Gail Devers

Medal record
Gail Devers
Women’s athletics
Competitor for the United States
Olympic Games
Gold	1992 Barcelona	100 m
Gold	1996 Atlanta	100 m
Gold	1996 Atlanta	4x100 m relay
World Championships
Gold	1993 Stuttgart	100 m
Gold	1993 Stuttgart	100 m hurdles
Gold	1995 Gothenburg	100 m hurdles
Gold	1997 Athens	4x100 m relay
Gold	1999 Seville	100 m hurdles
Silver	1991 Tokyo	100 m hurdles
Silver	1993 Stuttgart	4x100 m relay
Silver	2001 Edmonton	100 m hurdles
World Indoor Championships
Gold	2004 Budapest	60 m
Gold	2003 Birmingham	60 m hurdles
Gold	1997 Paris	60 m
Gold	1993 Toronto	60 m
Silver	2004 Budapest	60 m hurdles
Pan American Games
Gold	1987 Indianapolis	100 m
Gold	1987 Indianapolis	4x100 metres

Yolanda Gail Devers (born November 19, 1966) is a retired three-time Olympic champion in track and field for the US Olympic Team. Devers was born in Seattle, Washington, and grew up near National City, California and graduated from Sweetwater High School in 1984. Sweetwater's football and track stadium is named Gail Devers Stadium.

A young talent in the 100 m and 100 m hurdles, Devers was in training for the 1988 Summer Olympics, started experiencing health problems, suffering from among others migraine and vision loss. She qualified for the Olympics 100 m hurdles, in which she was eliminated in the semi-finals, but her health continued to deteriorate even further.

In 1990, she was diagnosed with Graves' disease, and underwent radioactive iodine treatment followed by thyroid hormone replacement therapy. Amazingly, Devers recovered quickly and resumed training. At the 1991 World Championships, she won a silver medal in the 100 m hurdles.

At the 1992 Summer Olympics, Devers starred. She qualified for the final of the 100 m, which ended in an exciting finish, with five women finishing close (within 0.06 seconds). The photo finish showed Devers had narrowly beaten Jamaican Juliet Cuthbert. In the final of the 100 m hurdles, Devers' lead event, she seemed to be running towards a second gold medal, when she hit the final hurdle and stumbled over the finish line in fifth place, leaving Voula Patoulidou from Greece as the upset winner. See the race

In 1993, Devers won the 100 m World Championship title after - again - a photo finish win over Merlene Ottey in an apparent dead heat, and the 100 m hurdles title. She retained her hurdles title in 1995.

The 100 m final at the 1996 Summer Olympics was an almost exact repeat of the World Championships final three years before. Ottey and Devers again finished in the same time and did not know who had won the race. Again, both were awarded the same time, but Devers was judged to have finished first and became the first woman to retain the Olympic 100 m title since Wyomia Tyus. In the final of her favorite event, Devers again failed, as she finished fourth and outside of the medals. With the 4 x 100 m relay team, Devers won her third Olympic medal.

After these Olympics, Devers concentrated on the hurdles event, winning the World Championship again in 1999, but she had to forfeit for the semi-finals at the 2000 Summer Olympics.

Devers left competition in 2005 to give birth to a child with her husband and returned in 2006.

On February 2, 2007, at the age of 40, Devers edged 2004 Olympic champion Joanna Hayes to win the 60 m hurdles event at the Millrose Games in 7.86 seconds - the best time in the world that season and just 0.12 off the record she set in 2003. Furthermore, the time bettered the listed World Record for a 40 year old by almost 7 tenths of a second.

During her career, Devers was notable for having exceptionally long, heavily decorated fingernails. One of the fastest starters in the world, Devers even had to alter her starting position to accommodate her long nails. Her long nails came as the result of a contest her father devised to get her to stop biting her nails as a child.

Audio interview

• "TFS podcast interview with 3-time Olympic gold medalist Gail Devers"

External links

• IAAF profile for Gail Devers

Awards and achievements
Preceded by Evelyn Ashford	Women's Track & Field ESPY Award 1994	Succeeded by Gwen Torrence
Preceded by Marion Jones	Women's Track & Field ESPY Award 2003 – 2004	Succeeded by No Award Given
Sporting positions
Preceded by Ludmila Engquist	Women's 100m Hurdles Best Year Performance 1993	Succeeded by Tatyana Reshetnykova Svetla Dimitrova
Preceded by Glory Alozie	Women's 100m Hurdles Best Year Performance 1999 — 2000	Succeeded by Anjanette Kirkland
Preceded by Anjanette Kirkland	Women's 100m Hurdles Best Year Performance 2002 — 2003	Succeeded by Joanna Hayes