Leroy Burrell

Leroy Russel Burrell (born February 21, 1967) is an American former track and field athlete, who twice set the world record for the 100 m sprint.

Burrell grew up in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, and attended Penn Wood High School, where he single-handedly won the state championship by winning the 100 m, 200 m, long jump, and triple jump.

Suffering from poor eyesight accentuated by a childhood eye injury, he was poor at other sports, but excelled on the track from an early age.

He attended the University of Houston from 1986 to 1990, where he was a nine-time NCAA All-American and set the NCAA outdoor record in the long jump.

Burrell was plagued by injuries and bad luck throughout his career, particularly around major championships.

He won gold in the 100 m ahead of Carl Lewis at the 1990 Goodwill Games in Seattle.

On May 19, 1990, Burrell ran a wind-assisted 200 m at College Station, Texas, in a time of 19.61 seconds.

The wind speed was +4.0 m per second.

He won the silver in the 100 m behind Lewis at the 1991 World Championships.

He first set the 100m world record in June 1991 with a time of 9.90 seconds.

This was broken that September by Carl Lewis who ran 9.86 sec at the 1991 World Track and Field Championships where Burrell finished second in a new personal best time of 9.88 sec. In July 1994, Burrell set the world record for the second time when he ran 9.85 sec (a record that stood until the 1996 Olympics when Donovan Bailey ran 9.84 sec).

At the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Burrell false-started in the 100 m final.

When the race finally restarted, his reaction off the line was slow, and he finished fifth.

He did manage to win a relay gold as part of the U.S. 4 × 100 m team.

Burrell married Michelle Finn, also a sprinter, in 1994, and they have three sons together: Cameron who was a sprinter for the Houston Cougars and died in 2021, Joshua, and Jaden.

This was the fastest time for the 200 m for over six years until the 1996 Olympic final in Atlanta, where Michael Johnson ran 19.32 seconds.

Since his retirement in 1998, Burrell has replaced his old college mentor, Tom Tellez, as coach of the University of Houston's track and field team.

Burrell has led UH to 14 men's Conference USA titles (nine indoor, five outdoor) and nine women's titles (four indoor, five outdoor).

Burrell's younger sister Dawn also competed in track and field at the highest level, as a member of the 2000 US Olympic team and world indoor champion in the long jump.

Information from IAAF profile unless otherwise noted.

Includes former all-conditions world best in the 200 meters.

He was inducted into the Texas Track and Field Coaches Hall of Fame in 2014.

In June 2022, Burrell stepped down as head coach at Houston and accepted the head coaching position for Auburn track and field.

All world records are former as of May 24, 2014.

On June 7, 2017, Cameron joined his father in the sub-10 second club.