LaShawn Merritt

At 38 years old, LaShawn Merritt has this physical status:

LaShawn Merritt (born June 27, 1986) is an American track and field athlete who competes in sprinting events, specializing in the 400 meters.

He is a former Olympic champion over the distance, and his personal record of 43.65 seconds places him seventh fastest of all time. He was a good junior athlete and captured the 400m gold at the 2004 World Junior Championships in Athletics, as well as two world junior records in relays.

He was a member of the American 4400 relay team and helped win the event at the 2006 IAAF World Indoor Championships.

He established himself in 2007 by winning a silver medal in the 400 m at the 2007 World Championships. He came out in last year by winning in the 2008 Olympic final in a personal record time and a record margin of 0.99 seconds.

He also set a new Olympic record in the relay with the American team, achieving his second fastest time ever.

Merritt came to prominence in the 400 m and 4400 m relay at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics.

Source

Early career

Merritt rose to fame as a junior star at the 2004 World Junior Championships in Athletics. As part of the American 4100 and 4400 meter relay teams, he received the gold medal in the 400 meters run and set two junior world records. He was active in the 2005 World Championships in Athletics, his first major senior championship, and he was substituted for Jeremy Wariner in the final, where the American team captured the gold medal.

In 2006, he rose to the top of the senior ranks in the IAAF World Indoor Championships, where he was selected for the 4400 m relay team. He won the World Indoor Championship with Tyree Washington, Milton Campbell, and Wallace Spearmon. He set a personal record of 44.14 seconds for a bronze medal at the 2006 IAAF World Athletics Final, as he represented the United States in the 400 meters competition.

Merritt said he was determined to beat all-comers in the 400 m final at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics in Osaka. He ran in 43.96 seconds for his first sub-44 seconds in 43.96, defeating 2000 Olympic champion Angelo Taylor to the line. However, this was not enough to defeat Jeremy Wariner, the reigning World and Olympic champion who had been half a second ahead. Nonetheless, Merritt's first appearance at a global championships over the 400 meters was his first on the team, and the American team's Warner and Taylor, along with fellow individual medalists, led the team to victory three and a half seconds ahead of the Bahamians. Merritt won the gold medal at the 2007 IAAF World Athletics Final, with Wariner absent from the field.

Merritt's 2008 season was marked by a lot of rivalry with Wariner, who had won the 400 m at every major international championship since 2004. For several of their matches, the 2008 IAAF Golden League provided the venue. In a close match at the Internationales Stadionfest in Berlin, he won his first major victory over Wariner. He confirmed his Olympic appearance a month later by winning the 2008 US Olympic Trials, defeating the reigning Olympic champion Wariner. Wariner responded with a win in the 400 m by just 0.01 seconds later in July at the Golden Gala meeting. After a victory in 43.86 seconds at the Meeting Gaz de France in Paris, the last Golden League match before the Olympics, Wariner seemed to have the energy behind him.

Merritt won the 400 m at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. A close match between Merritt and Wariner had been predicted, but it was ultimately decided against. Merritt's first-place finish and Wariner's second-place finish in an Olympic 400 m final was a 0.99-second difference. His time of 43.75, a new personal record, made him the fifth fastest 400 m runner on the all-time lists, just two places behind Wariner, who is third on the all-time list of fastest runners. He competed in the men's 4 400 meters relay with Wariner, Angelo Taylor, and 400 m bronze medalist David Neville. The team ran a time of 2:55.39, the second fastest time in the event's history, beating the Olympic record of beating the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

He lost by a large margin at the Weltklasse Zürich weeks after the Olympics, but Wariner's winning time of 43.82 seconds was still slower than Merritt's Olympic winning time. Merritt won his fourth match over Wariner in the 2008 IAAF World Athletics Final, his fourth victory of the season. Despite the fact that the two had both beat each other this season, Merritt had won all the key events, including the Olympic and American champion over 400 meters as well as the World Athletics Final prize. He decided not to attend the 2009 indoor season in order to work on improving his running and technique.

Merritt won the 400 m at the 2009 US Championships in an almost uncontested fashion, beating his own record time of 44.50 seconds. Wariner had already qualified for the World Championships as the defending champion. He won the 400 m in 44.06 seconds at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics in Berlin, defeating Wariner once more.

It was revealed on the 22nd of April 2010 that he had failed three drug tests, which resulted in a provisional suspension. He said that the failed drug tests resulted from his use of ExtenZe, an over-the-counter penis enlargement drug. Merritt said he didn't read the small print to see the product's ingredients, which contains the banned steroid dehydroepiandrosterone. He received a two-year suspension for the offence and said he had made a "foolish, immature, and selfish mistake."

After his two-year suspension was reduced to 21 months, LaShawn Merritt came in second place at the Stockholm meeting of the Diamond League series in a time of 44.74. Due to him being the 2009 World Champion for the 400 meters, he received a spot in the 2011 World Championships in Daegu, South Korea. He ran a new world record time of 44.35 at the 2011 World Championships. He eventually earned the silver medal behind teenager Kirani James of Grenada, who had led the way in the event, but went on to run the final leg of the United States' gold medal winning 4 400 m relay team, finishing in third place, having dropped out of the final bend.

Merritt was the top qualifier at the 2012 Olympic Trials. Merritt tightened his hamstring in a Herculis meet in Monaco two weeks before the track and field events of the 2012 Summer Olympics. He competed in a qualifying heat of the 400m at the London Olympics but didn't finish because of this injury.

Merritt qualified for the 400 meters at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro once more. He ran a new national, African, world, and Olympic record time of 43.83, but he only managed to the bronze medal behind defending Olympic champion Kirani James of Grenada, who won the silver medal in a time of 43.76, and Wayde van Niekerk of South Africa who won the gold medal in a time of 43.03.

Source