Ottey, Merlene (1960– )

Jamaican athlete. Merlene Ottey has competed in six Olympic Games (1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, and 2000). In her first appearance, at the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games, she became the first Jamaican woman to win an Olympic track and field medal when she took bronze in the 200 metres (she has won eight Olympic medals). She has won 14 World Championships medals – more than anyone in history. She withdrew from the 1999 World Championships after the result of a drug test taken at a July 1999 meeting in Switzerland was positive for a banned steroid. In November 1999, a Jamaica Amateur Athletic Association panel cleared Ottey of charges of intentionally using performance enhancing drugs, avoiding an automatic two-year suspension.

Career highlights

Olympic Games silver 100 metres 1996; silver 200 metres 1996; silver 4 × 100-metre relay 2000; bronze 100 metres 1984; bronze 200 metres 1980, 1984, 1992; bronze 4 × 100-metre relay 1996

World Championships gold 200 metres 1993, 1995; gold 4 × 100-metre relay 1991; silver 100 metres 1993, 1995; silver 200 metres 1983; silver 4 × 100-metre relay 1995; bronze 100 metres 1987, 1991; bronze 200 metres 1987, 1991, 1997; bronze 4 × 100-metre relay 1983, 1993

World Indoor Championships gold 60 metres 1995; gold 200 metres 1989, 1991; silver 60 metres 1991; silver 200 metres 1987; bronze 60 metres 1989

World Cup gold 200 metres 1994

Commonwealth Games gold 100 metres 1990; gold 200 metres 1982, 1990

Awards

IAAF Female Athlete of the Year 1990

She entered the 1992 Olympics nicknamed ‘The Bronze Queen’ because seven of her eight Olympic and World Championships medals won up to that point were bronze. Appropriately, she finished third in the 200 metres in Barcelona in 1992. At the Atlanta Games in 1996, however, she won silver in the 100 metres and 200 metres. Ottey has become so revered in her native country that in 1993, after winning her first gold at the World Championships, she was named an ambassador of Jamaica. At the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000 she came fourth in the 100-metre sprint and contributed to a 4 × 100-metre relay silver medal for the Jamaican team.