Danny Lee Harris (born September 7, 1965) is an American former

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

athlete who specialized in the 400-meter hurdles (400 mH), in which he won silver medals at the 1984 Olympics and the 1987 World Championships.

Hurdling career

Danny Harris is an alumnus of Perris High School in

Perris, California Perris is an old railway city in Riverside County, California, United States, located east-southeast of Los Angeles and north of San Diego. It is known for Lake Perris, skydiving, the Southern California Railway Museum, and its sunny dry cli ...

, where he grew up. In 1983, he won the CIF California State Championship in the 300 mH, and ran a thrilling anchor leg vs Hawthorne High School's

Henry Thomas Henry Jackson Thomas (born September 9, 1971) is an American actor. He began his career as a child actor and had the lead role of Elliott Taylor in the film '' E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' (1982), for which he won a Young Artist Award and rece ...

in the team's second place 4 × 400 meters relay team, leading Perris to its most impressive showing at the event. Harris attended

Iowa State University Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricult ...

and competed for the Iowa State Cyclones track and field. His time of 48.02 in 1984 at age 18 remained the 400 mH world under-20 record until Sean Burrell's 47.85 in 2021. Harris finished second to Ed Moses in the 1984 Olympic final. He collected three NCAA 400 mH titles and four

Drake Relays The Drake Relays is an outdoor track and field event held in Des Moines, Iowa, Des Moines, Iowa, in Drake Stadium (Drake University), Drake Stadium on the campus of Drake University. Billed as ''America's Athletic Classic'', it is regarded as one ...

titles while at Iowa State. He was never beaten by a collegiate athlete in the 400 mH during his time at Iowa State, and helped lead the Cyclones to three outdoor Big Eight team titles and two indoor crowns during his three-year career, collecting 12 titles. He set Big Eight records in the 400 mH,

600 yards Middle-distance running events are track races longer than sprints, ranging from 500 metres up to . The standard middle distances are the 800 metres, 1500 metres and mile run, although the 3000 metres may also be classified as a middle-distan ...

and 4 × 400 relay. At a meeting in Madrid in 1987, Harris became the first man to defeat Edwin Moses at 400 mH since

Harald Schmid Harald Schmid (; born 29 September 1957) is a retired German track and field athlete who competed in the sprints and hurdles. He was one of the best 400 metres hurdles runners in the world during his career. Career Schmid won bronze with the Wes ...

in 1977, though Moses narrowly beat Harris in the 1987 World Championships. Harris missed out on the 1988 Olympics after finishing fifth in the U.S. Olympic Trials, behind Moses, Andre Phillips and Kevin Young (respectively the 1984, 1988, and

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

Olympic champions). Harris' personal best for the 400 mH was 47.38 seconds, set at

Athletissima Athletissima is an annual athletics meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland. Previously one of the five IAAF Super Grand Prix events, it is now part of the Diamond League. The first edition was held on 8 July 1977 in the Stade Pierre de Coubertin. In ...

in Lausanne in July 1991. He finished fifth in that year's World Championships. He failed an anti-doping test at the 1992

USA Indoor Track and Field Championships The USA Indoor Track and Field Championships is an annual indoor track and field competition organized by USA Track & Field, which serves as the American national championships for the sport. In years which feature a World Indoor Championships i ...

and the

IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation and International Association of Athletics Federations and formerly abbreviated as the IAAF, is the international sports governing body, governing body for the sport ...

suspended him for four years. After he completed a

drug rehabilitation Drug rehabilitation is the process of medical or psychotherapeutic treatment for dependency on psychoactive substances such as alcohol, prescription drugs, and street drugs such as cannabis, cocaine, heroin, and amphetamines. The general int ...

program,

USA Track & Field USA Track & Field (USATF) is a United States national governing body for the sports of track and field, cross country running, road running, and racewalking (known as the sport of athletics outside the US). The USATF was known between 1979 and 1 ...

agreed to lift his ban in 1994, but after a few weeks the IAAF reimposed it until the following year. He was fourth in the 1995 400 mH world rankings, but a

hamstring A hamstring () is any one of the three posterior thigh muscles in human anatomy between the hip and the knee: from medial to lateral, the semimembranosus, semitendinosus and biceps femoris. Etymology The word " ham" is derived from the Old ...

injury kept him out of the 1995 World Championships. His career ended with a second positive cocaine test after a 1996 race in Rio de Janeiro. In his 1999 autobiography,

Roger Black Roger Anthony Black MBE (born 31 March 1966) is an English former athlete who competed internationally for Great Britain and England. During his athletics career, he won individual silver medals in the 400 metres sprint at both the Olympic Ga ...

said of Harris: "He was without doubt the most talented athlete I've ever trained with. ... The irony of the whole thing was, cocaine was not making him a better athlete, it was making him worse."

Later life

By his own admission, Harris began using

cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...

during his disappointment at missing out on the 1988 Olympics and relapsed after missing a medal in 1991. After his 1992 doping ban he lost his shoe deal and had to sell his house in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. In the decade after his 1996 ban he experienced periods of serious addiction and homelessness. By 2008 he was clean and working at the Midnight Mission

homeless shelter Homeless shelters are a type of service and total institution that provides temporary residence for homelessness, homeless individuals and families. Shelters exist to provide residents with safety and protection from exposure to the weather whi ...

where he had previously been a client. Harris later worked as a track coach at various high schools. He had helped Perris High School boys' track team in 2001 to their first League Championship since his own time as a student there. Harris was inducted into the Drake Relays Hall of Fame in 1995, the Iowa State Hall of Fame in 2000, and the Iowa Sports Hall of Fame in 2005. In 2016, ''Crossing the Line'', a documentary film about his life, was shown at

film festival A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theater, cinemas or screening venues, usually annually and in a single city or region. Some film festivals show films outdoors or online. Films may be of recent ...

References

External links

Danny Harris
at

(archived) * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Danny 1965 births Living people African-American track and field athletes American male hurdlers American sportspeople in doping cases Athletes (track and field) at the 1984 Summer Olympics Doping cases in athletics American homeless people Iowa State Cyclones men's track and field athletes Medalists at the 1984 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medalists for the United States in track and field World Athletics Championships athletes for the United States World Athletics Championships medalists People from Perris, California Sportspeople from Riverside County, California Sportspeople from Torrance, California Track and field athletes from California 21st-century African-American sportsmen 20th-century African-American sportsmen 20th-century American sportsmen Hawthorne High School (California) alumni NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships winners