Janeene Hope Vickers-McKinney (née Vickers, born October 3, 1968) is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

former athlete who competed mainly in the

400 metres hurdles The 400 metres hurdles is a track and field hurdling event. The event has been on the Summer Olympics, Olympic Sport of athletics, athletics programme since 1900 Summer Olympics, 1900 for men and since 1984 Summer Olympics, 1984 for women. On a ...

. She won bronze medals in the 400 metres hurdles at the 1992 Olympic Games and the 1991

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

. She also won the 1990 US Championship.

Career

Born in

Torrance, California Torrance is a coastal city in the Los Angeles metropolitan area located in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city is part of what is known as the South Bay (Los Angeles County), South Bay region of the metropolitan ...

, Vickers is a graduate of Pomona High School, where she had an outstanding high school career. She dominated the

CIF California State Meet The CIF California State Meet is the annual championship track and field meet for the California Interscholastic Federation. The meet was started in 1915 for boys and 1974 for girls. Every athlete in every high school in California has a direc ...

winning both the 100 meter and 300 meter hurdles in both 1986 and 1987, adding the flat 100 meter title in 1987. She was ''

Track and Field News ''Track & Field News'' is an American monthly sports magazine founded in 1948 by brothers Bert Nelson and Cordner Nelson, focused on the world of track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includ ...

'' "High School Athlete of the Year" in 1987. She continued to

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

to where she won three straight

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

Championships in the 400 hurdles. Vickers achieved her lifetime best in the 400m hurdles at the 1991 World Championships, where she won the bronze medal in 53.47 seconds, finishing behind the Soviet Union's

Tatyana Ledovskaya Tatyana Mikhailovna Ledovskaya (, ; born 21 May 1966 in Shchyokino, Tula Oblast) is a retired athlete who competed mainly in the 400 metres hurdles. She represented the Soviet Union and later Belarus, training in Minsk. Biography S ...

(53.11) and Great Britain's

Sally Gunnell Sally Jane Janet Gunnell, OBE, DL (born 29 July 1966) is a British former track-and-field athlete, who won the 1992 Olympic gold medal in the 400 metres hurdles. During a 24-month period between 1992 and 1994, Gunnell won every international ...

(53.16), but ahead of her American team-mates

Sandra Farmer-Patrick Sandra Marie Farmer-Patrick (née Farmer, born 18 August 1962) is a Jamaican-born American former athlete who competed mainly in the 400 metres hurdles. She won silver medals in that event at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, and at the 19 ...

(53.95) and Kim Batten (53.98). This performance moved Vickers to seventh on the world all-time list and second on the US all-time list at the time. As of 2018, she ranks 14th on the US all-time list. Vickers won an Olympic bronze medal at the 1992 Barcelona Games, running 54.31 secs to finish behind Gunnell (53.23) and Farmer-Patrick (53.69), and narrowly ahead of 1991 World champion Ledovskaya, who also clocked 54.31. On November 4, 2011, Vickers (now Vickers-McKinney) was inducted into the

UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame The UCLA Bruins are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Los Angeles. The Bruin men's and women's teams participate in NCAA Division I as part of the Big Ten Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) ...

International competitions

Honours

1× Olympic Games Bronze medalist. 1× World Championships Bronze medalist. 1× World U20 champion. 1× In Top 8 at World U20 Championships. 2× NCAA champion.

References

External links

*
California State Records before 2000
* 1968 births Living people Sportspeople from Torrance, California Track and field athletes from California American female hurdlers Olympic bronze medalists for the United States in track and field Athletes (track and field) at the 1992 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics World Athletics Championships athletes for the United States World Athletics Championships medalists UCLA Bruins women's track and field athletes Competitors at the 1990 Goodwill Games World Athletics U20 Championships winners NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships winners 20th-century American sportswomen {{US-athletics-Olympic-medalist-stub