- Diane Dixon
-
Medal record Women's athletics Olympic Games Gold 1984 Los Angeles 4x400 m relay Silver 1988 Seoul 4x400 m relay World Championships Silver 1991 Tokyo 4x400 m relay Bronze 1987 Rome 4x400 m relay World Indoor Championships Gold 1985 Paris 400 m Gold 1991 Seville 400 m Silver 1989 Budapest 400 m Bronze 1991 Seville 4x400 m relay Diane Lynn Dixon (born September 23, 1964, in Brooklyn, New York) is an American athlete who competed mainly in the 400 metres.
She competed for the United States in the 1988 Summer Olympics held in Seoul, South Korea in the 4 x 400 metres where she won the Silver medal with her team mates Denean Howard, Valerie Brisco-Hooks and Florence Griffith Joyner. Second place in that race is still the second fastest time ever run in that event and the current American record.[1] She set her personal record of 49.84 while finishing third in an open semi-final in Seoul. Four years earlier she ran in the qualifying heat for the same relay that eventually took gold.
Dixon was also a part of two medal-winning teams in the 4x400 relay at the IAAF World Championships, taking a bronze in 1987 in Rome and a silver in 1991 in Tokyo.
Dixon was known for her aggressive frontrunning style indoors, where she could take the lead at the break (after the first 50 meters) and hold off her competitors who would have to run around her. In 1981 she won her first of her USA Indoor Track and Field Championships at the (then) Imperial distance of 440 yards. In 1983 she won again and began an unprecedented streak of ten consecutive wins in the 440 or 400 metres. [2] In 1985, Dixon won the 400 metres at the IAAF World Indoor Championships. She repeated the feat again in 1991, setting the American Record at 50.64 seconds in the event. That record stood until March 13, 2010, when it was broken by Francena McCorory from Hampton University at the NCAA Championships.
Diane Dixon attended the Brooklyn Technical High School and graduated in 1982.
References
- ^ http://www.iaaf.org/statistics/toplists/inout=o/age=n/season=0/sex=W/all=y/legal=A/disc=4X4/detail.html All Time 4x400 list
- ^ http://www.usatf.org/statistics/champions/USAIndoorTF/women/w400m.asp USA Indoor 400 meters
1985: Diane Dixon (USA) • 1987: Sabine Busch (GDR) • 1989: Helga Arendt (GDR) • 1991: Diane Dixon (USA) • 1993: Sandie Richards (JAM) • 1995: Irina Privalova (RUS) • 1997: Jearl Miles Clark (USA) • 1999: Grit Breuer (GER) • 2001: Sandie Richards (JAM) • 2003 – 2004: Natalya Nazarova (RUS) • 2006: Olesya Forsheva (RUS) • 2008: Olesya Zykina (RUS) • 2010: Debbie Dunn (USA)
Categories:- 1964 births
- Living people
- American sprinters
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1984 Summer Olympics
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1988 Summer Olympics
- Olympic track and field athletes of the United States
- Olympic silver medalists for the United States
- Olympic medalists in athletics (track and field)
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.