IAAF Male Athletes of the Year, 1991-95

For those too young to remember Carl Lewis, he was somewhat the Usain Bolt of his day, except that he combined sprinting with the long jump. At the 1991 World Championships, Lewis set a world record of 9.86 seconds while winning the 100 meters. He also anchored the victorious U.S. 4 x 100-meter relay team that set another world mark of 37.50. Yet he had to settle for silver in that Championships’ most memorable event.

Lewis had won 65 consecutive long jump meets over 10 years prior to the Championships and looked certain to make it 66 when he opened with a World Championship record leap of 8.68 meters (28 feet, 5¾ inches), then soared to a wind-aided 8.83/28-11½ in the third round. But fellow American Mike Powell then topped Lewis with a world record that still stands in 2011, leaping 8.95/29-4½. Lewis tried to answer and recorded a legal personal best of 8.87/29-1¼, but couldn’t match Powell. Lewis never jumped farther, so, ironically, the best-ever jump of one of the greatest long jumpers in history was only good for second place.

Read an interview with Mike Powell.

Young was a promising hurdler – nicknamed “Spiderman” by his college teammates at UCLA – who had a stride problem in the middle of the 400-meter event. So he developed a signature pattern in which he took 13 strides before the second and third hurdles, 12 before the next two, then 13 again before the final five. This pattern helped him win his first U.S. title in 1992, and motivated him to set a goal of being the first man to run a sub-47-second 400-meter hurdles race. He selected 46.89 seconds as his target and wrote the number on scraps of paper that he placed everywhere, including on the sides of his shoes.

Young executed his plan to perfection at the Barcelona Olympics. Despite hitting the 10th hurdle with his lead foot, and even though he raised his arms in triumph before finishing, he won the race and achieved his goal, a world record time of 46.78 seconds that still stands, entering the 2012 season.

Read more about hurdles stride patterns.

The Welsh sprint hurdler began his season by taking the silver medal in the 60-meter hurdles at the World Indoor Championships. He was even better at the outdoor World Championships that summer. He started quickly in the 110-meter final, reaching the initial hurdle first, then blowing away the field to win in a world record time of 12.91 seconds. Jackson also ran on Great Britain’s silver medal-winning 4 x 100-meter relay squad. His hurdles triumph began a streak of 44 consecutive race victories, indoors and outdoors, that stretched until 1995.

Liu Xiang equaled Jackson’s world record in 2004, then topped it in 2006. Dayron Robles holds the current mark of 12.87 seconds.

Morceli, a versatile distance runner, was in the midst of a 45-finals unbeaten streak at 1500 meters and the mile that stretched from 1992 through 1996. He set six world records during that period, not only at 1500 and the mile, but at 2000, 3000 and the indoor 1500.

The Algerian’s versatility was clearly on display in 1994. Already the mile and 1500-meter world record-holder at that point, Morceli set the 3000-meter world record with a time of 7:25.11 at a Grand Prix event in Monaco, beating Moses Kiptanui’s 2-year-old mark of 7:28.96. Morceli also ran his best-ever 5000 in 1994, winning a Grand Prix event in Zurich in 13:03.85. In the 1500, he won the Grand Prix series final in 3:40.89 and took the World Cup final in 3:34.70. All of his records have since been broken.

Edwards, from Great Britain, is the second male Athlete of the Year from the first half of the ‘90s to set a world record that still stands entering the 2012 season. But once Edwards started he couldn’t stop, as he broke the world mark three times in 1995.

Edwards foreshadowed his intentions by flying past the world record twice on wind-aided jumps early in the 1995 season, topping out at 18.43/60-5½ at the European Cup. He then squeaked by Willie Banks’ world mark by a centimeter, leaping a legal 17.98/58-11¾ in Salamanca, Spain, shortly before the World Championships. Edwards had previously refused to compete on Sundays, for religious reasons, which prevented him from competing in the 1991 Championships. But he’d changed his mind by 1995, and opened the World Championship triple jump final with a record leap of 18.16/59-7. He then extended his record to 18.29/60-¼ in the next round.