Patrick Johnson (born 26 September 1972 in

Cairns, Queensland Cairns (; ) is a city in the Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. In the , Cairns had a population of 153,181 people. The city was founded in 1876 and named after Sir William Welling ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

) is an Australian

athlete An athlete is most commonly a person who competes in one or more sports involving physical strength, speed, power, or endurance. Sometimes, the word "athlete" is used to refer specifically to sport of athletics competitors, i.e. including track ...

of Aboriginal and Irish descent. He is the current

Oceanian Oceania ( , ) is a geographical region including Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Outside of the English-speaking world, Oceania is generally considered a continent, while Mainland Australia is regarded as its continenta ...

and

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

record holder in the

100 metres The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been contested at ...

with a time of 9.93 seconds, which he achieved in Mito,

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, on 5 May 2003. With that time he became the first person not of African ancestry to break the 10-second barrier (

Frankie Fredericks Frank "Frankie" Fredericks (born 2 October 1967) is a former track and field athlete from Namibia. Running in the 100 metres and 200 metres, he won four silver medals at the Olympic Games (two in 1992 and two in 1996), making him Namibia's o ...

, a Namibian, had been the first non-West-African in 1991). The time made him the 17th-fastest man in history at the time and 38th man to crack the

10-second barrier The 10-second barrier is the physical and psychological barrier of completing the 100 metres sprint in under ten seconds. The achievement is traditionally regarded as the hallmark of a world-class male sprinter. Its significance has become less ...

.Jad Adrian (July 2011)
Lists of The Fastest White Men in History, Non-African DescentAdrianSprints.com
Retrieved 2011-07-30. He was regarded as the fastest man of non-African descent before

Christophe Lemaitre Christophe Lemaitre (; born 11 June 1990) is a former French people, French Sprint (running), sprinter who specialised in the 100 metres, 100 and 200 metres. In 2010, Lemaitre became the first white athlete to break the 10-second barrier in an o ...

ran 9.92 seconds in French National Championships in

Albi Albi (; ) is a commune in France, commune in southern France. It is the prefecture of the Tarn (department), Tarn Departments of France, department, on the river Tarn (river), Tarn, 85 km northeast of Toulouse. Its inhabitants are called ...

on 29 July 2011.Jad Adrian (July 2011)
Christophe Lemaitre 100m 9.92s +2.0 (Video) - Officially the Fastest White Man in HistoryAdrianSprints.com
Retrieved 2011-07-30. He reached the finals in both the 100 and

200 Year 200 ( CC) was a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Severus and Victorinus (or, less frequently, year 953 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 200 for this y ...

metres at the

2006 Commonwealth Games The 2006 Commonwealth Games, officially the XVIII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Melbourne 2006, were an International sport, international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth held in Melbourne ...

, and the 200m final in the 2005 World Championships, where he finished 6th. He represented Australia at the Olympic Games in 2000. He finished his career with one Commonwealth Games medal: a bronze in the 4 × 100 metres relay at the 2002 Commonwealth Games.

Personal life

Johnson's mother was a Kaanju

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...

and his father is of Irish descent. He was born on a speed boat en route to Cairns base hospital. His mother died when he was young, so he grew up on his father's mackerel trawler, and spent his childhood travelling the coast of Cape York with his siblings. A chance entry into a 100m race in Queensland in his early 20s revealed his talent, and he later won a scholarship to attend the

Australian Institute of Sport The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...

in Canberra. His career in athletics was somewhat shortened by his age, and he later worked in the Australian diplomatic service, and in Indigenous health. In 2018, Johnson contributed a chapter entitled 'My Life's Voyage' to the 2018 biographical anthology '' Growing Up Aboriginal In Australia'', edited by

Anita Heiss Anita Marianne Heiss (born 1968) is an Aboriginal Australian author, poet, cultural activist and social commentator. She is an advocate for Indigenous Australian literature and literacy, through her writing for adults and children and her memb ...

and published by

Black Inc Schwartz Publishing is an Australian publishing house, digital media, and news media organisation based in Melbourne, established by Australian property developer Morry Schwartz in the 1980s. Since the late 1990s many of its publications have a ...

Personal bests

International competition record

Track records

As of 6 September 2024, Johnson holds the following track records for 100 metres and 200 metres.

100 metres

200 metres

References

External links

*
Patrick Johnson
at Australian Athletics Historical Results

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Patrick 1972 births Living people Australian male sprinters Australian people of Irish descent Athletes (track and field) at the 2000 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes for Australia Athletes (track and field) at the 2002 Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2006 Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2010 Commonwealth Games Indigenous Australian Olympians Sportspeople from Cairns Australian Institute of Sport track and field athletes Indigenous Australian track and field athletes Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for Australia Medallists at the 2002 Commonwealth Games Sportsmen from Queensland Australian Athletics Championships winners Commonwealth Games bronze medallists in athletics