Tonie Campbell

Tonie Campbell is an American Olympic bronze medalist, who finished in third place in the 110m Hurdles at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea.

Campbell attended the University of Southern California. While a sophomore at USC, he qualified for the 1980 U.S. Olympic team, but was prevented from competing in the 1980 Summer Olympics by the American-led boycott. Campbell was the youngest member of a movement that considered circumventing the U.S. boycott by competing under the International Olympic Committee flag, in an effort to make a statement that politics and sports should not be mixed; however, threats by U.S. officials to revoke athletes's passports and visas caused the effort fold. Campbell noted that he would have moved forward with the effort if the group had decided to move forward: "For my age and who I was at the time, that would have been the right thing for me to do. In the event that we were banned from coming back to the U.S., I think I would have survived. I've been around the world enough to see some incredibly wonderful places where I could have been very comfortable."Wayne Drehs, [http://espn.go.com/oly/summer00/s/boycott/campbell.html Campbell, others nearly defied boycott] , ESPN.com, September 22, 2000, Accessed August 27, 2008.]

Campbell qualified and participated in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California, taking 5th in the 110m Hurdles; and again in for the 1988 Seoul Games, where he took bronze. [http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/usc/genrel/auto_pdf/uscolympians.pdf USC OLYMPIANS: 1904-2008] , USC Trojans Athletic Department, Accessed August 13, 2008.]

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