In a track and field season with performances never seen before, sprinter Allyson Felix and multi-event athlete Ashton Eaton were selected as recipients of USA Track & Field’s Jesse Owens Awards, which annually goes to the most outstanding U.S. male and female performer. Felix becomes the only four- time winner of the award (’05, ’07, ’10, ’12), which was first given out in 1981, while Eaton becomes a first-time winner.
Felix made history at the London Olympic Games in becoming the first woman since Florence Griffith-Joyner in 1988 to win three gold medals at a single Olympics with her wins in the 200m, 4x100m and 4x400m. After silver medals in the 200m in 2004 and 2008, Felix grabbed her first individual Olympic gold in London. She was also a member of the 4x100m relay that shattered the existing world record by .55 seconds, which was the largest drop in the record in the modern era. At the Olympic Trials Felix broke the 200m meet record and became the fourth fastest American of all-time with a blistering personal best of 21.69.
Eaton stole the attention with his rain-soaked, world record decathlon performance at the Olympic Trials of 9,039 points, which included decathlon world record marks in both the 100m and long jump. Eaton carried that momentum into the Olympic
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Games where he and Trey Hardee became the first American duo since 1956 to finish 1-2 in an Olympic decathlon. When combined with his world record performance in winning heptathlon gold at the World Indoor Championships, in 2012 Eaton completed a total of three multi-event competitions, setting two world records and winning Olympic gold in the process.
2012 NATIONAL TRACK & FIELD HALL OF FAME CLASS ANNOUNCED
All-time track and field greats Kim Batten, Charles Austin, Pat McDonald and Arthur Duffey along with meet directors Fred and Howard Schmertz will make up the 2012 class to be inducted into the National Track & Field Hall of Fame.
The group will be inducted into the Hall of Fame at the Jesse Owens Hall of Fame Banquet on Saturday, December 1, at 7 p.m. as part of the USA Track & Field Annual Meeting, which runs from November 28-December 2 at the Daytona Beach Hilton in Daytona Beach, Fla.
A former world record holder in the 400m hurdles, Kim Batten won a silver medal in the 1996 Olympic Games. Along with