Harry Lee Reynolds Jr. (born June 8, 1964), commonly known as Butch Reynolds, is an American former

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

athlete who competed in the 400 meter dash. He held the

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organization ...

for the event for 11 years with his personal best time of 43.29 seconds set in 1988. That year, he was the

silver medal A silver medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, et ...

ist at the

1988 Seoul Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...

(behind Steve Lewis) and a relay gold medalist. He was falsely accused and banned for drug use for two years by the

IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body fo ...

; until The United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of Reynolds due to an apparent drug testing procedural flaw. Reynolds was awarded $27.3 million dollars due to the false accusation damages; however, he never received a penny. On his competitive return he became the 1993 World Indoor Champion and won two successive 400 meter silver medals at the World Championships in Athletics. He also enjoyed success with the

4×400 meter relay Four-wheel drive, also called 4×4 ("four by four") or 4WD, refers to a two-axled vehicle drivetrain capable of providing torque to all of its wheels simultaneously. It may be full-time or on-demand, and is typically linked via a transfer ca ...

team, winning the world title three times in his career with the United States (1987, 1993 and 1995). His team's time of 2:54.29 minutes at the

1993 World Championships in Athletics The 4th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held in the Neckarstadium, Stuttgart, Germany between 13 and 22 August with the participation of 187 nations. Having ori ...

is the current world record. Reynolds remains the third fastest of all-time in the 400 m after Michael Johnson, the former world record holder, and

Wayde van Niekerk Wayde van Niekerk (South African English: , ; born 15 July 1992) is a South African track and field Sprint (running), sprinter who competes in the 200 metres, 200 and 400 metres. In the 400 metres, he is the current world record, world and ...

, the current world record holder. In 2016, he was elected into the

National Track and Field Hall of Fame The National Track and Field Hall of Fame is a museum operated by The Armory Foundation in conjunction with USA Track & Field. It is located within the Armory Foundation (the former Fort Washington Avenue Armory) at 216 Fort Washington Avenue, ...

Career

Reynolds was born in

Akron, Ohio Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 Census, the city ...

. On August 17, 1988, aged 24 years and 70 days, he set a 400-meter

with 43.29 seconds, smashing Lee Evans' nearly 20-year-old 1968

by 0.57 seconds. Reynolds' record had negative splits, meaning that the second half of the race was completed more quickly than the first half, and was the first time anyone had set a world record for the men's 400 meters with

negative split A negative split is a racing strategy that involves completing the second half of a race faster than the first half. It is defined by the intentional setting of a slower initial pace, followed by a gradual or sudden increase of speed towards the en ...

s. His splits were 21.9 seconds for the opening 200 meters and 21.4 seconds for the closing 200 meters, giving a differential of -0.5 seconds. This record stood for 11 years, 9 days and was broken by Michael Johnson (43.18) in August 1999.

broke Michael Johnson's record in 2016 in a time of 43.03. Reynolds remains the third fastest of all-time over the distance, and Olympic champions Jeremy Wariner,

Quincy Watts Quincy D. Watts (born June 19, 1970) is an American former athlete, and two time gold medallist at the 1992 Summer Olympics. Career Born in Detroit, Michigan, Quincy Watts attended the University of Southern California (USC) where he excelled ...

LaShawn Merritt LaShawn Merritt (born June 27, 1986) is an American track and field athlete who competes in sprinting events, specializing in the 400 metres. He is a former Olympic champion over the distance and his personal best of 43.65 seconds makes him the ...

and

Kirani James Kirani James (born 1 September 1992) is a Grenadian professional sprinter who specializes in the 200 and 400 metres. He won the 400 m at the World Championships in 2011 and the 2012 London Olympics. In the 400 metres James also won the sil ...

, plus

Isaac Makwala Isaac Makwala (born 24 September 1985) is a Botswana sprinter who specializes in the 400 metres. Career He was the gold medallist at the Commonwealth Games in 2018. He has also won continental titles at the distance, winning at the 2015 Af ...

, the African champion from 2012 and 2014, and Fred Kerley, the NCAA record holder, are the only others to have come within half a second of his best mark. He won a silver medal in the

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...

in the 400 meters and a gold medal in the

4 x 400 m relay 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smallest ...

. In the

IAAF World Championships in Athletics The World Athletics Championships (until 2019 known as the World Championships in Athletics) are a biennial athletics competition organized by World Athletics (formerly IAAF, International Association of Athletics Federations). Alongside the O ...

he won a bronze medal in

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, ...

, and silver medals in

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

and

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

. He also won gold medals on the 4 x 400 meter relays in

and

. The 1993 World Championship team with

Andrew Valmon Andrew Orlando Valmon (born January 1, 1965) is an American former 400 meters runner. Valmon was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in Manchester Township, New Jersey, where he attended Manchester Township High School. He attended college a ...

, Watts and Johnson still holds the world record for the relay. In the 1996 American

Olympic trials Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece bet ...

he finished second behind Michael Johnson, clocking 43.91, the fastest non-winning 400 meters performance until 26 August 2015. However, in the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

semifinal, he suffered a hamstring injury, failed to qualify for the final, and also had to withdraw from the relay team. He retired after the 1999 season. Reynolds has since established the Butch Reynolds Care for Kids Foundation and was the speed coach for the

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best pub ...

football team up until his resignation in April 2008. Butch resumed coaching when he was hired as the sprint coach for

Ohio Dominican University Ohio Dominican University is a private Dominican liberal arts university in Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-mos ...

in Columbus in 2014. His first season as coach led to an improvement of 20 points at the

GLIAC The Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) is a competitive college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. The GLIAC was founded in June 1972. Its el ...

Outdoor Meet and the emergence of one of the best young sprinters in the GLIAC.

Drug Suspension

Butch Reynolds was suspended for two years by the

for alleged illegal drug use in 1990. This was the start of a long legal fight, after which the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

ordered the

United States Olympic Committee The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) is the National Olympic Committee and the National Paralympic Committee for the United States. It was founded in 1895 as the United States Olympic Committee, and is headquartered in Col ...

to allow him to participate in the 1992 U.S. Olympic trials, after finding the testing procedures were flawed from the beginning. Testers had marked specimen "H6" as testing positive while Reynolds' blood specimen was "H5". Lab director Jean-Pierre LaFarge claimed in court that, in spite of the markings, the technician had told him that specimen "H5" was the positive one. Yet "H6" was circled on two separate documents by the technician.

IAAF and IOC controversy

This injunction brought American law and equity into conflict with the rules of

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swis ...

(IOC) and

International Association of Athletics Federations World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body fo ...

(IAAF), which prohibited suspended athletes from competing. In fact, the IAAF threatened to suspend any athlete that competed against Butch Reynolds. The American Olympic trial 400 meters heats were postponed for four days, but the IAAF finally backed down. Reynolds finished fifth in the trials, and qualified for a place as a substitute on the American 4 x 400 meters relay team. However, the IAAF (which had administered the flawed test) then banned him from competing in the 1992 Olympics. That same year Reynolds also won a libel suit against the IAAF, and was awarded $27.3 million in damages. The IAAF stated that the ruling, made in Ohio, had no bearing upon the organization and was invalid. A federal appeals panel later overturned the verdict on jurisdictional grounds.

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Reynolds, Butch 1964 births Living people American male sprinters World Athletics record holders (relay) World record setters in athletics (track and field) African-American male track and field athletes American sportspeople in doping cases Doping cases in athletics Athletes (track and field) at the 1988 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1996 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the United States in track and field Olympic silver medalists for the United States in track and field Ohio State University alumni Ohio State Buckeyes men's track and field athletes Ohio State Buckeyes football coaches Sportspeople from Akron, Ohio Track and field athletes from Ohio World Athletics Championships medalists Butler Community College alumni Medalists at the 1988 Summer Olympics World Athletics Indoor Championships winners World Athletics Championships winners 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople

Career

Drug Suspension

IAAF and IOC controversy

See also

References

External links