Devon Allen (born December 12, 1994) is an American

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 and two-time Olympian, specializing in the

110-meter hurdles The 110 metres hurdles, or 110-metre hurdles, is a hurdling track and field event for men. It is included in the athletics programme at the Summer Olympic Games. The female counterpart is the 100 metres hurdles. As part of a racing event, ten hurd ...

, and a professional football

wide receiver A wide receiver (WR), also referred to as a wideout, and historically known as a split end (SE) or flanker (FL), is an eligible receiver in gridiron football. A key skill position of the offense (American football), offense, WR gets its name ...

who is a free agent. He played wide receiver for the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a Public university, public research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1876, the university is organized into nine colleges and schools and offers 420 undergraduate and gra ...

football team from 2014 to 2016.

Early life

Devon Allen was born in 1994 in

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona. With over 1.6 million residents at the 2020 census, it is the ...

to Louis Allen and Joey Knudson. His father is African American while his mother is White. Louis Allen died in June 2022. At an early age, Allen competed in athletics with the Arizona Rising Suns track club. Despite having a strong interest in football, his coaches insisted he pursued athletics at

Brophy College Preparatory Brophy College Preparatory is a Catholic high school in Phoenix, Arizona, United States founded in 1928. The school has an all-male enrollment of approximately 1,400 students. It is operated independently of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoeni ...

Football recruiting

Football career

2014–2016: College football

Graduating high school as a four-star recruit, Allen committed to the

and played on their football team for three years as a wide receiver. He tore his ACL in the

2015 Rose Bowl The 2015 Rose Bowl (officially known as the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Rose Bowl Game presented by Northwestern Mutual) was a college football bowl game played on January 1, 2015, at the Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena, California. T ...

, and again in September 2016. After graduating college, Allen decided to focus on athletics instead of football.

College football statistics

2022–2023: Philadelphia Eagles

After years of primarily competing in track & field, Allen participated in the football pro day at the University of Oregon during the 2022 preseason. He ran an unofficial time of 4.35 seconds in the

40-yard dash The 40-yard dash is a sprint covering . It is primarily run to evaluate the speed and acceleration of American football players by scouts, particularly for the NFL draft but also for collegiate recruiting. A player's recorded time can have a he ...

. On April 7, 2022, he visited the

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The team plays its ...

' NovaCare Complex training facility. The following day, he signed a standard three-year undrafted rookie deal with the Eagles. He was waived on August 30, 2022 and signed to the

practice squad In gridiron football, the practice squad, also called the taxi squad or practice roster, is a group of players signed by a team but not part of their main roster. They serve as extra players during the team's practices, often as part of the scou ...

the next day. On February 15, 2023, Allen signed a reserve/future contract with the Eagles. On August 29, 2023, Allen was waived by the Eagles and re-signed to the practice squad. On September 25, 2023, Allen was promoted from the practice squad to make his NFL debut in Philadelphia's Week 3 contest against the

Tampa Bay Buccaneers The Tampa Bay Buccaneers (colloquially known as the Bucs) are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC S ...

. He tore his ACL for a third time in December 2023. Allen was not signed to a reserve/future contract after the 2023-24 season and thus became a free agent when his practice squad contract expired.

Track and field career

In the 110-meter hurdles, Allen is a three-time U.S. national champion (

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

, and

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

) and a two-time Olympian, reaching the finals in both the

2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

and the

2020 Tokyo Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

. His personal best of 12.84 seconds, set in 2022, ranks as the third-fastest time in history. In his final meet of 2021, Allen clocked 12.99 seconds and became the 13th American hurdler to ever break the 13-second barrier in this event. On July 17, 2022, Allen was disqualified at the

2022 World Athletics Championships The 2022 World Athletics Championships was the eighteenth edition of the World Athletics Championships. It was held at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, United States, from July 15–24, 2022, with the country hosting that competition for the ...

Eugene Eugene may refer to: People and fictional characters * Eugene (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Gene Eugene, stage name of Canadian born actor, record producer, engineer, composer and musi ...

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

, due to a controversial false start. The sensors in the starting blocks measured his reaction time from the moment the gun went off at 0.099 seconds, which is 0.001 seconds faster than the legally allowed reaction time of 0.100 seconds. In January 2024, Allen announced his hopes to qualify for the

2024 Paris Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

. He was unable to achieve this goal, however, due to a persistent ACL injury. In October 2024, it was announced that he had signed up for the inaugural season of the Michael Johnson founded

Grand Slam Track Grand Slam Track is a professional track and field league, first announced in 2024 by American former Olympic champion sprinter Michael Johnson. The first season ran from April to June 2025. After being initially announced in February 2024, the n ...

Track and field achievements

¹ Disqualified in the final.

References

External links

* * * * *
Devon Allen
at the

Oregon Ducks The Oregon Ducks are the College sports in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Oregon, located in Eugene, Oregon, Eugene. The Ducks compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCA ...

* Rising Sun

{{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Devon 1994 births Living people Track and field athletes from Phoenix, Arizona Players of American football from Phoenix, Arizona Oregon Ducks football players Oregon Ducks men's track and field athletes American football wide receivers American male hurdlers Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic track and field athletes for the United States World Athletics Championships athletes for the United States USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships winners USA Indoor Track and Field Championships winners Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics Diamond League winners Philadelphia Eagles players NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships winners NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships winners African-American track and field athletes African Americans in Arizona 21st-century American sportsmen