Sandra Farmer-Patrick
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| Birth name | Sandra Miller | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 8 August 1962 (age 61) Jamaica | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Sandra Marie Farmer-Patrick (
Early life
Farmer-Patrick was born Sandra Miller in
Track and field career
At first, Farmer was forced to run in a dress for religious reasons. She continued to run in short skirts and tutus as part of her more flamboyant professional career, whenever she had the choice of uniform. Her stylish, flashy attire was perhaps as notorious as
Farmer set an American Junior record of 58.90 in the 400 hurdles at age 14, which ranked her number five amongst all Americans.[2] Scholarship money she won in the Colgate Games kept her in St Angela Hall Academy. She lowered her time to 58.31 while in high school.[3] She briefly attended the University of Arizona, but ended up running for California State University, Los Angeles (at the same time as the Howard sisters). In addition to some very fast relays with the sisters, she still holds the school record in the 400 hurdles.[4] She was elected into the CSULA Athletic Hall of Fame in 2007.[5]
Starting in 1982, she represented Jamaica in international competition, until 1987, removing her name from the American rankings list. At the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, she finished eighth in the 400 m hurdles final in a sub-par race, the first time the event was held in the Olympics.
Farmer was ranked in the world's top ten for the 400 m hurdles for the first time in 1987. In July of that year, she ran 54.59 to win a silver medal at the
After marrying
In 1989, she was unbeaten in the 400 m hurdles and was the fastest woman in the world at the event, improving her best to 53.37. In September, she won the
A medal favourite for the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo, Farmer-Patrick ended up fourth in a time of 53.95, in a race won by Tatyana Ledovsakya, with Sally Gunnell second and Janeene Vickers third. Still she was ranked number 1 in the world for 1989, 1991 and 1992.[6]
She competed for the United States in the
She was ranked number 1 in the US from 1988 to 1993.[2] Having missed the 1994 season due to pregnancy, Farmer-Patrick returned in 1995 and finished fourth at the US Championships. She then qualified for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. At her third and final games, she was eliminated in the semi-finals, failing to reach the final by just one-one hundredth of a second, a performance which was later disqualified due to a high testosterone-epitestosterone (T-E) ratio.[7]
In 2019, she was inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame.[8]
Personal life
Farmer-Patrick married fellow 400 m hurdler
Achievements
| Year | Competition | Venue | Position | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Representing  Jamaica
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| 1982 | Central American and Caribbean Games | Havana, Cuba
|
1st | 58.15sec | |
| Commonwealth Games | Brisbane, Australia
|
9th | 59.07 | ||
| 1984 | Olympic Games | Los Angeles, United States
|
8th | 57.15 | |
| 1986 | Goodwill Games | Moscow, Soviet Union | 7th | 56.28 | |
| 1987 | Pan American Games | Indianapolis, United States
|
2nd | 54.59 | |
| World Championships | Rome, Italy
|
4th | 54.38 | ||
| Grand Prix Final | Brussels, Belgium | 3rd | 55.30 | ||
Representing  United States
| |||||
| 1989 | Grand Prix Final | Fontvieille, Monaco | 1st | 54.60 | |
World Cup
|
Barcelona, Spain
|
1st | 53.84 | ||
| 1990 | Goodwill Games | Seattle, United States | 1st | 55.16 | |
| 1991 | World Championships | Tokyo, Japan
|
4th | 53.95 | |
| Grand Prix Final | Barcelona, Spain | 1st | 53.74 | ||
| 1992 | Olympic Games | Barcelona, Spain
|
2nd | 53.69 | |
| World Cup | Havana, Cuba
|
1st | 55.38 | ||
| 1993 | World Championships | Stuttgart, Germany
|
2nd | 52.79 | |
| Grand Prix Final | London, England | 1st | 53.69 | ||
| 1996 | Olympic Games | Atlanta, United States
|
DQ (semi-final)[10] | DQ (54.73) | |
- Won the Women's Overall Grand Prix title in 1993 (with Sonia O'Sullivan 2nd and Stefka Kostadinova 3rd)
- Won the Overall Grand Prix 400 m hurdles title in 1989, 1991 and 1993
- 3-time US Champion at 400 metres hurdles; in 1989, 1992 and 1993): 2nd in 1986, 1987, 1990 and 1991
References
- ^ "You can't help but notice it - World Athletics Final- News". IAAF. 23 September 2007. Archived from the original on 1 April 2019. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
- ^ a b US Women 400m Hurdles Rankings[dead link] Track and Field News
- ^ a b "Sandra Farmer-Patrick". USATF. Archived from the original on 2 April 2019. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
- ^ "5-30 WTF alltime top 10" (PDF). Cal State LA Athletics. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2 April 2019. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
- ^ "Hall of Famers". Cal State LA. 22 October 2013. Archived from the original on 2 April 2019. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
- ^ Women's 400m Hurdles Rankings[dead link] Track and Field News
- ^ Rosenthal, Bert (4 June 1997). "Drug-use allegations ruin hurdler". Las Vegas Sun. Archived from the original on 2 April 2019. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
- ^ "USA Track & Field | The year's best athletes, performances and Hall of Fame inductees honored at USATF Night of Legends". usatf.org. Archived from the original on 8 December 2019. Retrieved 13 April 2020.
- ^ "Sierra Patrick - Track & Field / Cross Country". University of Texas Athletics. Archived from the original on 2 April 2019. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
- ^ Butler, Mark (2015). "Doping violations Olympic Athletics". IAAF World Championships Beijing 2015 Statistics Handbook. Monaco: IAAF. pp. 419–420. Archived from the original on 9 January 2016. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
External links
- Sandra Farmer-Patrick at World Athletics
- Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Sandra Farmer-Patrick". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020.
