Mark Anthony McKoy (born December 10, 1961) is a Canadian retired

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. He won the gold medal in the

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

at the

1992 Barcelona Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics (, ), officially the Games of the XXV Olympiad (, ) and officially branded as Barcelona '92, were an international multi-sport event held from 25 July to 9 August 1992 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Beginning in 1994 ...

. He also won the

60 metres hurdles 60 metres hurdles is a distance in hurdling which is generally run in indoor competitions. It is equivalent with the first 5 hurdles of a standard outdoor hurdle race. The current women's and men's world records are 7.65 seconds (Devynne Ch ...

title at the

1993 IAAF World Indoor Championships The 4th IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics were held at the Skydome in Toronto, Ontario, Canada from March 12 to March 14, 1993. It was the last Indoor Championships to feature the 5,000 and 3,000 metres race walk events. In addition, ...

, and the 110 metres hurdles titles at the

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games is a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations, which consists mostly, but not exclusively, of territories of the former British Empire. The event was first held in 1930 ...

in 1982 and 1986. He is the World record holder for the

50 metres hurdles 50 metres hurdles is a distance in hurdling, usually only run in indoor competitions. Because very few contests are held over the distance, most of the fastest times recorded for the event were set during specially measured and timed races over lo ...

with 6.25 secs (1986), and the Canadian record holder in the 60 metres hurdles with 7.41 secs (1993), and the 110 metres hurdles with 13.08 secs (1993).

Athletics career

Born in Georgetown,

British Guiana British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies. It was located on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has been known as the independent nation of Guyana. The first known Europeans to encounter Guia ...

, Mark McKoy spent his youth in England, before moving to Canada as a teenager. He attended

Clemson University Clemson University () is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university near Clemson, South Carolina, United States. - The blue-shaded pattern denotes university property. This shows Clemson University is ''out ...

in 1980, but dropped out. McKoy came to the international athletics scene in 1982 by winning a gold medal in 110 m hurdles and silver in 4 × 100 m relay at the

. In the next year McKoy finished fourth at the first World Championships and repeated this place at the

1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and commonly known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the ...

. In 1986, McKoy repeated his victory in 110 m hurdles at

and turned his 4 × 100 m relay silver to gold medal, but finished seventh at the 1987 World Championships. McKoy finished seventh in the hurdles at the

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and officially branded as Seoul 1988 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. 159 nations were represe ...

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

, as he hit a number of hurdles in the final. His compatriot Ben Johnson tested positive for banned substances at the Games. In protest of the rush to judgement and treatment of his friend and teammate, Mark left the Olympic games prior to competing in the 4 × 100 metre relay race. This act led to Mark's 2 year suspension from international athletics by the Canadian Olympic Committee. Over the course of the Dubin Inquiry, McKoy testified that as a young man and under pressure from his coach, Charlie Francis, he briefly experimented with performance enhancing drugs. McKoy made a comeback at the 1991 World Championships, finishing fourth again in 110 m hurdles. At the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, McKoy put his fourth-place streak behind him and won the gold medal in 13.12 seconds. It was the first Canadian Olympic gold medal in track and field since Duncan McNaughton's first-place finish in the high jump competition in 1932 and at the same time, Mark McKoy became the first black Canadian to win an Olympic gold medal. At the

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

he won the 60 m hurdles. A training mate of

Colin Jackson Colin Ray Jackson, (born 18 February 1967) is a British former sprint and hurdling athlete who specialised in the 110 metres hurdles. During a career in which he represented Great Britain and Wales, he won an Olympic silver medal, became w ...

, he appeared with Jackson and

Linford Christie Linford Christie (born 2 April 1960) is a Jamaican-born British former Sprint (running), sprinter and athletics coach. He is the only British man to have won gold medals in the 100 metres at all four major competitions open to British athletes ...

in the workout video ''The S Plan: Get Fit with Christie and Jackson'' in 1993. McKoy had emigrated to

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

and subsequently obtained

Austrian citizen Austrian nationality law details the conditions by which an individual is a national of Austria. The primary law governing these requirements is the Nationality Law, which came into force on 31 July 1985. Austria is a member state of the Euro ...

ship in 1994. He spent the last years of his career competing for his adopted country and set an Austrian record of 13.14 seconds in the 110 m hurdles.Austrian national records, outdoor

Personal bests

References

Mark McKoy
at Sporting Heroes * Newall, Liz. "You're in great company." ''Clemson World''. Summer 2007. pp. 10–12.

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:McKoy, Mark 1961 births Living people Austrian male hurdlers Canadian male hurdlers Austrian male sprinters Canadian male sprinters Olympic athletes for Austria Olympic gold medalists for Canada Olympic track and field athletes for Canada Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1984 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1988 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1992 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1996 Summer Olympics Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Canada Commonwealth Games silver medallists for Canada Athletes (track and field) at the 1982 Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 1986 Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 1983 Pan American Games Pan American Games track and field athletes for Canada World Athletics Championships athletes for Canada Black Canadian sportsmen Black Canadian track and field athletes Clemson Tigers men's track and field athletes Ben Johnson doping case Doping cases in athletics Canadian sportspeople in doping cases Immigrants to Austria Immigrants to Canada Guyanese emigrants Naturalised citizens of Austria Naturalized citizens of Canada Athletes from Georgetown, Guyana Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field) World Athletics indoor record holders Universiade medalists in athletics (track and field) FISU World University Games bronze medalists for Canada World Athletics Indoor Championships winners Medalists at the 1983 Summer Universiade Medallists at the 1982 Commonwealth Games Medallists at the 1986 Commonwealth Games Canadian Track and Field Championships winners Austrian Athletics Championships winners 20th-century Canadian sportsmen 20th-century Austrian sportsmen Commonwealth Games gold medallists in athletics Commonwealth Games silver medallists in athletics

Athletics career

Personal bests

See also

References

External links