Harry ‘Butch’ Reynolds Sets an Incredible WORLD RECORD in the 400m (43.29) at the Zurich Meet 88.

Harry Lee Reynolds Jr. (born June 8, 1964), commonly known as Butch Reynolds, is an American former track and field athlete who competed in the 400 meters dash. He held the world record in this event for 11 years and 9 days, with a personal best of 43.29 seconds set in 1988. That same year, he was the silver medalist at the 1988 Seoul Olympics (behind Steve Lewis) and the gold medalist relays. He was falsely accused and banned by the IAAF for two years for drug use; until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Reynolds’ favor due to an apparent procedural error in drug testing. Reynolds received $27.3 million in connection with the false accusations, but never received it.

After returning to competition, he became the 1993 World Indoor Champion and won two straight silver medals in the 400 meters at the World Championships. He was also successful in the 4×400 m relay, winning the world title three times in his career for the United States (1987, 1993 and 1995). His team’s time of 2:54.29 minutes at the 1993 World Championships in Athletics is the current world record. Reynolds remains the third fastest in history in the 400 m, behind Michael Johnson and Wayde van Niekerk, the current world record holder.

In 2016, he was elected to the National Track and Field Hall of Fame.

Career
Reynolds was born in Akron, Ohio. On August 17, 1988, at the age of 24 years and 70 days, he set a world record in the 400 meters in a time of 43.29 seconds, beating the almost 20-year-old world record of Lee Evans from 1968 by 0.57 seconds. Reynolds’ record included negative splits, meaning the second half of the race finished faster than the first, and it was the first time anyone had set a men’s 400 meters world record with negative splits. His differences were 21.9 seconds in the first 200 meters and 21.4 seconds in the final 200 meters, which was a difference of -0.5 seconds. This record lasted 11 years and 9 days and was broken by Michael Johnson (43.18) in August 1999. Wayde van Niekerk broke Michael Johnson’s record in 2016 in 43.03. Reynolds remains the third fastest in history over the distance, joined by Olympic champions Jeremy Wariner, Quincy Watts, LaShawn Merritt and Kirani James, as well as Isaac Makwala, the 2012 and 2014 African champion, Fred Kerley, NCAA record holder, and Steven Gardiner Olympic champion and record holder country of the Bahamas were the only ones to exceed their best result in half a second less.

He won a silver medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics in the 400 meters and a gold medal in the 4 × 400 m relay. He won the bronze medal at the 1987 IAAF World Championships in Athletics. and silver medals in 1993 and 1995. He also won gold medals in the 4 x 400 meters relay in 1987, 1993 and 1995. The 1993 World Championship team of Andrew Valmon, Watts and Johnson still holds the relay world record.

In the 1996 U.S. Olympic Trials, he finished second to Michael Johnson, posting a 43.91, which was the fastest 400-meter time without a win until August 26, 2015. However, in the semifinals of the 1996 Summer Olympics, he suffered a hamstring injury and was unable to qualified for the competition. final and also had to withdraw from the relay.

He retired after the 1999 season. Since then, Reynolds founded the Butch Reynolds Care for Kids foundation and was the speed coach for the Ohio State University football team until his resignation in April 2008. Butch resumed coaching when he was hired as the sprint coach at Ohio State University in 2014. Ohio Dominican University in Columbus. His first season as coach led to a 20-point improvement at the GLIAC Outdoor Meet and the emergence of one of the best young sprinters in the GLIAC.

Drug suspension
Butch Reynolds was suspended for two years by the IAAF for alleged illegal drug use in 1990. This was the beginning of a long legal battle, after which the United States Supreme Court ordered the United States Olympic Committee to allow him to compete in the 1992 US Olympic Trials. , after finding that the research procedures were flawed from the beginning. Testers marked the “H6” sample as positive, while Reynolds’ blood sample tested “H5.” Lab director Jean-Pierre LaFarge claimed in court that despite the markings, a technician told him the “H5” sample was positive. However, the technician circled the letter “H6” on two separate documents.

IAAF and IOC controversy
This order brought American law and equality into conflict with the rules of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), which prohibited suspended athletes from competing.