Regina Jacobs (born August 28, 1963 in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

) is an American former middle-distance runner from

. She had an extended career that included two

IAAF World Championships in Athletics The World Athletics Championships, known as the IAAF World Championships in Athletics until 2019, are a biennial athletics competition organized by World Athletics, formerly International Association of Athletics Federations. Alongside Olympic ...

silver medals and an indoor world championship at the age of 39. Three months later, her career ended after winning what would have been a fifth straight National Championship in the 1500 meters when she was disqualified and banned for doping related to the BALCO scandal.

Track & field career

Jacobs was an

All-America The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed on outstanding athletes in the United States who are considered to be among the best athletes in their respective sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an Al ...

n runner for the

Stanford Cardinal track and field The Stanford Cardinal track and field team is the track and field program that represents Stanford University. The Cardinal compete in NCAA Division I as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference. The team is based in Stanford, California at th ...

team, finishing 4th in the 800 m at the 1982 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships and 6th in the 1500 m at the 1985 championships. After graduating from Stanford, Jacobs represented the US in three consecutive

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games, also known as the Summer Olympics or the Games of the Olympiad, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inaugural Games took place in 1896 in Athens, then part of the King ...

starting in

1988 1988 was a crucial year in the early history of the Internet—it was the year of the first well-known computer virus, the Morris worm, 1988 Internet worm. The first permanent intercontinental Internet link was made between the United State ...

Seoul, South Korea 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 ...

. Jacobs took second place in the 1500 m race at the 6th World Championships in Athletics in

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

(4:04.63) in 1997, and again won the silver medal in the 1500 m at the World Championships in

Sevilla Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Seville ...

in 1999 (4:00.35). In her years of running she won 25 national titles. On February 1, 2003, Jacobs set a world record in the indoor 1500 m with a time of 3:59.98, becoming the first woman to break 4 minutes in the event. Months later, she was officially banned for doping but her American record technically stood until March 2, 2025, when Heather MacLean ran 3:59.60 to set a new American record. In her final years of competition, she was coached by her husband, Tom Craig. In 2003, she retired after she tested positive for BALCO's 'designer' steroid THG and was suspended from competing in track & field for four years by the

United States Anti-Doping Agency The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA, ) is a non-profit, non-governmental 501(c)(3) organization and the national anti-doping organization (NADO) for the United States. To protect clean competition and the integrity of sport and prevent ...

Real estate career

Following her ban and subsequent retirement, Jacobs became a real estate agent in the

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

, area. She earned an MBA from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. She currently works for The Grubb Co. Realtors, with her husband on her team.

References

External links

* *
Jacobs handed ban
from

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Regina Jacobs Sets 1500M World Record
from Cool Running

from ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Jacobs, Regina 1963 births Living people Track and field athletes from Los Angeles American female middle-distance runners African-American track and field athletes Olympic track and field athletes for the United States 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 World Athletics Championships athletes for the United States World Athletics Championships medalists American sportspeople in doping cases Doping cases in athletics Goodwill Games medalists in athletics World Athletics Indoor Championships winners Competitors at the 1998 Goodwill Games 21st-century African-American sportswomen 21st-century American sportswomen 20th-century African-American sportswomen 20th-century American sportswomen Stanford Cardinal women's track and field athletes