Ato Boldon
Ato Jabari Boldon ( born December 30, 1973 in Port of Spain ) is a former athlete from Trinidad and Tobago. He won four Olympic medals and was 1997 World Champion over 200 meters.
Life
Boldon belonged since the mid- 1990s to the world's best sprinters in the 100 and 200 meters. His special discipline were the 200 meters. As a 14 -year-old, he left with his parents to the Caribbean island of Trinidad and lived since then in the United States. First he started with American football. There his sprint talent was recognized and he began athletics training. Already in 1992 sent him to his home country to the Olympic Games in Barcelona. First international success he achieved in the same year when he was junior world champion in the 100 and 200 meters.
In the senior, he won the bronze medal over 100 meters at the World Championships in 1995. Boldon was a member of the training group of the U.S. coach John Smith, what its benefits increased enormously. At the same time there also trained Inger Miller and Maurice Greene, whose friend he was soon. At the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996, he won bronze in the 100 and also 200 m. 1997 Boldon won the first world title in the history of the small Caribbean nation of about 200 m.
His best time over 100 m ( 9.86 s ) Boldon ran a total of four times. In the 1999 World Championships but he was plagued with various injuries and could not reach his old form. At the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, he was back at the start and won silver over 100m and bronze over 200m.
In May 2001, Boldon has been tested in the United States favorably to the stimulant ephedrine. He was only booked by the IAAF, as it was his first offense. At the World Championships in August of the same year he won the bronze medal over 100 m and silver in the 4x100 - meter relay. The squadron was in the cast Marc Burns, Ato Boldon, Jacey Harper, Darrel Brown national record.
At the World Championships 2003 he retired from both the individual and with the season in the semifinals. 2004 Boldon denied his fourth Olympic Games in Athens, retired but over 100 m in the heats of. With the 4x100 - meter relay Trinidad and Tobago, however, he still reached the final and finished seventh.
Then he ended his active career. He had a size of 1.76 m, a competition weight of 75 kg. In the aftermath of the resignation Ato Boldon made a pilot's license and was athletics commentator with an American TV channels. From February 2006 until April 2007 he was a senator in Trinidad and Tobago.
The Ato Boldon Stadium on the island of Trinidad was named after him.