Week in Review: Even her competitors celebrate Kipyegon breaking 3:50 barrier in 1,500
The respect and admiration for the Kenyan great was clearly evident after her 3:49.11 clocking in the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea meet in Italy
It has been a week since Faith Kipyegon became the first woman in history to break 3 minutes and 50 seconds in the 1,500 meters, and I am still trying to decide if I was most impressed with her 3:49.11 effort or the outpouring of admiration and joy for the Kenyan great in the moments following her historic performance.
The 29-year-old Kipyegon had entered the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea meet in Florence, Italy last Friday as the two-time defending Olympic champion, as well as a two-time gold and two-time silver medalist in the women’s 1,500 in the World Athletics Championships. But the one thing missing from her resume was a world record in the event.
The runner regarded as the GOAT of the women’s 1,500 by many had come close to breaking the world record last August when she ran a personal best of 3:50.37 in a Golden League meet in Monaco. But her national-record effort left her three excruciating tenths of a second shy of the 3:50.07 clocking that Ethiopian Genzebe Dibaba had run in Monaco in 2015.
“I have been chasing the time for quite some time but I am happy with the personal best,” she said at the time. “It seems I did not give all but I tried hard. I knew this was the best place to get the world record, but I am so disappointed I lost it in the last meters. I hope for the best next time. We will see then. I was definitely ready for it today.”
Fast forward to last Friday when Kipyegon was running in her second race of the outdoor season after she had clocked 3:58.57 to win the 1,500 in the Diamond League opener in Doha, Qatar on May 5.
Her main goal was to better the yearly world-leading mark of 3:54.03 that World Championship silver medalist Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia had posted in a Diamond League meet in Rabat, Morocco five days earlier.
A world-record attempt was not on her mind, thus the pressure that can come with chasing a specific mark was not there.
Brooke Feldmeier led the field through the first 400 meters in 62.37 before fellow American Sage Hurta-Klecker took over the pace-setting duties and came through the 800 in 2:04.00. Hurta-Klecker led through the end of the backstretch and when she dropped out, Kipyegon was in the lead, well clear of second-place Laura Muir of Great Britain, the bronze medalist in last year’s World Championships in Eugene, Oregon.
After running the third lap in under 61 seconds, Kipyegon came through 1,200 meters in 3:05.28 and it was obvious that a world record was possible, if she could increase the pace.
Although Kipyegon’s 1,200 split in Florence was half a second slower than in her 3:50.37 run in Monaco, she ran the final 300 meters of the race in 43.83 seconds, compared to 45.74 last year.
She had a lead of more than 30 meters over Muir with 200 meters to go and as she sped through the final turn, she was more than 10 meters ahead of the pace lights on the inside rail of the track which had been set to a final time of 3:51.15.
With the crowd on its feet and cheering her on, Kipyegon maintained her form well down the home straightaway. The strain of her supreme effort was etched on her face in the final 20 meters of the race, but she broke into a broad smile and pointed at the infield display board with her left hand when she saw her time just after crossing the finish line.
Shortly after that, she lay face down on the track, and slapped the surface with her palms in celebration.
She eventually set off on a victory lap that included a hug from Sebastian Coe, the World Athletics president from Great Britain who had set a world record of 1:41.73 in the men’s 800 at the same facility in 1981.
Those displays of emotion were wonderful to see, but the most heart-warming moment occurred when Kipyegon came back to the finish line area and received a series of hugs from her fellow competitors, as well as pace setters Feldmeier and Hurta-Klecker.
Everyone then crowded around Kipyegon for a group photo as she was holding a world record sign that had been given to her. Muir, who finished second in 3:57.09, was to the right of Kipyegon in the photo, with a huge smile on her face as she pointed toward the new world-record holder with her right hand.
Jessica Hull of Australia, who placed third in an Oceania record of 3:57.29, was just behind Kipyegon’s left shoulder.
“I didn’t expect to run a world record, for I was looking to running a world lead, which was 3:54,” Kipyegon said when talking to members of the press afterward. “It just came as a surprise.”
In an answer to another question, Kipyegon credited the crowd with helping her on her final lap.
“That’s why I was pushing the last 400 meters, knowing that I had left the wave light behind and everything was focused on going forward. I was just focusing myself on the finish line and seeing what was possible.”
Kipyegon, who took off 2018 to give birth to her daughter Alyn, is known as an incredibly warm and empathetic person who is particularly passionate about family and female empowerment. She posted on Instagram:
“WORLD RECORD - 3:49.11 💗🥹💗
I am really thankful, today was a wonderful day in which everything came together. The world record was in my mind since last year, but I wanted to approach it slowly by slowly to see what was possible this year. I can’t believe it! Now I have achieved what I wanted and what was in my heart and in my mind. All the athletes waiting for me at the finish line made me emotional.
Thanks so much for all the support, it means a lot 😍🇰🇪❤️”
Add Kipyegon: Numerous athletes from around the globe left posts on Instagram congratulating her on her world record, but one I found particularly interesting came from fellow Kenyan Geoffrey Kamworor, winner of the men’s title in the 2015’ and ’17 World Athletics Cross Country Championships and the runner-up in the London marathon in April.
His post read: “Congratulations Faith! The World Record is finally home! 💪🙏”
Kamworor’s post prompted me to conduct some research about the progression of the world record of the women’s 1,500 and made me realize that Kipyegon is the first Kenyan to hold the global best in the event and only the second African behind Genzebe Dibaba of Ethiopia, who set the previous world record of 3:50.07 in 2015.
Prior to Dibaba, six women had combined to lower the world record 11 times since 1969.
Ludmila Bragina and Tatyana Kazankina of the Soviet Union had been the most prolific record setters.
Bragina had set four world records during the 1972 season, with her last three lowerings occurring during the Olympic Games in Munich.
On Sept. 4, she lowered her own world record to 4:06.47 in a first-round qualifying heat of the Games. She then ran 4:05.07 in a semifinal on Sept. 7; followed by a victory in 4:01.38 in the final two days later.
Kazankina had demolished Bragina’s record with a hand-held time of 3:56.0 on June 28, 1976 and lowered that mark to 3:54.0 on July 6.
The two-time Olympic 1,500 champion set her final world record in 1980 when he ran 3:52.47 in the Weltklasse meet in Zurich.
That stood as the world record until Sept. 11, 1993, when Qu Yunxia of China ran 3:50.46 in Beijing. That mark stood for nearly 22 years until Dibaba broke it in 2015.
The 1,500 meters was first contested as a women’s event in the Olympic Games in 1972.
Fast mass finish: Prior to Kenyan Faith Kipyegon’s world record in the women’s 1,500 in the final event of the meet, Mohamed Katir of Spain had turned in the top performance in the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea meet last Friday when he won a depth-laden men’s 5,000 meters in which 13 runners broke 13 minutes.
The 25-year-old Katir just held off Yomif Kejelcha of Ethiopia in the final home straightaway to clock a yearly world-leading time of 12:52.09 ahead of Kejelcha’s 12:52.12.
Luis Grijalvca of Guatemala lowered his national record to 12:52.97 while finishing in front of Olympic champion and world-record holder Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda, who placed fourth in 12:53.81 while running his first race since finishing second in the New York City Half Marathon in February.
Americans Woody Kincaid and Joe Klecker finished sixth and seventh with times of 12:54.40 and 12:55.16, respectively, to move to third and fourth on the all-time U.S. outdoor performer list.
After pace setter Paul Robinson of Ireland led the field through the first 1,600 meters in 4:10.2, Australian Jack Rayner served as the rabbit through 2,000 meters in 5:12.3 and 2,400 meters in 6:14.7 before dropping out of the race shortly after that.
Grijalva, fourth in the World Championships last year, then led the field through 3,000 meters in 7:51.1, with World silver medalist Jacob Krop of Kenya, Katir and Telahun Bekele of Ethiopia following close behind.
The split at that point in the race projected to a winning time of about 13:05 and it remained the same when Bekleke led a lead pack of 15 runners through 4,000 meters in 10:28.4. But things began to heat up after that as Olympic 10,000-meter champion Selemon Baraga of Ethiopia led through 4,400 meters in 11:28.7.
Baraga remained in front for the next 300 meters, but Katir took the lead heading down the backstretch for the final time and he never relinquished it as he ran his final 300 in an unofficial 40.0, his final 400 in 54.1, and his last 600 in 1:23.3.
Kejelcha ran his final 400 in an unofficial 53.9, but he was unable to pass Katir, who had moved to second on the all-time world indoor list in the 3,000 in February when he ran 7:24.68 while finishing second to the 7:23.81 world record of Ethiopian Lamecha Girma in Lievin, France.
Three for three: Fred Kerley of the U.S. has yet to run a particularly fast time in the men’s 100 meters this season, but he won his third final of the year in the event without a loss when he clocked 9.94 in the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea meet last Friday.
The 28-year-old Kerley was not the first one out of the blocks, but he had moved into the lead by the mid-way point of the race and no one in the field could match his top-end speed as Kenyan Ferdinand Omanyala placed second in 10.05, followed by Trayvon Bromell of the U.S. and Akani Simbine of South Africa, who were each credited with times of 10.09.
It was the second time in five days that defending World champion Kerley had defeated Omanyala, who had run a yearly world-leading time of 9.84 in winning the Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi, Kenya on May 13.
Kerley had run 9.94 to win a Diamond League meet in Rabat, Morocco on May 28 while defeating a field that included second-place Simbine in 9.99 and third-place Omanyala in 10.05.
Young and talented: Sembo Almayew of Ethiopia continued her rapid improvement in the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase in the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea meet last Friday when the 18-year-old won the event with a yearly world-leading time of 9:00.71.
After beginning 2022 with a best of 10:01.3, Almayew set five personal bests during the year, capped by a second-place time of 9:09.19 in a Diamond League meet in Paris last June. Although she was eliminated in a qualifying heat of the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon in July, she placed second in the World U20 Championships in Cali, Colombia in August before finishing sixth in the Diamond League finale at the Weltklasse meet in Zurich in September.
She ran 8:35.04 for 3,000 meters indoors before opening her outdoor season with a then-personal best of 9:05.83 to place second to Winfred Yavi of Bahrain in the Diamond League opener in Doha, Qatar on May 5.
Then came last Friday’s meet when she pulled away from her closest pursuers in the final lap and a half of the race.
After pacesetter Fancy Cherono led the field through the first kilometer in 2:57.79, fellow Kenyan Jackline Chepkoech was in the lead when he passed the two-kilometer mark in 6:02.13.
The race for first place was down to Chepkoech, Almayew, and fellow Ethiopian Zerfe Wondemagegn at that point. But Almayew had opened up a 12-meter lead over second-place Wondemagegn with a lap to go and she expanded her lead during her final circuit of the track.
Her winning time moved her to 11th on the all-time performer list, to third on the all-time Ethiopian list, and to second on the all-time U20 list.
Chepkoech finished second in 9:04.07, with Wondemagegn finishing third in a personal best of 9:04.61.
Big jump for his new country: Cuban native Andy Diaz Hernandez, who recently gained his Italian citizenship, bounded a personal best of 17.75 meters (58 feet 3 inches) to win the men’s triple jump in the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea meet last Friday.
The 27-year-old Diaz produced his mark on his first jump of his first meet while representing Italy and it topped the national record of 17.60 (57-9) set by Fabrizio Donato in 2000. Donato now coaches Hernandez, who fouled in the second, fourth, and sixth rounds in Florence and passed his third- and fifth-round jumps.
“It was crazy to take the Italian national record on the first attempt this evening,” Hernandez was quoted as saying in a meet website. “My coach Fabrizio Donato got it on June 2000, after 23 years now, it’s mine and it was wonderful to have this result in front of the Italian crowd.
“Fabrizio Donato gave me a home when I arrived in Italy and we worked together from the first day to reach this result. Now, we have to work more and more to improve. If possible, Fabrizio is even happier than me. Thank you very much, Florence.”
Behind Hernandez, World Championship silver medalist Zango Hugues Fabrice of Bukina Faso finished second at 17.68 (58-0¼). He also had jumps of 17.48 (57-4¼) and 17.31 (56-9½).
Consistent jumping: JuVaughn Harrison of the U.S. posted his third victory of the season without a loss in the men’s high jump in the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea meet last Friday.
The 24-year-old Harrison cleared the winning height of 2.32 (7-7¼) on his third — and final — attempt to defeat World Championship silver medalist Sanghyeok Woo of South Korea, who finished second at 2.30 (7-6½).
In his previous victories, Harrison had cleared 2.33 (7-7¾) in the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays on April 1 and 2.32 in the first Diamond League meet of the season in Doha, Qatar on May 5.
Solid opener: Erriyon Knighton of the U.S. won his first 200-meter race of the season when he clocked 19.89 seconds in the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea meet last Friday.
The 19-year-old Knighton was in first place coming out of the turn and no one could keep pace with him down the home straightaway as Jereem Richards of Trinidad and Tobago placed second in 20.28 and Aaron Brown of Canada finished third in 20.31.
Knighton, the bronze medalist in the 200 in the World Championships last July, had previously run two 100-meter races, a 400, and a leg on a 400 relay during the outdoor season while competing in the U.S.
His best performance in the 100 was a wind-aided 9.98 to win the Florida Relays in Gainesville on April 1 and he ran a personal best of 46.15 in the 400 on the same track while winning the third section of the Tom Jones Memorial two weeks later.
Dandy distance double: Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands enhanced her reputation as one of the greatest all-around women’s distance runners in history in the Fanny Blankers-Koen Games in Hengelo, Netherlands, last weekend.
On Saturday night, the 30-year-old Hassan won the 10,000 meters in a yearly world-leading time of 29:37.80.
On Sunday afternoon, she took the 1,500 in 3:58.12.
The Olympic champion in the 5,000 and 10,000 accomplished that double six weeks after winning the London Marathon with a time of 2:18:33 during her debut race at that distance.
In the 10,000, Hassan led the field through the first five kilometers in 14:46.01, through 7,000 meters in 20:41.67, and past the 8,000-meter mark in 23:43.23.
Grace Loibach Nawowuna of Kenya, fourth in the World Cross Country Championship in February, was in first place at 9,000 meters in 26:47.08, but Hassan sped away from her on the last lap by running her final 400 in 60.86 seconds while running the seventh-fastest time in history.
The 19-year-old Nawowuna’s 29:47.42 clocking in second place was the 10th fastest time ever run and moved her to eighth on the all-time performer list in her first track race at the 10,000-meter distance.
Tsige Gebreselama of Ethiopia, runner-up in the World Cross Country Championships, placed third in 30:04.45 to move to 18th on the all-time performer list.
Hassan was not as dominant in the 1,500 as she was in the 10,000, but her powerful kick in the home straightaway gave her a comfortable margin of victory over Kenyan Nelly Chepchirchir, who ran a personal best of 3:58.96 to finish second. Janat Chemusto of Uganda placed third in 4:01.98.
““I was so scared before the [1,500] as I hadn’t run it in like two years so I was like, ‘Oh my God, what is going to happen?’” Hassan was quoted as saying in a World Athletics post. “But I felt very easy in the competition. I followed and the last 200 meters, I finished strong. I didn’t push myself and I still finished very well in the sprint.”
Taking back the world lead: Mondo Duplantis of Sweden cleared a yearly world-leading height of 6.11 (20-0½) in winning the men’s pole vault in the Fanny Blankers-Koen Games.
KC Lightfoot had become the yearly world leader last Friday when he cleared an American record of 6.07 (19-11) in the Music City Track Carnival in Nashville, Tennessee. But the 23-year-old Duplantis supplanted Lightfoot at the top of the yearly world list when he cleared 6.11 to break his previous meet record of 6.10 (20-0¼) from 2021.
He then missed his three attempts at a world-record height of 6.23 (20-5¼). He bailed out on the first two attempts at that height and hit the bar with his feet on his way up on his third attempt.
“It didn't hurt the motivation, of course,” Duplantis said about Lightfoot’s performance. “When you see a great jump like his, it's super awesome for the sport. For me, it's just a little bit of extra motivation to try to push it up just a little bit higher because it is competition, and we're out here competing with each other, whether or not we're on the same track.”
High-quality double: Femke Bol of the Netherlands posted victories in two different events over a three-day stretch last week.
On Friday, the 23-year-old won the women’s 400-meter hurdles in 52.43 seconds in the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea meet in Florence Italy.
On Sunday, she won her first 400-meter race of the outdoor season with a time of 50.11 while running in front of an adoring crowd in the Fanny Blankers-Koen Games in Hengelo, Netherlands.
Bol’s 400 hurdle time in Florence was the fastest in the world this year and the fifth-fastest of her career. It also gave her a comfortable margin of victory over Shamier Little of the U.S., who placed second in 53.38.
Anna Hall of the U.S. placed third in a personal best of 54.42 five days after winning the heptathlon in the Hypo Meeting in Gotzis, Austria with a 6,988-point total that moved her to fifth on the all-time performer list.
High-quality double II: Grant Holloway of the U.S. won the men’s 110-meter hurdles in nearly identical times in the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea meet in Florence, Italy last Friday and in the Fanny Blankers-Koen Games in Hengelo, Netherlands on Sunday.
The two-time defending World champion ran 13.04 seconds to finish six hundredths of a second in front of Jason Joseph’s Swiss record of 13.10 in Florence.
His 13.03 clocking in Hengelo gave him a margin of victory of nearly a tenth of a second over fellow American Devon Allen, who ran a season best of 13.12 while finishing in second place.
With his latest efforts, Holloway has posted five of the six fastest times in the world this year, topped by his 13.01 clocking in the Atlanta City Games at Centennial Olympic Park on May 6.
Runaway victory: Noah Lyles of the U.S. capped off the Racers Grand Prix in Kingston, Jamaica last Saturday with a runaway victory in the men’s 200 meters.
Shericka Jackson, the defending World champion in the women’s 200, thrilled the Jamaican fans by easily winning the 100 with a season best of 10.78 earlier in the meet. But no performance was more impressive than Lyles’ yearly world-leading clocking of 19.67 in the 200.
Zarnel Hughes of Great Britain was relatively close to Lyles coming out of the curve, but the two-time defending World champion’s top-end speed overwhelmed Hughes and everyone else in the race in the straightaway.
Hughes finished second in 20.14, followed by Rasheed Dwyer of Jamaica in 20.53.
Lyles’ performance, which came in his first 200 race of the season, marked a record 15th time during his career that he has run under 19.70 seconds.
Lyles and retired world-record holder Usain Bolt of Jamaica had entered the Racers Grand Prix with 14 sub-19.70 clockings apiece.
“The crowd was electrifying and I didn’t know what kind of reception I would receive based on the social media comments,” Lyles was quoted as saying in a World Athletics post. “Tonight, the first 20 meters of my race was great, however, there’s room for improvement in other areas but things are coming together and I feel great to get the meeting record. Bolt came over and congratulated me and gave me words of encouragement to become the new face of the sport and take it forward.”
Music City magic: Pole vaulter KC Lightfoot and sprinter Shawnti Jackson produced two stunning performances in the Music City Track Carnival at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee last weekend.
On Friday evening, Lightfoot set an American record of 6.07 (19-11) in winning the men’s pole vault.
On Saturday afternoon, Jackson lowered the national high school record in the U.S. to 10.89 seconds in winning the women’s 100 meters.
The 23-year-old Lightfoot had set a collegiate indoor record of 6.00 (19-8¼) for Baylor University in 2021, but his outdoor best was 5.87 (19-3¼) — from 2021 — entering the competition on Friday.
He cleared 5.50 (18-0½), 5.70 (18-8½), and 5.80 (19-0½) on his first attempts before needing two tries to get over 5.92 (19-5¼). He then cleared 6.00 on his first attempt and 6.07 on his second to break the previous U.S. best of 6.06 (19-10¾) set by two-time World champion Sam Kendricks in 2019.
The clearance also moved Lightfoot to fourth on the all-time world performer list that combines performances from indoors and outdoors.
The three vaulters ahead of him are Mondo Duplantis of Sweden, who cleared 6.22 (20-5) indoors earlier this year, Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie, who made 6.16 (20-2½) indoors in 2014, and Ukranian Sergey Bubka, who cleared 6.15 (20-2¼) indoors in 1993.
When asked about his record performance, the typically humble Lightfoot was quoted in the Kansas City Star on Friday: “Oh, I don’t know. A little bit of luck, a little bit of skill. You mix ‘em together, get something to work. I don’t know!”
Jackson, a senior at Wakefield High in Raleigh, North Carolina, had set national prep indoor records of 6.26 in the 50-meter dash, 6.67 in the 55, 7.16 in the 60, and 36.63 in the 300 earlier this year. But she had been slowed by injuries during the early part of the outdoor season.
However, she ran 11.18 in her qualifying heat in Nashville and then blew away that mark in the final a few hours later with a time that lowered the previous national high school record of 10.94 set by Jamaican Brianna Williams when she was a junior at Northeast High in Oakland Park, Florida in 2019.
It also moved Jackson, who has signed a national letter of intent with the University of Arkansas, to fifth on the all-time U20 (under 20) performer list. In addition, it obliterated her previous best of 11.15 which she had run while finishing third in the World Athletics U20 Championships in Cali, Colombia last year.
“I’ve been working on this race for like my whole life,” Jackson said on the Peacock TV broadcast of the meet. “To finally come here and execute it in just my third 100-meter race since coming off an injury and to set a national record means a lot.”
Two liners: Olympic champion Valarie Allman of the U.S. posted her fifth victory of the season without a loss when she won the women’s discus in the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea meet in Florence, Italy on Friday. Allman fouled on four of her six attempts during the competition that was held in wet conditions, but her fifth-round throw of 65.96 meters (216 feet 5 inches) was more than eight meters farther than her 57.60 (189-0) opener and left her five centimeters ahead of World champion Bin Feng of China, who finished second at 65.91 (216-3). . . . Camryn Rogers of Canada remained unbeaten in the women’s hammer throw with a victory in the Orlen Janusz Kusocinski Memorial meet in Chorzow, Poland on Sunday. The silver medalist in the World Championships had a best of 77.34 (255-9) to finish two meters in front of World bronze medalist Janee’ Kassanavoid of the U.S. at 75.34 (247-2). . . . Olympic champion Wojciech Nowicki of Poland remained unbeaten in the men’s hammer throw when he threw a season best of 80.00 (262-5) to win the Kusocinski Memorial on Sunday. Rudy Winkler of the U.S. placed second at 78.29 (256-10), with five-time World champion Pawel Fajdek of Poland in fourth at 74.01 (242-9). . . . Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico remained unbeaten in the women’s 100-meter hurdles by the slimmest of margins last week. Camacho-Quinn ran 12.40 to easily defeat second-place Nia Ali of the U.S. (12.71) in a meet in Montreuil, France on May 31 before she and American Alaysha Johnson tied for first place with times of 12.42 in the Kusocinski Memorial in Chorzow, Poland on Sunday. . . . Marvin Bracy-Williams of the U.S. broke 10 seconds in the 100 for the first time this season in a meet in Montreuil, France on May 31. The silver medalist in the World Championships ran 9.93 in the final after clocking 9.97 in a qualifying heat. . . . Kimberly Garcia of Peru set a national record of 1 hour 26 minutes 40 seconds in the women’s 20-kilometer walk in the Gran Premio Cantones de La Coruna in Spain on Saturday. Garcia’s time broke her previous national record of 1:26:58 that she had set in winning the gold medal in the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon last July.
In memory: Jim Hines, the 1968 Olympic champion in the men’s 100 meters and the first man in history to break 10 seconds in the event while being timed with fully-automatic timing system, died last Saturday. He was 76.
Hines ran 9.95 seconds in winning the 100 in the 1968 Games in Mexico City and he also ran the anchor leg on a U.S. team that won the 400 relay in a world record of 38.24.
While a U.S. team would lower the world mark in the 400 relay to 38.19 in the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Hines’ 9.95 clocking in the 100 stood as the world record until July 3, 1983, when American Calvin Smith ran 9.93 in the U.S. Olympic Festival in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
While Hines’ performance in Mexico City, like Smith’s in Colorado Springs, no doubt benefitted from being at high elevations, Hines will forever be known as the first man to break 10 seconds in the 100.
He was also part of what many historians regard as the greatest men’s track and field team ever assembled. The U.S. team won 24 medals in the 1968 Olympics, including 12 gold medals. In addition, its athletes set world records in the 100, 200, 400, 400 relay, 1,600 relay, and long jump during those Games.
Hines was a native of Arkansas, but he grew up in Oakland, California and won state titles in the 100- and 220-yard dashes as a senior at McClymonds High School in 1964.
He then went on to Texas Southern University where he also played football for the school that competed at the NAIA level at that time.
Hines was the No. 1-ranked 100-meter sprinter in the world by Track & Field News for the 1967 and ’68 seasons. He also ranked seventh in 1966.
In addition, he was ranked second in the world in the 200 — behind fellow American Tommie Smith — in 1966 and ’67 before being ranked fifth in ’68.
Smith would set a world record of 19.83 in winning the 200 in the 1968 Games.
Hines was drafted by the Miami Dolphins in 1968 and played in 9 games for the team during the 1969 season. He also appeared in one game for the Kansas City Chiefs in 1970.
According to Pro Football Reference he had two receptions for 23 yards during his brief career.