Jearl Miles Clark

Jearl Atawa Miles Clark (born September 4, 1966 in Gainesville, Florida) is an American athlete who competed mainly in the 400 and 800 meters.

She holds the American record in the women's 800m at 1:56.40.

She competed for the United States in the 1992 Summer Olympics held in Barcelona, Spain in the 4 x 400 meters where she won the Silver medal with her team mates Natasha Kaiser, Gwen Torrence and Rochelle Stevens.

She returned to the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, U.S. where she again ran with Rochelle Stevens and fellow Americans Maicel Malone and Kim Graham to win the Gold medal in the 4 x 400 meters

She made a third appearance in the Olympics in the 2000 Summer Olympics held in Sydney, Australia and again walked off with the Gold medal in the 4 x 400 metres with her team mates Monique Hennagan, Marion Jones and LaTasha Colander-Richardson. This medal was later stripped due to steroid doping admissions of Marion Jones. However, she and 6 other members of the team would successfully appeal the decision to strip them of their medals in July 2010.

She is married to J. J. Clark, brother of Olympians Joetta Clark and Hazel Clark, who is also her and her sister-in-law's coach. He is currently the Head Track and Field coach for the University of Tennessee. Her father-in-law is Joe Louis Clark. She is part of the 2010 class of the National Track and Field Hall of Fame

Famous quotes containing the words miles and/or clark:

    The mountainous region of the State of Maine stretches from near the White Mountains, northeasterly one hundred and sixty miles, to the head of the Aroostook River, and is about sixty miles wide. The wild or unsettled portion is far more extensive. So that some hours only of travel in this direction will carry the curious to the verge of a primitive forest, more interesting, perhaps, on all accounts, than they would reach by going a thousand miles westward.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    In the beginning, I wanted to enter what was essentially a man’s field. I wanted to prove I could do it. Then I found that when I did as well as the men in the field I got more credit for my work because I am a woman, which seems unfair.
    —Eugenie Clark (b. 1922)