Justin Gatlin

He was born on February 10, 1982, in Brooklyn, United States, to Willie Gatlin and Jeanette Gatlin.

He was raised in Pensacola, Florida, where he attended the ‘Woodham High School’. In school he remained the fastest runner of the team. He used to run high hurdles and helped the team in winning state championship.

He was soon spotted by coaches, Vince Anderson and Bill Webb from ‘University of Tennessee’, who offered Gatlin a scholarship as a sprinter. Thus he joined the ‘University of Tennessee’, Knoxville, as a good 110m hurdler in the fall of 2000.

He turned pro in 2000 and received a huge endorsement contract in professional track and field from Nike, Inc.

For the next couple of years he received his training and also finished the program of the university under Vince Anderson. He went on to win six ‘National Collegiate Athletic Association’ (‘NCAA’) sprint titles consecutively and also led the ‘Volunteers’ to win 2 ‘NCAA’ titles.

He beat Portugal’s Francis Obikwelu and defending champion Maurice Greene in 100m sprint with a time of 9.85s, the third fastest time taken in the history of Olympics, at the 2004 Summer Olympics to win the gold medal. He was also a winner of a bronze medal and a silver medal in a USA sweep of 200m race and as a 4 × 100 m relay squad member respectively.

On August 7, 2005, he succeeded to win a gold medal in 100m sprint beating 2003 champion Kim Collins in the 2005 ‘IAAF World Championships in Athletics’ held at Helsinki, Finland taking a time of 9.88 seconds.

In absence of Asafa Powell, the then world record holder sprinter from Jamaica, Gatlin won the Olympic-World Championship double after beating his competitors with the widest margin ever by any sprinter in a World Championship 100m for men.

That year he also triumphed in 200m and with that became the second such sprinter in athletics history after Maurice Greene to win both 100m and 200m sprints in a single World Championship.

He equalled the world record of 9.77s made by Powell in 100m (in 2005) in the final of the IAAF Qatar Athletic Super Grand Prix in Doha, Qatar, that was held on May 12, 2006. Although originally it was reported that Gatlin had surpassed the record with his time of 9.76 seconds +1.7 m/s wind, it was later revealed by IAAF on May 16 of the year that the time was 9.766 seconds, which comes to 9.77 seconds after rounding off according to rules.