March 8, 2012
Jared Slinde
USA Track & Field
Communications Manager
Jared.Slinde@usatf.org
IAAF World Indoor Championships press releases
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1. Five American athletes named to innaugural IAAF Hall of Fame
2. Reigning world champs, world record holder highlight men's team for IAAF World Indoor Championships
Five American athletes named to innaugural IAAF Hall of Fame
ISTANBUL, TURKEY – The IAAF announced Thursday that Jackie Joyner-Kersee (East St. Louis HS, IL; UCLA), Carl Lewis, Edwin Moses, Al Oerter and Jesse Owens will be among the initial 12 members of the inaugural class for the IAAF Hall of Fame. The IAAF and President Lamine Diack made the announcement at a press conference held at the Turkish Olympic House in preparation for the 2012 IAAF World Indoor Track & Field Championships, which will begin Friday and run through Sunday at the Atakoy Athletic Arena.
The IAAF announced the initial 12 names for induction into the Hall of Fame Thursday while the remaining 12 names will be announced at some point before the official induction ceremony, which is scheduled for November 24, 2012, at the IAAF Centenary Gala in Barcelona.
A “Who’s Who in American track and field”, Owens, Lewis, Oerter, Moses and Joyner-Kersee are all members of the USA Track & Field National Hall of Fame. Along with the announcement, the IAAF states the strict criteria for induction, which says athletes must have won at least two Olympic or World Championships gold medals and have set at least one world record. Athletes also need to be retired from the sport for 10 years.
“As part of the celebrations to mark the centennial year of the International Association of Athletics Federations, the IAAF is proud to announce the inauguration of the IAAF Hall of Fame in 2012,” President Diack said. “The creation of the IAAF Hall of Fame which has long been a vision of the sport’s world governing body is an excellent way not only to honor the lifetime achievements of our greatest athletes, but also heighten public awareness of our sport and its rich history.”
Jackie Joyner-Kersee
One of the most famous American athletes of all time, Jackie Joyner-Kersee was voted the Greatest Female Athlete of the 20th Century by Sports Illustrated. In her time as a multi-event athlete, Joyner-Kersee won three Olympic gold medals and four World Outdoor Championships gold medals. She established the world record four times in the heptathlon and did so once in the long jump. From 1985 until 1991 Joyner-Kersee won 12 consecutive heptathlon competitions.
Carl Lewis
Few will ever be able to duplicate the nine Olympic gold medals, eight World Championships gold medals and nine world records Carl Lewis was a part of during his time as a sprinter and jumper. The IAAF induction is the latest honor for Lewis as he was also voted Male Athlete of the 20th Century by the IAAF and Sportsman of the Century by the International Olympic Committee. He not only equaled Owens’ four-gold-medal performance at the 1984 Olympic Games, but he also won long jump Olympic gold four consecutive times from 1984 until 1996. Lewis set the world record in the 100m three different times and was part of six world record setting 4x100m teams.
Edwin Moses
The 122 consecutive races Edwin Moses won during his run in the 400-meter hurdles will go down as one of the better streaks in any sport. Moses won both the 1976 and 1984 Olympic gold medals and would have been the odds-on favorite to win in 1980 if not for the U.S. boycott of the Moscow Games. Between 1977 and 1987 Moses didn’t lose a race in the 400m hurdles. That string also included gold medals at two World Championships and three IAAF world cups.
Al Oerter
Al Oerter was the first of his kind in winning four consecutive Olympic gold medals in the discus from 1956 through 1968. Oerter won his first Olympic gold at the age of 20 when he set the Olympic record and became the youngest ever Olympic champion of the event. One of the more dominant throwers the event has ever seen, Oerter established a new Olympic record in each of his four Olympics.
Jesse Owens
Jesse Owens is known in track and field for a pair of reasons – winning four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games and setting five world records in a 45-minute span in college. In 1936, in the politically charged Games in Berlin, Owens won gold medals in the 100m, 200m, long jump and 4x100m relay. Not until Carl Lewis in 1984, would anyone win those same events in the same Olympics. In 1935, as a student at Ohio State, Owens set world marks in the 100-yard, long jump, 220-yard and 220-yard hurdles all in less than 45 minutes.
Reigning world champs, world record holder highlight men's team for IAAF World Indoor Championships
ISTANBUL, TURKEY – Reigning World Indoor gold medalist Bernard Lagat, 2011 World Outdoor champions Christian Taylor and Jesse Williams (Broughton HS, Raleigh, NC 2002; North Carolina State 2003; Southern California 2006)and world heptathlon record holder Ashton Eaton lead a deep Team USA men’s field into the 2012 IAAF World Indoor Track & Field Championships. Competition begins Friday and runs through Sunday from the Atakoy Athletic Arena.
Lagat has been vocal all season on his goals to defend his World Indoor title in the 3,000-meters and will be in search of his third World Indoor title in the event after also winning the gold in 2004. Lagat is coming off a win in the event at the USA Indoor Championships along with establishing an American record in the 5,000m earlier in the year at the Millrose Games. He will face strong competition from Great Britain’s Mo Farah as well as 2012 USA Indoor runner-up Lopez Lomong.
Taylor burst onto the international scene with his World Outdoor Championships gold medal in the triple jump and will be given his first chance for another medal on the international scene since Daegu. Taylor teams with Will Claye to give Team USA a good chance at a pair of triple jump medals. Claye won the USA Indoor title in the event and owns the top two jumps in the world this year. Claye will also compete in the long jump where he owns the second best mark in the world this indoor season.
After winning a World Championships gold medal, a Diamond League title and USA Track & Field’s Jesse Owens award in 2011, Williams hopes for more big things in 2012. The two-time USA Indoor and Outdoor champion owns a season best of 2.32m/7-7.25, which currently puts him sixth best in the world.
No one in the history of track and field has performed better in the heptathlon than Eaton. He set the world record mark of 6,568 points in 2010. Eaton also won a silver medal in the decathlon at the 2011 World Outdoor Championships. This is Eaton’s first full heptathlon this indoor season.
Trell Kimmons and Justin Gatlin battled to a close finish at the USA Indoor Championships. Kimmons’ winning time of 6.45 and Gatlin’s runner-up time of 6.47 are currently the two fastest times in the world this year and give Team USA an excellent shot at a pair of World Indoor medals.
There has long been an American presence in the shot put at the international level, and the 2012 World Indoor Championships will be no different. 2006 World Indoor gold medalist Reese Hoffa and 2011 USA Indoor runner-up Ryan Whiting currently own the top two spots in the world in 2012. Hoffa has also won two World Indoor silver medals in his career.
Brad Walker understands how to perform on the world stage. The American outdoor pole vault record holder and 2006 World Indoor gold medalist will be in search of his fifth World Championships medal. His season best of 5.86m/19-2.75 currently sits fifth in the world as Walker will be joined by Scott Roth, who placed second at the 2012 USA Indoor championships.
Aries Merritt and Kevin Craddock (James Logan HS, Union City 2005; UCLA 2009), the 2003 and 2004 CIF State Meet 100 hurdles champion,battled through a loaded field at the USA Indoor Championships to represent Team USA at the World Indoor Championships in the 60m hurdles. Merrit, who claimed the U.S. indoor title, owns the third fastest time in the world this year and Craddock, the runner-up, currently sits fourth.
Matthew Centrowitz and Galen Rupp lead the middle-distance fields in the 1,500m while Michael Rutt and Tevan Everett will represent Team USA in the 800m. Centrowitz placed second at the USA Indoor Championships in the event along with winning a bronze medal at the 2011 World Outdoor Championships. The American outdoor 10,000m record holder, Rupp was recently crowned as the men’s indoor Visa Championships series winner. Rutt placed second at the 2012 USA Indoor Championships.
Gil Roberts and Calvin Smith will lead a group of sprinters in the 400m and the 4x400m relay. Roberts and Smith finished first and second, respectively, at the USA Indoor Championships and currently have the second and sixth fastest times in the world. They will be joined by Frankie Wright, Manteo Mitchell, Quentin Iglehart-Summers and Jamaal Torrance in assembling teams for both the preliminary round and the final of the 4x400m.
For continuing updates on the World Indoor Championships, see www.usatf.org.
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