Stéphane Caristan

Stéphane Caristan ( born May 31, 1964 in Créteil ) is a French former track and field athlete. At a height of 1.87 m his competition weight was 77 kg.

Caristans father came from the island of Martinique. His brother Alain was pole vaulter, his sister Chantal hurdler. Stéphane was the most successful in the family.

In 1984 he took part in the Olympic Games in Los Angeles and finished in 13.71 seconds 6th place in the 110- meter hurdles. At the World Indoor Games in 1985 in Paris-Bercy, he won the 60 - meter hurdles in 7.67 seconds with two hundredths of a second ahead of Spaniard Javier Moracho.

1986 ran Stéphane Caristan the two best races of his career. He won the semi-finals in European record time of 13.28 seconds at the European Championships in Stuttgart. In the final he then rose to 13.20 seconds and won 0.22 seconds ahead of Arto Bryggare. At the World Indoor Championships 1987, he won silver in 7.62 seconds, but had to Tony Campbell ( USA) 0.11 seconds behind.

Shortly thereafter, Caristan had to have surgery on his right knee and never again reached the constancy of 1986. Surprisingly, he gave his debut in 1991 in the 400 - meter hurdles. In Barcelona in 1992, he reached even the Olympic finals and finished seventh with a personal best time of 48.86 seconds.

Caristan was from 1983 bs 1986 French champion over 110 meters hurdles and 1992 over 400 meters hurdles.