club Santa Monica High School Girls Track team first coach is Dalal M. Ahmad, a USC graduate doing her second semester of student student teaching . She was placed in charge of the team in 1972 during her second semester of student teaching The Santa Mo ...

's scorching performance of 1:18.68 in 1994 in the 4 × 200 m relay run, set at the

Mt. SAC Relays The Mt. SAC Relays are an annual track and field festival held primarily at Hilmer Lodge Stadium on the Mt. San Antonio College campus in Walnut, California. The Relays are held in mid-April each year since the first edition held on April 24-25, ...

. His teammates in that race were Mike Marsh,

Leroy Burrell Leroy Russel Burrell (born February 21, 1967) is an American former track and field athlete, who twice set the world record for the 100 m sprint. Early life Burrell grew up in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, and attended Penn Wood High School, w ...

, and

Carl Lewis Frederick Carlton Lewis (born July 1, 1961) is an American former track and field athlete who won nine Olympic gold medals, one Olympic silver medal, and 10 World Championships medals, including eight gold. His career spanned from 1979 to 1996 ...

References

Floyd Heard
profile at

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 an ...

1986 Year Rankings
*

External links

10.28 (2001)

20.31 (2002)

48.03 (2002)
1966 births Living people American male sprinters People from West Point, Mississippi Track and field athletes from Milwaukee Track and field athletes from Mississippi Athletes (track and field) at the 1987 Pan American Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2000 Summer Olympics Olympic track and field athletes of the United States Pan American Games medalists in athletics (track and field) Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States Universiade medalists in athletics (track and field) Goodwill Games medalists in athletics Universiade gold medalists for the United States Medalists at the 1987 Summer Universiade Competitors at the 1986 Goodwill Games Medalists at the 1987 Pan American Games {{US-sprint-athletics-bio-stub