Jason Richardson (born April 4, 1986) is an American

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 events ...

athlete who specializes in the

110 meter 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 hur ...

. He won the gold medal in the 110 meter hurdles at the 2011 World Championships in Daegu, and the silver medal in the same event at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. His personal best for the event is 12.98 seconds, set in June 2012 at the U.S. Olympic Trials.

Background

Growing up in

Cedar Hill, Texas Cedar Hill is a city in Dallas and Ellis counties in the U.S. state of Texas. It is located approximately southwest of downtown Dallas and is situated along the eastern shore of Joe Pool Lake and Cedar Hill State Park. Per the 2020 United States ...

, a suburb of Dallas, he began taking part in sports at the age of 12. Despite having a talent for

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, ...

, his parents were initially hesitant in encouraging him to compete in track and field. For Richardson and his family, the focus was his education: having represented his school at a national level on their debate team, he saw the discipline more as a way of pursuing further academic study via a

college scholarship A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need. Scholarshi ...

.Stephens, Jill (2004-03-17)
Jason Richardson or the future of hurdling
IAAF. Retrieved on 2011-08-03. By the time he graduated from Cedar Hill High School, he had run the third fastest ever time in the 400 meter hurdles for a high school athlete.Jason Richardson
South Carolina Gamecocks. Retrieved on 2011-08-03.

Career

In his first international outing at the

2003 World Youth Championships in Athletics The 2003 World Youth Championships in Athletics was the third edition of the international athletics competition for youth (under-18) athletes organised by the IAAF. It was held in Sherbrooke, Canada from the 9–13 July at the Université de Sh ...

, he completed a novel 110 m and 400 m hurdles double, taking both

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 ...

s in personal record times. He became the first person ever to win a hurdles double at a major

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competi ...

championship and earned him that year's ''Youth Athlete of the Year'' award from

USA Track and Field 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 ...

. In 2005, he obtained a McKissick Scholarship and enrolled at the University of South Carolina to study sport and entertainment management. He began to focus more on short-sprint hurdling and ran for the

South Carolina Gamecocks The South Carolina Gamecocks represent the University of South Carolina in the NCAA Division I. The University of South Carolina uses "Gamecocks" as its official nickname and mascot. While the men's teams were traditionally known as the Fighti ...

, taking

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 ...

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 ...

s indoors and outdoors in his first year at the college. Injury affected his 2006 indoor season and he failed to finish at the NCAA Indoor Championship after falling at the second hurdle. He was runner-up in both hurdles competitions at the

SEC Championships The Southeastern Conference (SEC) sponsors nine men's sports and twelve women's sports. This is a list of conference champions for each sport. Also see the list of SEC national champions. Members The SEC was established on December 1932, when ...

outdoors, and then went on to another third-place finish in the 110 m NCAA contest. He did not make the NCAA 400 m hurdles final, despite running a time of 49.82 seconds in the semi-finals. He closed the year 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 ...

over 110 m hurdles at the NACAC U-23 Championships. Richardson focused on his studies in 2007 as an injury ruled him out of the track season. His final year at South Carolina (2008) proved to be his most successful. In 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 ...

indoors, he was runner-up at the

Millrose Games The Millrose Games is an annual indoor athletics meet (track and field) held each February in New York City. They started taking place at the Armory in Washington Heights in 2012, after having taken place in Madison Square Garden from 1914 to 2011 ...

, Tyson Invitational and the SEC Indoors. He was also the silver medalist at the NCAA Indoor Championship, where he ran a personal best of 7.53 seconds, but lost by a fraction of a second in a

photo finish A photo finish occurs in a sporting race when multiple competitors cross the finishing line at nearly the same time. As the naked eye may not be able to determine which of the competitors crossed the line first, a photo or video taken at the finis ...

. In the outdoor season, he won the SEC Championship title in the 110 m hurdles and ran a personal best of 13.21 seconds to claim the NCAA Regional title. A win at the NCAA Outdoors brought him a SEC/NCAA Regional/NCAA hat-trick. He was named South Carolina's

MVP In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

both outdoors and indoors that year and he was also chosen at the USTFCCCA Scholar Athlete of the Year. Following a win at the NACAC Under-23 Championships in championship record time, he went on to compete at the United States Olympic Trials, although a

hamstring In human anatomy, a hamstring () is any one of the three posterior thigh muscles in between the hip and the knee (from medial to lateral: semimembranosus, semitendinosus and biceps femoris). The hamstrings are susceptible to injury. In quadrupe ...

injury in the qualifiers ruled out his selection chances. He turned professional for the 2009 season and focused solely on the 110 m hurdles; his best run of the year (13.29 sec) came in

Gainesville, Florida Gainesville is the county seat of Alachua County, Florida, Alachua County, Florida, and the largest city in North Central Florida, with a population of 141,085 in 2020. It is the principal city of the Gainesville metropolitan area, Florida, Gaine ...

. He ran on the

IAAF Diamond League The Diamond League is an annual series of elite track and field athletic competitions comprising fourteen of the best invitational athletics meetings. The series sits in the top tier of the World Athletics (formerly known as the IAAF) one-day mee ...

circuit in Europe the next year, but came last in the 110 m hurdles final at the 2010 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. He twice ran a personal record time of 13.15 seconds at the 2011 USA Championships and was rewarded with third place behind David Oliver and

Aries Merritt Aries Merritt (born July 24, 1985) is an American track and field athlete who specializes in the 110 metre hurdles, and currently holds the world record in that event with a time of 12.80 s set on September 7, 2012. He won the gold medal i ...

, gaining his first senior international selection in the process. During the

2011 IAAF Diamond League The 2011 IAAF Diamond League (also known as the 2011 Samsung Diamond League for sponsorship purposes) was the second edition of the Diamond League, an annual series of fourteen one-day track and field meetings. The series began on 6 May in Doha, Q ...

season, he won 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 ...

and came second to

Dayron Robles Dayron Robles (born 19 November 1986) is a Cuban track and field athlete who specialises in the 110 metre hurdles. He won his first major medal (a silver) in the 60 metres hurdles at the 2006 World Indoor Championships. He finished the 2006 sea ...

at the

London Grand Prix The London Diamond League, formerly known as the London Grand Prix and subsequently as the Anniversary Games, is an annual athletics event held in London, England. Previously one of the five IAAF Super Grand Prix events, it is now part of the Di ...

with a personal record run of 13.08 seconds. He is coached by John Smith, who also trains

Carmelita Jeter Carmelita Jeter ( , born November 24, 1979) is a retired American sprinter, who competed in the 60 metres, 100 m and 200 m. For over a decade, between 2009 and 2021, Jeter held the title as "Fastest woman alive" after running a 100 m personal be ...

and previously coached Maurice Greene. On August 29, 2011, Richardson ran 13.16 to win the 110 meter hurdles

World Championship 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, ...

Daegu Daegu (, , literally 'large hill', 대구광역시), formerly spelled Taegu and officially known as the Daegu Metropolitan City, is a city in South Korea. It is the third-largest urban agglomeration in South Korea after Seoul and Busan; it is ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

, after Robles (the initial winner) was disqualified for impeding Liu Xiang. On August 8, 2012, Richardson won the silver in the 110 meter hurdles at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. In August 2013, Richardson finished 4th in 2013 World Championships in Athletics – Men's 110 metres hurdles.

Achievements

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Richardson, Jason Living people 1986 births American male hurdlers Track and field athletes from Houston South Carolina Gamecocks men's track and field athletes Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medalists for the United States in track and field World Athletics Championships medalists Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics People from Cedar Hill, Texas World Athletics Championships winners