Career
During the early 1970s, Milburn dominated the 110m hurdles, tying the world record three times. After going through 1971 undefeated, including winning the 110m hurdles event at the 1971 Pan-American Games, the Opelousas, Louisiana athlete earned the nickname "Hot Rod", and was awarded the Track and Field News Athlete of the Year Award. At the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Milburn won the gold medal in the 110m hurdles, tying the world record of 13.2 seconds, finishing ahead of Guy Drut and Thomas Hill. This time, which was recorded as 13.24 to the hundredth of a second, would become the first fully automatic time ratified as a record in the event when those times were mandated from 1977.
Milburn hoped for an Olympic comeback in 1980, but was ruled ineligible to compete at the United States Olympic Track and Field Trials for having previously competed as a professional.
Read more about this topic: Rod Milburn
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“In time your relatives will come to accept the idea that a career is as important to you as your family. Of course, in time the polar ice cap will melt.”
—Barbara Dale (b. 1940)
“John Brown’s career for the last six weeks of his life was meteor-like, flashing through the darkness in which we live. I know of nothing so miraculous in our history.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A black boxer’s career is the perfect metaphor for the career of a black male. Every day is like being in the gym, sparring with impersonal opponents as one faces the rudeness and hostility that a black male must confront in the United States, where he is the object of both fear and fascination.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)