| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | Sandra Miller 8 August 1962 (1962-08-08) (age 63) |
Medal record | |
Sandra Marie Farmer-Patrick (néeMiller, born 18 August 1962) is aJamaican-bornAmerican formerathlete who competed mainly in the400 metres hurdles. She won silver medals in that event at the1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, and at the1993 World Championships in Stuttgart. She also won the 400 metres hurdles at theWorld Cup in 1989 and 1992. Her best time for the event of 52.79 seconds (1993), is the former U.S. record. That performance once ranked her second on the world all-time list, and as of 2024, ranks her 15th on theworld all-time list.
Farmer-Patrick was bornSandra Miller inKingston, Jamaica and lived there until she was eleven years old bouncing between an aunt and her grandmother. She moved toBrooklyn, New York adopted by her great-aunt Vita Farmer and took on the Farmer last name. Vita brought Sandra up in a deeply Pentecostal environment, attending church six times a week, three times on Sunday. To get out of the house, she joined the Flashettes Track Club.
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 asFloJo at the time.[1]
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 inSt Angela Hall Academy. She lowered her time to 58.31 while in high school.[3] She briefly attended theUniversity of Arizona, but ended up running forCalifornia State University, Los Angeles (at the same time as theHowardsisters). 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 the1984 Los Angeles Olympics, she finished eighth in the400 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 thePan American Games in Indianapolis behindJudi Brown-King. Then in September at theWorld Championships in Rome, she finished fourth in the final in 54.38, only 0.07 from a medal.
After marryingDavid Patrick and hyphenating her name, Farmer-Patrick began competing for the US in 1988 and attempted to qualify for the US Olympic team for Seoul, but was disqualified in her semi-final at the US Olympic trials for inadvertently running out of her lane. Having dual citizenship, she had the option to run for Jamaica, but by switching to the US, some Jamaican newspapers had branded her as a traitor. Her appeal to theJamaican Federation went unanswered.[3]
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 theWorld Cup title in Barcelona, running 53.84 to defeatTatyana Ledovskaya andSally Gunnell. In 1990, she won the Goodwill Games title in 55.16, defeating Schowonda Williams.
A medal favourite for the1991 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 andJaneene Vickers third. Still she was ranked number 1 in the world for 1989, 1991 and 1992.[6]
She competed for the United States in the1992 Barcelona Olympics, where she ran 53.69 to win the silver medal behind her greatest rival,Great Britain's Sally Gunnell. A month after the Olympics, she successfully defended her World Cup title in Havana, ahead ofGowry Retchakan andMargarita Ponomaryova. The following year at the1993 World Championships held inStuttgart, Germany, she broke the existing world record running 52.79. But Gunnell also broke the record finishing .05 faster at 52.74, passing after the last hurdle and pushing the diving Farmer-Patrick to another silver medal.
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 the1996 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 theNational Track and Field Hall of Fame.[8]
Farmer-Patrick married fellow 400 m hurdlerDavid Patrick in January 1988 and is currently living in Austin, Texas with their two children David and Sierra. Sierra played collegiate volleyball and ran track at the University of Texas.[9]
| Year | Competition | Venue | Position | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Representing Jamaica | |||||
| 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) | |
| Sporting positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Women's 400m Hurdles Best Year Performance 1989 | Succeeded by |
