shawn crawford

Shawn Crawford (born January 14, 1978 in Van Wyck, South Carolina) is a sprint athlete. Shawn attended Clemson University from where he claimed 11 All-America honors and three National Championships. In a successful 2001 started the year with victory at the Indoor World Championships in the 200 m. Shawn then went to the World Athletics Championships where he tied with Kim Collins of Saint Kitts and Nevis for the 200 m. bronze medal. He then travelled to the Goodwill Games where he claimed his second gold medal of the year. The next two years of Crawford's career were most memorable for his outrageous antics and lack of focus. At a 2002 meet in Milan, Crawford put on a Phantom of the Opera mask just prior to the beginning of his 200m race. The mask became dislodged during the race obstructing his vision and causing him to run out of his lane and be disqualified. Crawford claimed to have tested the mask in advance by sticking his head out of a car window while wearing it. Later that same year at another race in Italy, Crawford purposely false-started to charge it to the entire field since he'd never done it before. Crawford accidentally false started a second time, earning another disqualification. In January 2003, Crawford starred in an episode of the FOX TV show "Man vs. Beast," in which he raced a zebra and a giraffe in the 100m on dirt. In the first race Crawford easily bested the giraffe (which was separated from him by a metal fence and may have been a bit disoriented). The zebra race was very close with the zebra slowly pulling ahead for victory. Accusing the zebra of a false start, Crawford re-raced the zebra getting out of the blocks first and taking a lead. This caused the zebra to speed up, finishing in 9.9 seconds to Crawford's 10.8 second time. Later Crawford boasted to ESPN the Magazine, "Tell the Zebra I coulda whooped him." According to the USATF website Crawford refers to himself as "Cheetah Man". Crawford has publicly expressed his desire to run in war paint and urges spectators to look out for him at every meet. After the relatively unsuccessful and unfocused 2002 and 2003 he burst back in March of 2004 where he was fancied for the 60 m. world indoor title. Unfortunately he came up against an inform Jason Gardener from Great Britain who edged him into the silver medal position by just 3/100th's of a second. In the trials for the 2004 Summer Olympics Shawn gained his place in the team by claiming third in the 100 m. with a personal best of 9.93 s. behind winner Maurice Greene and second placed Justin Gatlin but bettered that seven days later with first place in the 200 m. with a time of 19.99 s. this time pushing Gatlin into second with Bernard Williams taking third. In June Shawn improved on his 100 m. personal best when running 9.88 s. in Eugene, Oregon, to leave him as a real medal contender for the Athens Games. At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Crawford ran the 100m final in 9.89 finishing in 4th place just 0.04 seconds behind first place finisher, Justin Gatlin, his friend and training partner. That was the first race in history with 4 competitors under 9.9 seconds. He went on to win the gold medal in the 200 m, and claimed a silver as part of the US 4x100 m relay team.