Michelle Perry (born May 1, 1979 in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

) is an American athlete. At the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

she placed 14th overall in the

heptathlon A heptathlon is a track and field combined events contest made up of seven events. The name derives from the Greek επτά (hepta, meaning "seven") and ἄθλος (áthlos, or ἄθλον, áthlon, meaning "competition"). A competitor in a hept ...

competition. Later, at the

2005 World Championships in Athletics The 10th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), were held in the Olympic Stadium, Helsinki, Finland (6 August 2005 – 14 August 2005), the site of the first IAAF ...

, she earned a gold medal in the

100 m hurdles The 100 metres hurdles, or 100-meter hurdles, is a track and field event run mainly by women (the male counterpart is the 110 metres hurdles). For the race, ten hurdles of a height of are placed along a straight course of . The first hurdle is ...

with a time of 12.66 seconds. Her current personal record in the event is 12.43 seconds. Perry attended

Quartz Hill High School Quartz Hill High School is a public, co-educational high school located in Quartz Hill, California. Founded in 1964, it is the third oldest comprehensive high school in the Antelope Valley Union High School District. Campus The basic layout of Qua ...

in Lancaster, California and finished second in the 1997

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 ...

in the Long jump. At the

2007 World Championships in Athletics The 11th World Championships in Athletics, () under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), were held at Nagai Stadium in Osaka, Japan from 24 August to 2 September 2007. 200 of the IAAF's 212 member federat ...

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

she successfully defended her title with another

gold medal performance; winning in a time of 12.46 seconds. The result was surrounded by some debate since she ran on the next lane (

Susanna Kallur Susanna Elisabeth "Sanna" Kallur (; born 16 February 1981) is a Swedish former athlete competing mainly in sprint hurdles. She has won several international medals, including the gold medal in the 100 m hurdles at the 2006 European ...

's lane) and some think she made contact with the Swede over the last hurdle. Despite television evidence, there was no official decision as the Swedish protest was filed too late. Perry missed out on a spot for the

2008 Beijing Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nat ...

, but made the team for the

2009 World Championships in Athletics The 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics () were held in Berlin, Germany from 15–23 August 2009. The majority of events took place in the Olympiastadion, while the marathon and racewalking events started and finished at the Brandenburg ...

. However, she was unable to defend her title as she entered the competition with a knee injury and was eliminated in the first round. She missed the 2010 and 2011 seasons due to injury and pregnancy.Lee, Kirby (2012-04-22)
World leads by Reese and Aarrass highlight Mt Sac Relays
IAAF. Retrieved on 2012-04-22.

Audio interviews

Michelle reflects on her 2007 and second consecutive 100m World Championship gold medal

References

External links

* 1979 births Living people American female hurdlers American heptathletes Athletes (track and field) at the 2003 Pan American Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Olympics Olympic track and field athletes of the United States UCLA Bruins women's track and field athletes World Athletics Championships medalists Track and field athletes from Los Angeles World Athletics Championships winners Pan American Games track and field athletes for the United States 20th-century American women 21st-century American women {{US-heptathlon-athletics-bio-stub