Danny Harris

{{About|the hurdler|the rugby player|Danny Harris (rugby)|other people|Daniel Harris (disambiguation){{!}}Daniel Harris}}

{{Infobox sportsperson

| name = Danny Harris

| image = Danny Harris, Iowa State Track and Field Reunion, 2008.jpg

| caption = Harris at the 2008 Iowa State Track and Field Reunion

| fullname = Danny Lee Harris

| birth_date = {{birth-date and age|September 7, 1965}}

| birth_place = Torrance, California, U.S.

| headercolor = lightsteelblue

| show-medals = yes

| medaltemplates =

{{MedalCountry | {{USA}} }}

}}

Danny Lee Harris (born September 7, 1965) is an American former track and field athlete who specialized in the 400-meter hurdles (400 mH), in which he won silver medals at the 1984 Olympics and the 1987 World Championships.{{cite Sports-Reference |url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/ha/danny-harris-1.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200417175250/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/ha/danny-harris-1.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2020-04-17 |title=Danny Harris}}

Hurdling career

Danny Harris is an alumnus of Perris High School in Perris, California, where he grew up. In 1983, he won the CIF California State Championship in the 300 mH,{{cite web |url=http://www.prepcaltrack.com/ATHLETICS/TRACK/stateres.htm |title=California State Meet Results - 1915 to present |publisher=Hank Lawson |access-date=2012-12-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006092406/http://www.prepcaltrack.com/ATHLETICS/TRACK/stateres.htm |archive-date=2014-10-06 |url-status=dead }} and ran a thrilling anchor leg vs Hawthorne High School's Henry Thomas in the team's second place 4 × 400 meters relay team, leading Perris to its most impressive showing at the event.

Harris attended Iowa State University and competed for the Iowa State Cyclones track and field. His time of 48.02 in 1984 at age 18 remained the 400 mH world under-20 record until Sean Burrell's 47.85 in 2021.{{cite web |title=World Record Progression of 400 Metres Hurdles; Male - U20 - Outdoor |url=https://www.worldathletics.org/records/by-progression/14618?type=2 |website=Records by Event |publisher=World Athletics |access-date=17 June 2021}} Harris finished second to Ed Moses in the 1984 Olympic final. He collected three NCAA 400 mH titles and four Drake Relays titles while at Iowa State. He was never beaten by a collegiate athlete in the 400 mH during his time at Iowa State, and helped lead the Cyclones to three outdoor Big Eight team titles and two indoor crowns during his three-year career, collecting 12 titles. He set Big Eight records in the 400 mH, 600 yards and 4 × 400 relay.

At a meeting in Madrid in 1987, Harris became the first man to defeat Edwin Moses at 400 mH since Harald Schmid in 1977, though Moses narrowly beat Harris in the 1987 World Championships. Harris missed out on the 1988 Olympics after finishing fifth in the U.S. Olympic Trials, behind Moses, Andre Phillips and Kevin Young (respectively the 1984, 1988, and 1992 Olympic champions).

Harris' personal best for the 400 mH was 47.38 seconds, set at Athletissima in Lausanne in July 1991. He finished fifth in that year's World Championships. He failed an anti-doping test at the 1992 USA Indoor Track and Field Championships and the IAAF suspended him for four years. After he completed a drug rehabilitation program, USA Track & Field agreed to lift his ban in 1994, but after a few weeks the IAAF reimposed it until the following year.{{cite journal |title=T&FN Interview: Danny Harris |journal=Track and Field News |date=February 1996 |pages=62–64 |url=https://trackandfieldnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/danny_harris.pdf |access-date=17 June 2021}} He was fourth in the 1995 400 mH world rankings, but a hamstring injury kept him out of the 1995 World Championships. His career ended with a second positive cocaine test after a 1996 race in Rio de Janeiro.

In his 1999 autobiography, Roger Black said of Harris: "He was without doubt the most talented athlete I've ever trained with. ... The irony of the whole thing was, cocaine was not making him a better athlete, it was making him worse."{{cite book |last1=Black |first1=Roger |title=How long's the course? : my autobiography |date=1999 |publisher=André Deutsch |location=London |isbn=978-0-233-99644-8 |pages=125–126 |url=https://archive.org/details/howlongscoursemy0000blac/page/125 |url-access=registration |access-date=17 June 2021}}

Later life

By his own admission, Harris began using cocaine during his disappointment at missing out on the 1988 Olympics and relapsed after missing a medal in 1991.{{cite news |last1=Longman |first1=Jere |title=Olympics: Cocaine Wrecks Hurdler's Gold Medal Hopes |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/06/14/sports/olympics-cocaine-wrecks-hurdler-s-gold-medal-hopes.html |access-date=17 June 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=14 June 1996 |page=B9}} After his 1992 doping ban he lost his shoe deal and had to sell his house in Los Angeles. In the decade after his 1996 ban he experienced periods of serious addiction and homelessness.{{cite news |last1=Streeter |first1=Kurt |title=Addiction turned out to be his biggest hurdle |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-jul-27-sp-streeter27-story.html |access-date=17 June 2021 |work=Los Angeles Times |date=27 July 2008}} By 2008 he was clean and working at the Midnight Mission homeless shelter where he had previously been a client.

Harris later worked as a track coach at various high schools. He had helped Perris High School boys' track team in 2001 to their first League Championship since his own time as a student there.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}}

Harris was inducted into the Drake Relays Hall of Fame in 1995, the Iowa State Hall of Fame in 2000, and the Iowa Sports Hall of Fame in 2005.{{cite web |url=http://www.cyclones.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=10700&ATCLID=605242 |title=Danny Harris - Hall of Fame Class of 2000 |website=Cyclones.com |publisher=Iowa State University |date=September 12, 2006 |access-date=2011-10-06 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111012211939/http://www.cyclones.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=10700&ATCLID=605242 |archive-date=2011-10-12 }} In 2016, Crossing the Line, a documentary film about his life, was shown at film festivals.{{cite web |title=Crossing the Line trailer: Danny Harris's Olympic rise and fall – exclusive video |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/video/2016/oct/03/crossing-the-line-trailer-danny-harriss-olympic-rise-and-fall-exclusive-video |website=The Guardian |access-date=17 June 2021 |date=October 3, 2016}}{{cite news |last1=Wharton |first1=David |title=Danny Harris uses his time on the streets as a cautionary tale |url=https://www.latimes.com/sports/olympics/la-sp-danny-harris-olympics-20170522-story.html |access-date=17 June 2021 |work=Los Angeles Times |date=May 30, 2017}}

References

External links

[https://web.archive.org/web/20181012214525/http://www.usatf.org/athletes/bios/TrackAndFieldArchive/1997/harris.asp Danny Harris] at USA Track & Field (archived)
{{World Athletics}}
{{Olympics.com|daniel-lee-harris|Daniel Lee Harris|org_id=danny-harris|org_name=Danny Harris|org_archive=20200714171800}}
{{Olympedia}}
{{YouTube|ND9Yf2Vo82A|Video of 1983 California State Meet 300 Hurdles}}

{{succession box|title=Men's 400 m hurdles season's best|years=1985
1990

|before=Edwin Moses|after=Edwin Moses

|before2=Kevin Young|after2=Samuel Matete}}

{{S-ttl|title=Men's 400 m hurdles world junior record holder|years=17 June 1984 – present}}

Category:1965 births

Category:Living people

Category:African-American track and field athletes

Category:American male hurdlers

Category:American sportspeople in doping cases

Category:Athletes (track and field) at the 1984 Summer Olympics

Category:Doping cases in athletics

Category:American homeless people