 Patton (second left) after his 2007 World 4×100 m relay gold | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | (1977-12-04)December 4, 1977 (age 47) Dallas, Texas, U.S. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 180 lb (82 kg) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Track and field | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Event(s) | 100-meter dash,200-meter dash,long jump | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| College team | Texas Christian University andGarden City Community College | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Achievements and titles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personalbest(s) | 100 m: 9.89 200 m: 20.03 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Darvis "Doc"Darell Patton (born December 4, 1977) is a retiredAmericantrack and field athlete who competed insprinting events.[1] He is a two-timeUS Champion in the200-meter dash and won the silver medal in the event at the2003 World Championships. He is a three-time Olympian and a four-time participant at theWorld Athletics Championships.
Patton has had much success with the American4 × 100-meter relay team, being a world gold medallist in 2003 and 2007, as well as an Olympic silver medallist (2004). He has also had misfortune in the relay, having been involved in the American team's disqualification at the 2008 Summer Olympics, the 2009 World Championships, and the 2011 World Championships.
A multi-talented athlete in the horizontal jumps and sprints, he initially focused on the 200 m but, after missing 2005 and 2006 due to injury, he switched to the100-meter dash. He won the 100 m silver medal at the2007 Pan American Games and reached the finals of the event at the2008 Summer Olympics and the2009 World Championships. He has broken the10-second barrier and his personal record of 9.89 seconds places him within the top-ten fastest Americans in the event.[2] He also has bests of 20.03 for the 200 m, 8.12 m for thelong jump, and 6.50 seconds for the60-meter dash (amasters record for over-35 runners).
Born inDallas, Texas,[3] the son of William Johnson and Dorrise Patton,[4] Darvis Patton was a very versatile athlete from a young age and he competed in thelong jump,triple jump andsprint events atLake Highlands High School andTCU days. At theAAU Junior Olympic Games in 1998 he won the long jump, was runner-up in the triple jump and placed fourth in the200-meter dash.[5] He graduated fromGarden City Community College that year and won anathletic scholarship atTexas Christian University. While there he began to focus more on the100-meter dash and 200 m under the coaching ofMonte Stratton.[6] He was a finalist at both those distances at the 2000NCAA Men's Outdoor Track and Field Championship.[5] He ended the year with personal records of 6.64 seconds for the60-meter dash, 10.22 for the 100 m, 20.29 for the 200 m and 8.04 m (26 ft4+1⁄2 in) for the long jump.[7] He was also a semi-finalist in the 200 m at the 2000United States Olympic Trials.[6]
In his second year of competition at Texas Christian he set lifetime indoor bests of 20.73 for the 200 m and 7.85 m (25 ft 9 in) for the long jump. He was a finalist in both events at theNCAA Men's Indoor Track and Field Championship.[5] He improved outdoors too, setting personal records of 10.16 seconds for the 100 m and 8.12 m (26 ft7+1⁄2 in) for the long jump inArlington, Texas.[7] The 2001 NCAA Outdoor Championships saw him earn fourAll-American honours in one meet: he was sixth in the 100 m, fourth in the long jump, third in the 200 m and won the4 × 100-meter relay with theTCU Horned Frogs.[8] He began to establish himself nationally at that year'sUSA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, where he came fourth in the 200 m as well as seventh in the long jump.[5] Patton was later upgraded to third in the 200 m afterRamon Clay was banned fordoping.[9]
He had his first successes as a senior in 2002 when he was runner up in the 200 m at both theIndoor andOutdoor US Championships.[6] The retrospective disqualification of Ramon Clay meant he was the American outdoor 200 m champion that year.[10] There were no global track championships that year so he mainly competed on the international circuit. He won the 200 m races inGlasgow andLondon and was runner-up at theGolden Gala andMemorial Van Damme meets.[6] He improved his 200 m best to 20.12 seconds inBrussels.[7]
The following season saw him reach the global podium for the first time: he became the national champion in the 200 m and went on to win thesilver medal in that event at the2003 World Championships in Athletics behind teammateJohn Capel. He also won agold medal as part of the American men's 4 × 100 m relay team including Capel,Bernard Williams andJ. J. Johnson. Moving entirely away from the long jump, Patton's sprinting times all improved that year: he had a personal record of 6.58 seconds in the 60 m, ran ten seconds flat at theWeltklasse Zürich meeting and ran 20.03 in theWorld Championships 200 m semi-finals.[7] On the circuit he was runner-up at theAthletissima andMeeting Gaz de France 200 m races and placed fourth at the2003 IAAF World Athletics Final.[6]
After a fourth-place finish in the 200 m at the 2004US Olympic Trials, he was nominated as the substitute for the 4 × 100 m relay at the2004 Summer Olympics. Patton helped the American team ease through the heats, recording a time of 38.02 seconds. He was substituted for the newly crowned 100 m Olympic championJustin Gatlin for the final race, but the move backfired for the team as they finished a little slower (38.08) and had to settle for the silver medal behind Great Britain – who they had easily beaten in the heats. Patton's 2005 and 2006 seasons were wrecked by significant groin and hip injuries and he only returned to major competitions in 2007.[6]
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Patton returned to action and focused on the shorter sprint distance that year. He finished eighth in the 100 m final at the 2007 US Championships and withdrew from the 200 m competition.[11] Based on his performance, he was selected to represent the United States at the2007 Pan American Games. He finished second in the 100 m behindChurandy Martina and anchored the relay team to abronze medal. He was chosen as part of therelay team for the2007 World Championships and this time made the final after qualifying. The American team (withWallace Spearmon,Tyson Gay, andLeroy Dixon) became the world champions in a world-leading time of 37.78 seconds, fending off theJamaican challengers who set anational record.[12]
At the2008 United States Olympic Trials, Patton achieved his lifetime best performance in the 100 m, running 9.89 seconds in the quarter-finals. He went even quicker in the wind-assisted (+3.1 m/s) final, clocking 9.84 seconds, and came in third place behind Tyson Gay andWalter Dix.[13] He broke the10-second barrier legally for the second time at theHerculis meet in Monaco, placing second behindAsafa Powell in 9.98 seconds.[14] During the2008 Summer Olympics inBeijing he was the slowest qualifier for the 100 m final. In the final itself he ran 10.03 seconds and was again the slowest and thus the eighth placed athlete.[1] Together withRodney Martin,Travis Padgett and Tyson Gay he also competed at the 4 × 100 m relay, but they did not finish due to a mistake in the baton exchange between Patton and Gay and they were eliminated.[15]
The following year Patton came second toMichael Rodgers in a close 100 m race at the2009 US championships in June, running a windy 9.92 seconds. This won him a place on the American team for the2009 World Championships in Athletics.[16] Prior to the event, he was runner-up in Monaco and inStockholm – running a wind-assisted 9.95 seconds behind Tyson Gay at the latter.[17] He managed to reach the final of themen's 100 meters after scoring a season's best of 9.98 in the semi-finals. He performed poorly in the final however, finishing last with a slow time of 10.34 seconds due to an injury.[18] The hopes of the American men's relay team were again dashed by an illegal baton exchange, this time between Patton andShawn Crawford.[19] Patton ended his season on a high: he ran a series of sub-10 runs including 9.95 for third at theWeltklasse, 9.94 to win theHanžeković Memorial, and a personal record-equalling run of 9.89 seconds for third at theShanghai Golden Grand Prix, behind Tyson Gay andAsafa Powell.[5][20] He also placed third in the 100 m at the Memorial Van Damme and the2009 IAAF World Athletics Final.[6]
Patton's 2010 season was brought to an end in May due to another injury. He returned in 2011 and began racing more frequently in the 200 m. At the2011 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships he was sixth in the 100 m but managed second place to Walter Dix in the 200 m.[21] The2011 World Championships in Athletics was one of his less successful global outings. He was eliminated in the 200 m semi-finals and in the relay final he clashed with Britain'sHarry Aikines-Aryeetey and failed to pass the baton successfully.[22] He had season's bests of 9.94 seconds for the 100 m and 20.25 seconds for the 200 m.[7]
The2012 United States Olympic Trials he placed fifth in both the 100 m and 200 m.[23] Although he had failed to gain an individual spot, he was chosen for the relay team. At the2012 London Olympics he ran as a substitute runner in the qualifiers but even the weaker American team ofJeff Demps, Patton,Trell Kimmons, andJustin Gatlin broke thenational record of 37.38 seconds.[24] The American team for the final (bringing in Tyson Gay andRyan Bailey) improved that record further to 37.04 seconds but was still second behind the world record-breaking Jamaican team. Patton received his second Olympicsilver medal in the relay as a result.[25]
He began 2013 with quick times, running 6.50 for the 60 m (a world record for over-35 athletes) and a wind-aided 100 m time of 9.75 seconds.[26]
Pattonannounced his retirement in 2013 on Instagram and went on to pursue coaching. Before hanging up his spikes, Patton served as the Men's Sprints Event Leader on the USATF Athlete's Advisory Committee. In this role, he advocated for elite sprint athletes and was the primary point of contact for competition issues, questions regarding tier privileges, benefits, and provided the men's constituency with updates on competition site selections and changes to USATF rules and regulations.
Thereafter, the veteran sprinter's peers elected him to a four-year term as a member of the USATF Board of Directors, again representing the Athlete's Advisory Committee. There, he reviewed event constituent budgets as member of the budget committee to ensure efficient, appropriate use and allocation of funds in accordance with USATF policy. He also helped ensure athletes in all track and field disciplines had access to unified representation in various aspects of USATF, including staff selections, drug testing and competition rules.
In 2015, Darvis served as theassistant sprint and hurdles coach for the USA Track and Field delegation for the IAAF World Relay Championship and NACAC Senior Championship relay teams, bringing home ten medals in the process and an additional four medals from Penn Relays.He also served as thehead track coach at All Saints Episcopal School in Fort Worth from 2019 to 2022, where the program broke school records in the high jump, 4x100 meter race, placed fourth in the 2015 state championship – the highest place finish in the school's 70-year history – and produced the school's first state champion in the men's 100 m dash.
Patton joined theTexas Wesleyan University staff in March 2022 as theassistant track and field coach where he specializes in short sprints and jumps. In his first two years, Patton helped lead the men's and women's track team to theirfirst conference titles in school history and produced Texas Wesleyan's first national track and field champion in the 400 m,60 m hurdles and110 m hurdles. In 2023, the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association named Darvis Patton the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics AssistantCoach of the Year for Women's Outdoor Track & Field in the South Central Region. He was promoted to associate head coach for the Texas Wesleyan track and field program in 2024.
He and his wife Crystal have a daughter, Dakota, and son, Darvis II. He is a proud former member ofBig Brothers Big Sisters of America and serves as a youth mentor.[27]
| Event | Time (sec) | Venue | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60-meter dash | 6.50 | New York City, United States | February 17, 2013 |
| 100-meter dash | 9.89 | Eugene, Oregon, United States | June 28, 2008 |
| 200-meter dash | 20.03 | Saint-Denis, France | August 28, 2003 |
| Long jump | 8.12 m | Arlington, Texas, United States | March 31, 2001 |
| Year | Competition | Venue | Position | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | World Championships | Paris, France | 2nd | 200 m |
| 1st | 4 × 100 m relay | |||
| World Athletics Final | Monaco | 4th | 200 m | |
| 2004 | Summer Olympics | Athens, Greece | 2nd | 4 × 100 m relay (heats) |
| 2007 | Pan American Games | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | 2nd | 100 m |
| 3rd | 4 × 100 m relay | |||
| World Championships | Osaka, Japan | 1st | 4 × 100 m relay | |
| 2008 | Summer Olympics | Beijing, China | 8th | 100 m |
| DQ | 4 × 100 m relay | |||
| 2009 | World Championships | Berlin, Germany | 8th | 100 m |
| DQ (heats) | 4 × 100 m relay | |||
| 2012 | Olympic Games | London, United Kingdom | 2nd | 4 × 100 m relay |
