The Ten Greatest
110m Hurdlers of All-Time
Allen Johnson
Renaldo Nehemiah
Greg Foster
Colin Jackson
Liu Xiang
Roger Kingdom
Rodney Milburn
Willie Davenport
Mark Crear
Anier Garcia
Although no definitive list of all-time greats can ever be created, it’s always a fun topic to discuss. I have no definitive criteria, but my list is based primarily on major championships won, length of career, personal bests, consistency, as well as intanglible factors such as the impact the athlete had on the event. My previous top ten, which I completed in January of 2005, consisted of the following hurdlers in the following order: 1) Allen Johnson, 2) Greg Foster, 3) Colin Jackson, 4) Roger Kingdom, 5) Renaldo Nehemiah, 6) Mark Crear, 7) Anier Garcia, 8) Rodney Milburn, 9) Willie Davenport, 10) Liu Xiang. Now, almost a full two yars later, in October of 2006, I've updated my list mainly due to the accomplishments of Liu Xiang since then, but also because my thoughts have changed somewhat. In my new list, Allen Johnson stays at the top, Renaldo Nehemiah moves up to second, Greg Foster moves down to third, Colin Jackson moves down to fourth, Liu Xiang moves up to fifth, Roger Kingdom moves down to sixth, Rodney Milburn moves up to seventh, Willie Davenport moves up to eighth, Mark Crear moves down to ninth, and Anier Garcia moves down to tenth. Here’s my top ten, and the explanations:
Johnson
stays #1 in my mind for reasons I already mentioned before, and also because
of the phenomenal August and September he had in 2006, after struggling through
most of the year with injury. Let me talk in detail about Johnson's 2006 season,
because I don't think many people understand just how astounding his accomplishments
were. At the age of 35 - let me repeat, AT THE AGE OF 35 - Johnson ran 12.96,
breaking the 13.00 barrier for the 11th time in his career. How can anyone be
that good for that long? Equally noteworthy is the fact that he seemed absolutely
done throughout most of the summer. He didn't qualify for the finals at the
US Nationals. Younger stars Liu Xiang, Dayron Robles, Terrence Trammell, Aries
Merritt, and fellow elder statesman Dominique Arnold seemed to be leaving the
old man in the dust. So, to have the resiliency, the work ethic, the inner strength,
as well as the physical gifts needed to come back and finish the year the way
he did - with several sub-13.20's in addition to his 12.96, is nothing short
of staggering. Also, Johnson represents to me all that is good about the sport
of track and field. He's humble, he's competitive, he's graceful in victory
and in defeat, and he keeps it clean. Trust me, if Allen Johnson were to ever
get busted for using performance-enhancing drugs, that would be the end of me
as a track fan. He is a shining light in an age of darkness. Here's what I said
originally about AJ when I first made up my all-time greats list:
Nothing much needs to be said in defense of ranking him as the number one 110 meter high hurdler in the history of the event. His record speaks for itself. When all is said and done, no other 110 meter high hurdler has accomplished as much as AJ. It’s as simple as that. In terms of hurdling style, Johnson is an amalgamation of other great hurdlers that preceded him. He has Roger Kingdom’s aggression, Colin Jackson’s quickness, and Renaldo Nehemiah’s fluidity. Although quiet and soft-spoken on the outside, AJ is a determined competitor who possesses tremendous self-confidence and an unbreakable will to win. His four World Championship gold medals are the most of any 110 hurdler in the modern era, and he also has an Olympic gold to go with them. He has run under 13.00 oodles of times – more often than any other hurdler. He has two 12.92’s to his name. He has a very long season every year, as he competes indoors, usually begins his outdoor season in late March, which is very early for a professional track athlete. He runs in America and overseas, competes in all championship meets, even when not 100% healthy, and usually doesn’t finish his season until early September. Every hurdle rivalry in the past ten years has involved AJ – AJ vs. Kingdom, AJ vs. Crear, AJ vs. Jackson, AJ vs. Garcia, AJ vs. Trammell. AJ dominated the hurdles from 1995-1997, winning two world championships and an Olympic gold in those three years. In ’98 he lost to Mark Crear in the Goodwill Games; in ’99 he pulled out of the World Championships after the semi-final round with an injury; in 2000 he ran with a sore hamstring and finished fourth in the Olympic finals. By this time, most experts were writing off AJ as finished, as someone who had had his day, but was now fading away. Well, like Rudy Tomjanovich once said, “never underestimate the heart of a champion.” The fact that AJ came back and won two more world championships in 2001 and 2003 is more a testament to his extraordinary resiliency and competitive nature than it is to his athletic skill and hurdling ability. In terms of rankings, Johnson has been ranked #1 in the world four times -- in 1996, '97, '01, and '03 -- and has been ranked #2 in the world another four times -- in '95, '98, '00, and '02. He has been among the world's top ten every year since 1994 to the present. A humble hero who is gracious both in defeat and victory, AJ is not only the greatest hurdler who ever lived, but also one of the greatest athletes this country has ever produced. Too bad only a few of us know it.
I
had Renaldo listed fifth on my previous list, but I've gotta move him up, and
I've gotta admit that my opinion is biased. He's my HERO. He's the #1 reason
I wanted to learn how to hurdle in the first place. But still, with all bias
aside, it occurs to me that no other hurdler in history has had the impact on
the event that Renaldo had. No other hurdler in history took the event as far
as he did, based on where it was when he first arrived to where it ended up
by the time he left. Really, from the age of 19 to 22, Renaldo took the event
to a level that is just now finally becoming the norm for the world's best.
Even if he had never returned at all from his pro football career, he did more
to advance the event in four years than just about any other hurdler who had
a longer career with more medals and titles. He's the only hurdler to ever break
the world record three times. Also, since I last wrote my all-time greats list,
I've gotten the chance to view footage of many of Renaldo's races, and I'm telling
you, he was the truth. Here's what I wrote about Renaldo originally on my all-time
greats list, when I ranked him fifth:
I don’t think that anyone who is
knowledgeable about the 110’s would argue that Renaldo Nehemiah is not
the greatest hurdler of all time. The reason he is listed fifth here is for
the obvious reason that his career was cut short due to his decision to abandon
track in favor of pursuing a professional football career. Because of this decision
(and because of the 1980 boycott), he never participated on an Olympic team,
and he didn’t accumulate the statistics that would merit him a higher
ranking. When he returned to the track a few years later, he wasn’t the
same dominant athlete he had been beforehand. He was still world-class, but
Kingdom and Foster whipped up on him pretty good, as the football injuries took
their toll on his body. But my goodness, let’s be real; watching Renaldo
Nehemiah run the hurdles was paramount to an out-of-body experience. So graceful,
so fluid, so technically efficient, so in control. The first time my high school
coach showed me a videotape of Nehemiah’s world record race (12.93) in
Zurich, Switzerland, my jaw dropped to the floor and I said to my coach, “I
want to learn how to do that.” I fell in love with the hurdles at that
moment, and I’ve been in love with the hurdles ever since. Think about
it: Nehemiah ran 12.93 in 1981. In the twenty-three years since then, the record
has decreased by a total of two hundredths of a second. If Nehemiah hadn’t
gotten so bored that he felt the need to try his hand at a sport that he had
no business trying, it seems quite certain that he would have eventually run
sub 12.90, and maybe even sub 12.80. When he and Foster were battling it out
every weekend, interest in the hurdles exceeded that of any other event, and
there hasn’t been such focused interest in the 110’s ever since.
It was like Ali vs. Frazier, Magic vs. Bird. And every hurdler at every level
back in those days had the same nickname: Skeets, because that was Nehemiah’s
nickname. His dominance in the early part of his career is evidenced by the
fact that he finished #1 in world rankings in all of his first four years after
high school (1978 - 1981). Even after returning from professional football,
he ranked among the top ten in the world another four times. In regards to his
technique, what most caught my eye was the fact that he didn’t have to
lean that much, especially in comparison to the other hurdlers, even taller
ones. He was so flexible in his groin and hips that he could, quite literally,
step over those 42-inch barriers like they weren’t even there. That’s
where his extraordinary fluidity came from. In the final analysis, there can
be no doubt that Nehemiah set the standards by which all hurdlers still judge
themselves. He was definitely a hurdler who was well ahead of his time.
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I
still like Foster at #3 for the same reasons I initially liked him at #2: his
consistency, and the longevity of his career, not to mention the improvements
in technique he made over the course of his career. But he didn't do as much
to advance the event as Renaldo did, even though he's the one who pushed Renaldo
to great heights. Also, the fact that he never broke 13.00 does stand out more
than it did when I first comprised this list, as Xiang has done it twice since
then, Dominique Arnold has done it once, as has Ladji Doucoure. Here's what
I wrote about Foster originally on my all-time greats list, when I ranked him
second:
The first year that I became deeply interested
in the hurdles was 1983, the year in which Greg Foster officially became “the
man” in the 110’s. Renaldo Nehemiah had already turned in his track
spikes for football cleats, and Roger Kingdom had yet to arrive full-fledged
on the international scene. Other rivals, such as Willie Gault and Tonie Campbell,
were great hurdlers, but not quite on the level of Foster. So, in my late high
school years and early college years, I was a huge fan of Foster’s. I
was miserable when Kingdom beat him in the ’84 Olympic finals. In that
meet, for some reason, the officials chose to randomly assign lanes, instead
of putting those with the best semi-final times in the middle of the track.
As a result, Foster ended up in lane one, and Kingdom in lane eight. Foster
was rocking in his blocks when the gun went off, but recovered seemingly well
enough to win the race. But there was Kingdom way over there in lane eight sneaking
ahead for the victory. I remember going around for days afterward telling anybody
who cared, and many people who didn’t care, that if the two of them had
been in the middle of the track like they would’ve been in a normal meet,
there’s no way that Foster would’ve let that college boy beat him.
Foster finished with the silver medal by .03 seconds. Okay, so I’m babbling.
So why is Foster the second greatest hurdler ever? In one word, longevity. He
never owned the world or American record, never won an Olympic gold medal, and
never ran under 13.00. Still, he won the first three world championships (back
when the world champs were held only once every four years), he was ranked number
one in the world five times (1982, '83, '86, '87, and '91), and was ranked number
two another five times (1978, '80, '81, '84, and '85). He was ranked among the
top seven in the world every year from 1977 through 1987, then after breaking
his arm in 1988, he again ranked among the top ten from 1989 through 1992. His
five #1 rankings equals the most by any high hurdler ever. Another aspect of
Foster’s consistency was his ability to run fast times even early in the
season, and even in meets that weren’t major. Foster could run a sub-13.30
in his sleep. Another important factor in regards to Foster is that, along with
Nehemiah, he ushered in a new era in hurdling. Their heated rivalry put an emphasis
on the men’s 110 meter high hurdles that the event had never before seen,
and hasn’t seen since. Even though their epic battles took place twenty-five
years or so ago, modern hurdlers, equipped with all the amenities available
to the modern athlete, are only running an itty-bitty bit faster, if at all.
In reference to never running sub-13.00, I would argue that Foster’s height
is what prevented him from doing so. At 6’3”, with very powerful
legs (I remember reading once that, while at UCLA, Foster could squat more weight
than any of the Bruins’ football players), getting too crowded between
the hurdles was a constant problem for him. Even smaller hurdlers have trouble
fitting their three steps between the hurdles, but they have more time to make
the necessary adjustments. There was simply no way that someone as tall, fast,
and powerful as Foster could truly sprint between the hurdles. In my opinion,
that’s why he so often crashed, and that’s why he never broke the
magical 13.00 barrier. But he did run a 13.06 when he was thirty-three years
old, for crying out loud, and his many accomplishments and remarkable consistency
throughout his career speak for themselves.
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I
still rank Jackson right behind Foster, although I still see much reason to
believe the two could be flip-flopped. Blame the American in me for giving the
edge to Foster. Here's what I originally wrote about Jackson, when I ranked
him third:
Like Foster, Jackson had a very long
career; like Roger Kingdom, however, Jackson also suffered a good number of
injuries along the way. Whether or not Jackson belongs ahead of Foster in the
all-time rankings is debatable, but those who favor Jackson have plenty of ammunition
for their argument. Foster never held the world record, whereas Jackson still
holds it for eleven years and counting. Foster never broke 13.00, whereas Jackson
did so on several occasions, including his world record race in 1993. Finally,
when it comes to Olympic medals, both of them earned one silver. For me, what
sets Foster apart are his three consecutive world championship gold medals,
spanning a period of eight years. I find that to be a remarkable accomplishment.
Back in those days, the Olympic games were always being boycotted by some country
or another for political reasons, so the world championships were actually a
better track meet, with stiffer competition. And who knows how many world championship
gold medals Foster would’ve won if the meet were held every two years
as it is now? Still, Jackson’s accomplishments are quite remarkable as
well. Basically the lone Brit (although Tony Jarrett was another good British
hurdler for a while) in an event dominated by Americans throughout most of his
career, Jackson more than held his own. His world championship gold in 1999
at the age of thirty-two in a time of 13.06 was equally impressive as Foster’s
1991 victory in the exact same time. Jackson had to hold off the strong Cuban
hurdler Anier Garcia, who went on to win Olympic gold the following year. In
terms of rankings, Jackson finished #1 in the world three consecutive years
-- 1992 - '94, and was ranked among the top ten in the world an astonishing
seventeen straight years -- from 1986 all the way through to 2002. It is also
worthy of note that Jackson was dominant among European hurdlers, with his only
significant losses coming at the hands of American hurdlers. His uncanny ability
to come back strong from injury is also worthy of note. What I liked most about
Jackson was his bow-legged lead leg, which, although unorthodox, actually made
his snapdown quicker, as it enabled him to take off closer to the hurdle than
most hurdlers. No one that I’ve ever seen had a quicker lead leg than
Colin Jackson.
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I'm
sure there are those who would argue that Xiang deserves to be ranked the #1
hurdler ever already. I'm not one of them; I'd like to see what he does in '07
and '08 before I can consider bumping him ahead of AJ, Renaldo, Foster, and
Jackson. But yeah, like Renaldo, he has been like a lightning storm, catapulting
the event into a new era. No one except Renaldo has done more to advance the
event. Xiang has tied the world record once and broken it once, he has become
the world-wide A-standard for hurdling excellence. Although there are a bunch
of young stars challenging him, he is unquestionably the man to beat. His technical
excellence and his ability to adapt his speed to the space between the barriers
is as good as anyone's I've ever seen. But let's wait a couple years before
we call him the greatest ever. Here's what I originally wrote about Xiang, when
I ranked him tenth:
Having just recently arrived as a force on the international scene, Xiang showed up in a big way in 2004, winning the Olympic gold medal in a world-record-tying 12.91, finishing well ahead of second place finisher Terrence Trammell. The young Chinese superstar may end up being the greatest hurdler ever if he continues down the path he is currently on. The great Renaldo Nehemiah is the only other hurdler to have run so fast before the age of twenty-two. Xiang may seem to have come out of nowhere in 2004, but he had been showing signs for a couple of years that he was ready to compete against the very best in the world, and that he was indeed on his way to becoming one of the very best in the world. In 2003 he finished third at the World Championships, and had run some sub-13.20 races. One great year does not a career make, but a 12.91 is a 12.91, no matter how you slice it, especially when it comes at an Olympic final. Personally, I don’t think that Xiang will be going away any time soon. So those of us who are used to American dominance might as well get used to the fact that Xiang is going to be around for a while, making big noise in the 110s. He’s got speed, a competitive edge, and very sound technique. He’s the real deal.
Kingdom
drops to sixth all-time because of the development of Xiang, and also because
of the new perspective I have on Nehemiah. Still, the two Olympic gold medals
don't lie; nor does the 12.92 world record in 1989. Here's what I originally
wrote about Kingdom when I ranked him fourth:
Kingdom is the only hurdler other than Lee Calhoun to win two Olympic gold medals in the 110’s. He was a world record holder for a time, and still co-owns the American record at 12.92. He had a lot of injuries throughout his career, but always came up big in big races – the NCAA’s in 1983, where he beat a heavily favored Willie Gault; the Pan-Am Games in 1983, where he beat a heavily favored Tonie Campbell; the Olympics in 1984, where he beat a heavily favored Greg Foster; and the Olympics in 1988, his first season back from a major knee injury. I’ve always felt that Kingdom is the most misunderstood hurdler to ever lace up a pair of spikes. I remember when he came on the scene, everybody was yammering about how he had sloppy technique and hit a lot of hurdles. Yes, Kingdom definitely would smash into some hurdles, but you may have noticed that his technique would gradually improve throughout the season, and by the time the big races came around, he was no longer crashing into hurdles, no longer lagging his trail leg behind, but still maintained the aggression and reckless abandon that made him such a physical hurdler. Also, Kingdom, more than any other hurdler I’ve ever seen, utilized the space between the hurdles to his advantage. When Kingdom emerged on the scene, everyone was enamored with technique because of the Nehemiah/Foster duels of a couple years before. But Kingdom showed the world that you don’t have to be a pretty hurdler to be a good hurdler, or even to be the best hurdler. He showed us that aggression and fearlessness matter more than technical perfection. He dispelled all the myths that most experts regarded as fact, and reminded us that hurdling is, in fact a footrace, not a gymnastics competition or ballet performance. First place goes to the one who crosses the finish line before everybody else, not to the person who looks the best getting there. Kingdom's excellence is validated by the fact that he ranked #1 in the world a record-tying five times (1984, '85, '88, '89, and '90), and finished among the top ten in the world ten times. The reason that Kingdom’s status among all-time greats falls below that of Johnson, Foster, and Jackson is because he only had about five or six completely healthy years. But still, as far as I’m concerned, Kingdom is undoubtedly a hurdler on the level of the three I have listed ahead of him.
Well,
for the past year and a half I've been gathering research and conducting interviews
for a biography I'm in the process of writing on Milburn, and in that time I've
gained a much greater appreciation for how good he was. He was truly
the first modern hurdler. With Milburn, the 110's went from being three steps
and a jump to being a sprint-hurdle race. I've had a chance to view
his 1972 Olympic race, as well as his 1973 NCAA victory, and I'm telling you,
the man was a beast. There is not a hurdler who ever lived that Milburn, in
his prime, couldn't have beaten. Another remarkable thing about Milburn is that
he was still a top-ranked hurdler late in his career, after a full five
years of competitive inactivity. He had been ruled ineligible to compete
as an amateur after running professionally for two years; the regulations about
running professionally were very strict back then. How many athletes
in any sport can miss five years of competition and still come back
at the top of their game? You better recognize. Here's what I originally wrote
about "Hot Rod" when I ranked him eighth:
One of the saddest days of my life occurred back in 1997, when I heard that Rodney Milburn had died. My sorrow came not so much from the fact that he died, nor even from the fact that he was poor when he died, nor even from the fact that he died in a strange, horrible accident. My sorrow stemmed from the fact that nobody seemed to care. Milburn, the greatest hurdler in the pre-Nehemiah era, died without barely a whisper. I found out about it accidentally, while looking for other information on a track website. Milburn, the 1972 Olympic gold medallist in the 110 meter hurdles, set the standards in the event that Nehemiah later targeted in his goal-setting. Back in Milburn’s days, not all races were run on synthetic surfaces, automatic timing was not normally used (even in major meets), the term “amateur status” was strictly interpreted, and rules regarding professionalism were strictly enforced. An old-schooler would surely argue that if Milburn were competing in the modern era, with all the modern amenities available to track athletes, he would not only be competitive, but would, more often than not, be victorious. Milburn was one of those athletes who had that rare will to win. With Milburn, you could look at his locked-knee lead leg and double-arm thrust and say that hurdling has come a long way since those days. That might be true, but still, when it came down to competing, to you-against-me-when-the-gun-goes-off, Milburn was as great as any hurdler who has ever lived. Ranked #1 in the world in 1971, 1972, and 1973, Milburn was a dominant, larger-than-life figure in the hurdles who simply took over races seemingly at will, surging ahead of competitors with a fluid ease that left spectators in awe. Rarely are world records set in Olympic finals, but that’s exactly what Milburn did in 1972, finishing in 13.24. The following year, he pr’ed with a 13.10. Throughout the early ‘70s, Milburn ran numerous hand-timed 13.0s and such. God only knows what those times would translate into in today’s environment with super-fast surfaces, advanced training programs, and much more opportunity for financial gain to support a track career. Unfortunately, Milburn’s peak years were obliterated by a rule that disqualified him from international competition for joining a professional track circuit. Sounds a bit archaic, huh? He did come back, however, and probably would have had a good shot to make the 1980 Olympic team, as he was ranked fourth in the nation that year. But 1980 was the year of the boycott, so we’ll never know how well Milburn would have done. As late as 1982, he was ranked the fourth best high hurdler in the world. In the end, no matter how many years pass, Milburn’s place in history will remain etched in stone.
In
my research for my book on Milburn, I've also learned a lot about Davenport,
as the two both attended Southern University in Baton Rouge, LA, and they trained
together and competed against each other for a good stretch of years. While
Davenport did not have the power and raw speed of Milburn, he was the dominant
hurdler prior to Milburn's arrival, and Milburn could not have taken the event
to the next level without Davenport's help. Also, Davenport made four Olympic
teams in his career - a phenomenal achievement when considering there wasn't
even any professionalism in the sport back then. Here's what I originally wrote
about "the breeze" when I ranked him ninth:
Another recent death of a hurdler that brought sorrow to the world of Track & Field was that of Willie Davenport in 2002. Like Greg Foster and Colin Jackson, Davenport had a very long career, but Davenport’s longevity was even more remarkable when considering he ran during the late 1960s – in an era when it was very hard to financially sustain oneself as a track athlete, especially during non-Olympic years. Davenport had the longest stretch of #1 world rankings of any hurdler ever, as he achieved that status every year from 1965-1969 – five years in a row. As late as 1977 he was ranked sixth in the world. Gold Medalist at the turbulent Olympic Games in Mexico City in 1968, Davenport qualified for four Olympic teams in the 110s, finishing fourth in 1972 and third in 1976. A dominant hurdler in his day, far and away the best hurdler of his era, Davenport, like Milburn after him, and then like Nehemiah after that, raised the standards of excellence when it came to high hurdling, giving the succeeding generation a new set of goals to shoot for.
Crear
falls down to ninth primarily because of the new knowledge I've gained on Milburn
and Davenport. Those two were Olympic champions and were the dominant figures
of their respective eras. Crear, while he had an outstanding career, was never
the dominant figure of his era, as he was overshadowed by the accomplishments
of Colin Jackson and Allen Johnson. Here's what I originally wrote about Crear
when I ranked him sixth:
One of the best hurdlers of the modern era, Crear battled Allen Johnson for U.S. hurdle supremacy throughout the mid-to-late nineties. It was Crear who put American hurdling back on the map after some relatively lean years in the early nineties, after Roger Kingdom began to fall from the top of the heap. Crear was ranked as the top 110 hurdler in the world three times, including 1995, when he finished second to Johnson at the World Championships. With a pr of 12.98, he is one of only a handful of hurdlers to break the magical 13.00 barrier, and he ran numerous sub-13.10 races as well. Although he never won a world championship or Olympic gold medal, he came close numerous times, and he did finish first in the Goodwill Games in 1998, defeating Johnson in that race. He finished second to Johnson in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, and earned a bronze at the Sydney Games in 2000. Even in 2004, at age 35, Crear almost made the Olympic team, finishing a very close fourth at the Olympic trials. Crear, like many of his rivals, is to be noted for his longevity. From 1994 through 2000, he was either the best hurdler in the world or right there among the best. He finished #1 in the world three times -- 1995, '98, and '99, and he finished #2 another two times -- 1996 and '97. In all, he finished among the top ten in the world nine consecutive years -- from 1993 through 2001. In those middle years, he and Johnson had a rivalry that was just as intense and competitive as the one between Foster and Nehemiah had been, but it wasn’t nearly as bitter. If not for the lack of an Olympic or World Championship gold medal, I would probably rank Crear even higher than sixth, but, regardless, he still stands as one of the greatest 110m hurdlers of all time.
Garcia
barely stays on the list, as he has fallen off the map since 2004. It had been
looking like was moving his way up the list, but injuries, apparently, have
hampered his progress, and there doesn't seem to be any indication that he'll
be among the top dogs ever again. To be honest, I don't even know when he last
entered a meet. Still, he did enough when he was among the world's best to merit
staying on the all-time greats list. In a couple of years, though, as Aries
Merritt and Dayron Robles continue to develop, Garcia could definitely move
down to the honorable mention list. A big 2007 from Dominique Arnold, Ladji
Doucoure, or Terrence Trammell could push Garcia down as well. Here's what I
originally wrote about Garcia when I ranked him seventh:
The best 110m hurdler to come out of Cuba since Alejandro Casanas in the 1970’s, Garcia has made a name for himself in a big way since 1999, when he finished second to Colin Jackson at the World Championships in a very tight race – 13.04 to 13.07. In the 2001 World Championships, he lost to Allen Johnson by the same margin, in the exact same times. In between those two World Championship disappointments, Garcia garnered himself an Olympic gold medal in Sydney, Australia in a blistering 13.00, the second-fastest race ever run in an Olympic final at that time. In 2002, he finished first at the World Cup in a 13.10. At the most recent Olympic Games in Athens, Garcia finished third in 13.20, a relatively slow time for him. Ranked #1 in the world in 2000 and '02, he is still young enough that, if he stays healthy, he could be around for another couple of World Championships and the next Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008. Although very powerful and aggressive, Garcia doesn’t hit a lot of hurdles like other hurdlers with similar styles. You can’t coach height, as they say, and Garcia definitely knows how to use his height to his advantage. Hopefully he’ll be able to give us another four years or so of high quality races, grab some more medals, and break 13.00 before he hangs up the spikes.
Other notables, in no set order, would include: Guy Drut, Lee Calhoun, Harrison Dillard, Tonie Campbell, Charles Foster, Mark McKoy, Tony Dees, Jack Pierce, Sam Turner, Duane Ross, Terrence Trammell, Tony Jarrett, Willie Gault, Stanislav Olijars, Reggie Torian, Florian Schwarthoff, Thomas Munkelt, Alejandro Casanas, Ladji Doucoure, Tom Hill, Leon Coleman, Dedy Cooper, Dominique Arnold, Aries Merritt, Dayron Robles, Arnaldo Bristol. If there's a 110 hurdler whose name I didn't mention whom you feel should be mentioned, shoot me an email by clicking on the "Contact Me" link on the main page.
Responses
The following response comes from Richard Hill Jr., son of Dr. Richard Hill, who coached both Rodney Milburn and Willie Davenport, as well as a slew of other world-class athletes dating back to the 1960s. Here's what Hill Jr. had to say:
There is no way that Renaldo is number 2. By your own logic that is used to defend other hurdlers' positions, Renaldo can’t be number 2. I also know Renaldo and he’s a great guy and was an outstanding hurdler; but his achievements pale in comparison of others. He doesn’t deserve a special privilege in the rankings for what you think he could have accomplished had he not gone to football. Do you realize that Milburn had a season where he never dropped a trial, semi, or final for an entire year; including a full collegiate season? No one else has ever done that! Yet Rod is 7th and Renaldo is 2nd…and Rod won Olympic gold. In a sport where the Olympics is the crown achievement, how do you rank Renaldo over Willie Davenport? Using your logic for making Renaldo number 2, you could argue that if they had World Champs in the 60s and 70s, then Willie would have been the greatest because he would have won them too. The fact is that didn’t happen, but no way Renaldo ranks ahead of Willie either.
I agree that Allen [Johnson] is the greatest hurdler of all time…no question. Both Roger [Kingdom] and Harrison Dillard have to go ahead of Greg [Foster] and the others. How can you have Mark Crear and [Anier] Garcia on a list before Harrison Dillard? Winning the Olympics twice is a really big deal in a volatile event like the hurdles.
Crear is definitely off the list and Dillard is on.
You might consider trading Lee Calhoun for Garcia. Lee was both a world record holder and gold medalist.
© 2006 Steve McGill