LaShawn Merritt (born June 27, 1986) is a retired Americantrack and field athlete who competed insprinting events, specializing in the400 metres. He is a formerOlympic champion over the distance and his personal best of 43.65 seconds makes him the eleventh fastest of all time.
Merritt was a successful junior athlete and won the 400 m gold at the2004 World Junior Championships in Athletics, as well as setting twoworld junior records in the relays. He became part of the American4×400 meter relay team and helped win the event at the2006 IAAF World Indoor Championships. He established himself individually in 2007 by winning asilver medal in the 400 m at the2007 World Championships.
He came out on top of a rivalry withJeremy Wariner in 2008 by winning in the2008 Olympic final in a personal best time, and by a record margin of 0.99 secs. He also broke theOlympic record in the relay with the American team, recording the second fastest time ever. Merritt established himself as the World Champion with a win at the2009 World Championships in Athletics in the 400 m and the 4×400 m relay.
Merritt served a 21-month doping ban between 2009 and 2011 for unintential use of DHEA and pregnenolone.
Merritt is a native ofPortsmouth, Virginia where he graduated fromWoodrow Wilson High School. He spent one year as a college athlete atEast Carolina University, signing an endorsement contract withNike during his first season of indoor track, making him ineligible to compete in an NCAA event. Merritt then transferred toOld Dominion University inNorfolk, Virginia. He studied business administration atNorfolk State University also located in Norfolk.[2][3]
Merritt came to prominence as a junior athlete at the2004 World Junior Championships in Athletics. He took the gold medal in the 400 meters race and set twojunior world records as part of the American 4×100 and 4×400 meter relay teams.[4] He took part in the2005 World Championships in Athletics, his first major senior championship, and acted as the relay substitute for the men's 4×400 m. He helped the team win their heat and was substituted forJeremy Wariner for the final, where the American team won the gold medal.[5]
He broke into the senior ranks in 2006, and was selected for the 4×400 m relay team for the2006 IAAF World Indoor Championships. Along withTyree Washington,Milton Campbell andWallace Spearmon, he won the World Indoor title in the event. Outdoors, he improved his best to 44.14 seconds for abronze medal at the2006 IAAF World Athletics Final and was selected to represent the United States at the2006 IAAF World Cup, at which he won the 400 m competition.
Prior to the 400 m final at the2007 World Championships in Athletics inOsaka, Merritt stated his intent to beat all-comers. He achieved his first sub-44 second run, finishing in 43.96, and beat 2000 Olympic championAngelo Taylor to the line. However, this was not enough to beat the reigning World and Olympic champion Jeremy Wariner, who was half a second ahead. Nevertheless, thesilver medal was Merritt's first at a global championships over the 400 m.[6] He again formed part of the United States' 4×400 meter relay team and, with fellow individual medallists Wariner and Taylor among the team, the American's eased to victory some three and a half seconds ahead of theBahamians.[7] With Wariner absent from the field, Merritt won thegold medal at the2007 IAAF World Athletics Final.
Merritt's 2008 season was marked by an intense rivalry with Wariner, who had won the 400 m at every major global championship since 2004. The2008 IAAF Golden League provided the venue for many of their duels.[8] He scored his first major win over Wariner in a close affair at theInternationales Stadionfest inBerlin.[9] He confirmed his Olympic place a month later by winning at the 2008United States Olympic Trials, again defeating the reigning Olympic champion Wariner.[10] Later in July at theGolden Gala meeting, Wariner responded by edging a win in the 400 m by just 0.01 seconds.[11] At theMeeting Gaz de France inParis, the last Golden League competition before the Olympics, Wariner seemed to have the momentum behind him after a win in 43.86 seconds.[12]
Merritt won the 400 m at the2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. A close race between Merritt and Wariner was expected,[13] though it ultimately ended in a rout. The 0.99-second margin between Merritt's first-place finish and Wariner's second-place finish was the largest in an Olympic 400 m final.[14] His time of 43.75, a new personal best, made him the fifth fastest 400 m runner on the all-time lists, still two places behind Wariner, who is third on the all-time list of fastest runners.[15] He teamed up with Wariner, Angelo Taylor and 400 m bronze medallistDavid Neville for themen's 4 × 400 m relay. The team defeated theOlympic record mark which had stood since the1992 Barcelona Olympics by running a time of 2:55.39, the second fastest in the history of the event.[16]
Weeks after the Olympics, he lost to Wariner by a large margin at theWeltklasse Zürich, although Wariner's winning time of 43.82 seconds was still slower than Merritt's Olympic winning run.[17] Merritt secured his fourth win over Wariner that season at the2008 IAAF World Athletics Final. Although the two had both beaten each other that season, Merritt had won all the most important races, ending the season as the Olympic and American champion over 400 m as well as taking home the World Athletics Final payday. He opted to miss out on the 2009 indoor season to focus on improving his running and technique.[8]
With Wariner already qualified for the World Championships as the defending champion, Merritt won the 400 m at the2009 US Championships somewhat uncontested, equalling his own world leading time of 44.50 seconds. At the2009 World Championships in Athletics, inBerlin, he went on to win the 400 m in a world-leading time of 44.06 seconds, once again beating Wariner.[18][19]
In October 2010, Merritt was issued with 21-month competition ban backdated to October 2009 after testing positive three times forDHEA andpregnenolone.[20][21] The American Arbitration Association's ruling accepted Merritt had unintentionally consumed the banned substances contained within a male enhancement product calledExtenZe.[22][23]
After serving his competition ban, Merritt finished second at the Stockholm meeting of the Diamond League[24] series with a time of 44.74. He received a berth to the 2011 World Championships in Daegu, South Korea due to him being the 2009 World Champion for the 400 meters. At the 2011 World Championships, he set a world leading time of 44.35. He eventually won the silver medal behind teenagerKirani James of Grenada, having led most of the race, but went on to run the final leg of the United States' gold medal-winning 4 × 400 m relay team having been in third place coming out of the final bend.
Merritt was the number one qualifier at the2012 Olympic Trials. Two weeks before thetrack and field events at the2012 Summer Olympics, Merritt tweaked his hamstring in theHerculis meet inMonaco.[25] As a result of this injury he pulled up in a qualifying heat of the 400m at the London Olympics and did not finish.[26]
Merritt qualified once again onto the US team for the 400 meters at the2016 Summer Olympics inRio de Janeiro. He ran a very quick time of 43.85 but only managed to win the bronze medal behind defending Olympic champion,Kirani James ofGrenada, who won the silver medal with a time of 43.76, andWayde van Niekerk ofSouth Africa, who won the gold medal with a new world record time of 43.03.
Merritt announced his retirement following the2017 World Championships in Athletics.
| Event | Time (sec) | Venue | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 metres | 10.56 | Lynchburg, Virginia, United States | March 31, 2007 |
| 200 metres | 19.74 | Eugene, Oregon, United States | July 8, 2016 |
| 300 metres | 31.23 | Kingston, Jamaica, Jamaica | June 11, 2016 |
| 400 metres | 43.65 | Beijing, China | August 26, 2015 |
| Indoor events | |||
| 60 metres | 6.68 | Lynchburg, Virginia, United States | February 18, 2006 |
| 200 metres | 20.40 | Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States | February 12, 2005 |
| 300 metres | 31.94 | Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States | February 10, 2006 |
| 400 metres | 44.93 | Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States | February 11, 2005 |
| 500 metres | 1:01.39 | New York City, New York, United States | February 10, 2012 |
Merritt is one of only six men in history to have broken 20 seconds for the 200 metres and 44 seconds for the 400 metres, the other men beingMichael Johnson,Isaac Makwala, Wayde Van Niekerk,Michael Norman, andFred Kerley.
His personal best of 43.65 seconds for the 400 metres, set in Beijing on 26 August 2015, was the fastest non-winning time in history until the 2024 Olympic final whereMatthew Hudson-Smith lowered this record to 43.44 seconds.
| Year | Competition | Venue | Position | Event | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | World Junior Championships | Grosseto, Italy | 1st | 400 m | 45.25 |
| 1st | 4 × 100 m relay | 38.66WJR | |||
| 1st | 4 × 400 m relay | 3:01.09WJR | |||
| 2005 | World Championships | Helsinki, Finland | 1st | 4 × 400 m relay | 3:00.48 (heats) |
| 2006 | World Indoor Championships | Moscow, Russia | 1st | 4 × 400 m relay | 3:03.24 |
| World Athletics Final | Stuttgart, Germany | 3rd | 400 m | 44.14 | |
| World Cup | Athens, Greece | 1st | 400 m | 44.54 | |
| 1st | 4 × 400 m relay | 3:00.11 | |||
| 2007 | World Championships | Osaka, Japan | 2nd | 400 m | 43.96 PB |
| 1st | 4 × 400 m relay | 2:55.56 | |||
| World Athletics Final | Stuttgart, Germany | 1st | 400 m | 44.58 | |
| 2008 | Olympic Games | Beijing, China | 1st | 400 m | 43.75 PB |
| 1st | 4 × 400 m relay | 2:55.39 | |||
| 2009 | World Championships | Berlin, Germany | 1st | 400 m | 44.06 |
| 1st | 4 × 400 m relay | 2:57.86 | |||
| World Athletics Final | Thessaloniki, Greece | 1st | 400 m | 44.93 | |
| 2011 | World Championships | Daegu, South Korea | 2nd | 400 m | 44.63 |
| 1st | 4 × 400 m relay | 2:59.31 | |||
| 2012 | Olympic Games | London, United Kingdom | — | 400 m | DNF |
| 2013 | World Championships | Moscow, Russia | 1st | 400 m | 43.74 PB TRACK RECORD |
| 1st | 4 × 400 m relay | 2:58.71 | |||
| 2014 | IAAF World Relays | Nassau, Bahamas | 1st | 4 × 400 m relay | 2:57.25 |
| 2015 | IAAF World Relays | Nassau, Bahamas | 1st | 4 × 400 m relay | 2:58.43 |
| World Championships | Beijing, China | 2nd | 400 m | 43.65 PB | |
| 1st | 4 × 400 m relay | 2:57.82 | |||
| 2016 | Olympic Games | Rio de Janeiro,Brazil | 3rd | 400 m | 43.85 |
| 1st | 4 × 400 m relay | 2:57.30 | |||
| 2017 | IAAF World Relays | Nassau, Bahamas | 1st | 4 × 400 m relay | 3:02.13 |
| World Championships | London, United Kingdom | 20th (sf) | 400 m | 45.52 |
As of September 2024, Merritt holds the following track records for 200 metres and 400 metres.
| Location | Time | Windspeed m/s | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Greensboro, North Carolina | 19.80 | + 3.2 | 19/04/2008 |
| Nassau | 19.78 | + 0.9 | 16/04/2016 |
| Location | Time | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Daegu | 44.35 | 28/08/2011 |
| Edmonton | 44.30 | 06/07/2014 |
| Moscow | 43.74 | 13/08/2013 |
| New York City | 44.19 | 14/06/2014 |
| Ostrava | 44.16 | 17/06/2014 |
| Ponce, Puerto Rico | 44.14 | 17/05/2014 |
| Raleigh, North Carolina | 44.72 | 28/03/2008 |
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| Preceded by | USA Track & Field Youth Athlete of the Year 2004 | Succeeded by |
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