Leroy Russel Burrell (born February 21, 1967) is an American former

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 ...

athlete, who twice set the

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organization ...

for the

100 m The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been conteste ...

sprint.

Early life

Burrell grew up in

Lansdowne, Pennsylvania Lansdowne is a borough in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, located southwest of the Center City Philadelphia. It was named for the Marquess of Lansdowne. As of the 2010 census the borough had a population of 10,620. Lansdowne grew quickly in the ...

, and 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 boro ...

, where he single-handedly won the state championship by winning the 100 m,

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 slightl ...

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 ...

. Suffering from poor eyesight accentuated by a childhood eye injury, he was poor at other sports, but excelled on the track from an early age. He attended 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 ...

from 1986 to 1990, where he was a nine-time NCAA All-American and set the NCAA outdoor record in the long jump.

Professional career

Burrell was plagued by injuries and bad luck throughout his career, particularly around major championships. He won

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...

in the 100 m ahead of Carl Lewis at the 1990

Goodwill Games The Goodwill Games were an international sports competition created by Ted Turner in reaction to the political troubles surrounding the Olympic Games of the 1980s. In 1979, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan caused the United States and other ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region o ...

. He won the

silver Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...

in the 100 m behind Lewis at the 1991 World Championships. At the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, Burrell false-started in the 100 m final. When the race finally restarted, his reaction off the line was slow, and he finished fifth. He did manage to win a

relay A relay Electromechanical relay schematic showing a control coil, four pairs of normally open and one pair of normally closed contacts An automotive-style miniature relay with the dust cover taken off A relay is an electrically operated switch ...

gold as part of the U.S. 4 × 100 m team. On May 19, 1990, Burrell ran a wind-assisted 200 m at College Station, Texas, in a time of 19.61 seconds. The wind speed was +4.0 m per second. This was the fastest time for the 200 m for over six years until the 1996 Olympic final in Atlanta, where Michael Johnson ran 19.32 seconds. He first set the 100m world record in June 1991 with a time of 9.90 seconds. This was broken that September by

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 ...

who ran 9.86 sec at the 1991 World Track and Field Championships where Burrell finished second in a new personal best time of 9.88 sec. In July 1994, Burrell set the world record for the second time when he ran 9.85 sec (a record that stood until the

1996 Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

when Donovan Bailey ran 9.84 sec). Since his

retirement Retirement is the withdrawal from one's position or occupation or from one's active working life. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours or workload. Many people choose to retire when they are elderly or incapable of doing their j ...

in 1998, Burrell has replaced his old college mentor,

Tom Tellez Thomas K. Tellez (born 1933) is a renowned track and field (athletics) coach, noted in particular because of his contributions to the sport in the areas of kinesiology, physiology and biomechanics. Life and career Tellez attended Whittier Colleg ...

, as coach of the University of Houston's track and field team. Burrell has led UH to 14 men's

Conference USA Conference USA (C-USA or CUSA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference whose current member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. C-USA's offices are ...

titles (nine indoor, five outdoor) and nine women's titles (four indoor, five outdoor). He was inducted into the Texas Track and Field Coaches Hall of Fame in 2014. In June 2022, Burrell stepped down as head coach at Houston and accepted the head coaching position for Auburn track and field.

Personal life

Burrell married Michelle Finn, also a sprinter, in 1994, and they have three sons together:

Cameron Cameron may refer to: People * Clan Cameron, a Scottish clan * Cameron (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) * Cameron (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) ;Mononym * Cam'ron (born 1 ...

who was a sprinter for the

Houston Cougars The Houston Cougars are the athletic teams representing the University of Houston. Informally, the Houston Cougars have also been referred to as the Coogs, UH, or simply Houston. Houston's nickname was suggested by early physical education instr ...

and died in 2021, Joshua, and Jaden. On June 7, 2017, Cameron joined his father in the sub-10 second club. Burrell's younger sister

Dawn Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the appearance of indirect sunlight being scattered in Earth's atmosphere, when the centre of the Sun's disc has reached 18° below the observer's ...

also competed in track and field at the highest level, as a member of the 2000 US Olympic team and world indoor champion in the long jump.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 f ...

(2001-03-10). Retrieved on 2011-01-05.

Statistics

Information 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 ...

profile unless otherwise noted.

World records

Includes former all-conditions world best in the 200 meters. All world records are former as of May 24, 2014.

Personal bests

Sprints

Jumps

International championship results

National championship results

Circuit wins

Overall

IAAF Grand Prix The IAAF Grand Prix was an annual, global circuit of one-day outdoor track and field competitions organized by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). It was created in 1985 as the IAAF's first seasonal track and field circu ...

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicis ...

100 meters

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates a ...

Notes

References

External links

*
Leroy Burrell
hall of fame bio 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 ...

Leroy Burrell
bio at the

Videos

Carl Lewis & friends: The fantastic four in Barcelona 1992
by the

Olympic Channel Olympic Channel is an over-the-top Internet television service operated by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). It was launched on August 21, 2016, alongside the closing of the 2016 Summer Olympics. The service aims to maintain year-round ...

via

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burrell, Leroy 1967 births Living people Sportspeople from Delaware County, Pennsylvania People from Lansdowne, Pennsylvania Track and field athletes from Philadelphia American male sprinters American male long jumpers African-American male track and field athletes World record setters in athletics (track and field) Olympic gold medalists for the United States in track and field Athletes (track and field) at the 1992 Summer Olympics World Athletics Championships medalists World Athletics Championships athletes for the United States Houston Cougars men's track and field athletes Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics Goodwill Games medalists in athletics USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships winners USA Indoor Track and Field Championships winners World Athletics Championships winners Competitors at the 1990 Goodwill Games Competitors at the 1994 Goodwill Games 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople