Leroy Burrell

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Medal record
Men’s Athletics
Competitor for  United States
Olympic Games
Gold	1992 Barcelona	4x100 m relay
World Championships
Gold	1991 Tokyo	4x100 m relay
Gold	1993 Stuttgart	4x100 m relay
Silver	1991 Tokyo	100 m

Leroy Russel Burrell (born February 21, 1967) is a former American athlete who twice set the world record for the 100 meters sprint, setting a time of 9.90 seconds in June 1991. This was then broken by Carl Lewis within a month. Burrell set the record for a second time when he ran 9.85 s in 1994, a record that stood until the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, when Donovan Bailey ran 9.84 s.

Burrell grew up in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania and attended Penn Wood High School. 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 studied at the University of Houston, where he was a successful participant in its track program.

Burrell was plagued by injuries and bad luck throughout his career, particularly around major championships. He won gold in the 100 m ahead of Carl Lewis at 1990 Goodwill Games in Seattle. He won the silver in the 100 m behind Lewis at the 1991 World Championships, and at the 1992 Summer Olympics was false-started in the 100 m final and, when the race finally restarted, his reaction off the line was slow and finished fifth. He did though manage to win a relay gold as part of the US team at Barcelona.

Since his retirement in 1998, Burrell has replaced his old college mentor, Tom Tellez, as coach of the University of Houston's track team.

[edit] Personal life

He married Michelle Finn, also a sprinter, in 1994, and they have two sons. His younger sister Dawn also competed in track and field on the highest level. According to an essay from PETA, Leroy Burrell has been a vegetarian.^[1]

[edit] Statistics

As of September 9, 2008

[edit] Personal bests

Date	Event	Venue	Best performance
February 13, 1991	60 meters	Madrid, Spain	6.48 s
July 6, 1994	100 meters	Lausanne, Switzerland	9.85 s
June 27, 1992	200 meters	New Orleans, Louisiana, United States	20.12 s
June 2, 1989	Long jump	Provo, Utah, United States	8.37 m

• All information from IAAF Profile^[2]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• IAAF profile for Leroy Burrell
• University of Houston page on Burrell.

v • d • e Olympic Champions in Men's 4×100 m Relay 1912 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 1992 United States Mike Marsh, Leroy Burrell, Dennis Mitchell & Carl Lewis

Persondata
NAME	Burrell, Leroy Russel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	American sprint athlete
DATE OF BIRTH	February 21, 1967
PLACE OF BIRTH	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH