Devon Allen was born in 1994 inPhoenix, Arizona to Louis Allen and Joey Knudson. His father is African American while his mother is White.[2] Louis Allen died in June 2022.[3]
At an early age, Allen competed in athletics with the Arizona Rising Suns track club. Despite having a strong interest in football, his coaches insisted he pursued athletics atBrophy College Preparatory.[citation needed]
Graduating high school as a four-star recruit, Allen committed to theUniversity of Oregon and played on their football team for three years as a wide receiver. He tore his ACL in the2015 Rose Bowl, and again in September 2016. After graduating college, Allen decided to focus on athletics instead of football.[citation needed]
After years of primarily competing in track & field, Allen participated in the football pro day at the University of Oregon during the 2022 preseason. He ran an unofficial time of 4.35 seconds in the40-yard dash. On April 7, 2022, he visited thePhiladelphia Eagles'NovaCare Complex training facility.[citation needed] The following day, he signed a standard three-year undrafted rookie deal with the Eagles.[4][5] He was waived on August 30, and re-signed to thepractice squad the next day.[6][7][8][9] On February 15, 2023, Allen signed a reserve/future contract with the Eagles.[10]
On August 29, 2023, Allen was waived by the Eagles and re-signed to the practice squad.[11][12] On September 25, Allen was promoted from the practice squad to make his NFL debut in Philadelphia's Week 3 contest against theTampa Bay Buccaneers.[13] He tore his ACL for a third time in December.[14]
Allen was not signed to a reserve/future contract after the 2023-24 season and thus became a free agent when his practice squad contract expired.[15]
In the 110-meter hurdles, Allen is a three-time U.S. national champion (2014,2016, and2018) and a two-time Olympian, reaching the finals in both the2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and the2020 Tokyo Olympics. His personal best of 12.84 seconds, set in 2022, ranks as the third-fastest time in history.[16] In his final meet of 2021, Allen clocked 12.99 seconds and became the 13th American hurdler to ever break the 13-second barrier in this event.[17][18]
On July 17, 2022, Allen was disqualified at the2022 World Athletics Championships inEugene,Oregon, due to a controversial false start. The sensors in the starting blocks measured his reaction time from the moment the gun went off at 0.099 seconds, which is 0.001 seconds faster than the legally allowed reaction time of 0.100 seconds.[19][20]
In January 2024, Allen announced his hopes to qualify for the2024 Paris Olympics. He was unable to achieve this goal, however, due to a persistent ACL injury.[14] In October 2024, it was announced that he had signed up for the inaugural season of theMichael Johnson foundedGrand Slam Track.[21]
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