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Danny Harris

Harris at the 2008 Iowa State Track and Field Reunion
Personal information
Full name	Danny Lee Harris
Born	September 7, 1965 (1965-09-07) (age 59) Torrance, California, U.S.
Medal record Men's athletics Representing  United States Olympic Games 1984 Los Angeles 400 m hurdles World Championships 1987 Rome 400 m hurdles

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.

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, 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. 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. 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."

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. 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. 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.

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. In 2016, Crossing the Line, a documentary film about his life, was shown at film festivals.

References

1. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Danny Harris". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 2020-04-17.
2. "California State Meet Results - 1915 to present". Hank Lawson. Archived from the original on 2014-10-06. Retrieved 2012-12-25.
3. "World Record Progression of 400 Metres Hurdles; Male - U20 - Outdoor". Records by Event. World Athletics. Retrieved 17 June 2021.
4. ^ Black, Roger (1999). How long's the course? : my autobiography. London: André Deutsch. pp. 125–126. ISBN 978-0-233-99644-8. Retrieved 17 June 2021.
5. ^ "T&FN Interview: Danny Harris" (PDF). Track and Field News: 62–64. February 1996. Retrieved 17 June 2021.
6. ^ Longman, Jere (14 June 1996). "Olympics: Cocaine Wrecks Hurdler's Gold Medal Hopes". The New York Times. p. B9. Retrieved 17 June 2021.
7. ^ Streeter, Kurt (27 July 2008). "Addiction turned out to be his biggest hurdle". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 17 June 2021.
8. ^ Wharton, David (May 30, 2017). "Danny Harris uses his time on the streets as a cautionary tale". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 17 June 2021.
9. "Danny Harris - Hall of Fame Class of 2000". Cyclones.com. Iowa State University. September 12, 2006. Archived from the original on 2011-10-12. Retrieved 2011-10-06.
10. "Crossing the Line trailer: Danny Harris's Olympic rise and fall – exclusive video". The Guardian. October 3, 2016. Retrieved 17 June 2021.

External links

• Danny Harris Archived 2018-10-12 at the Wayback Machine at USA Track & Field
• Danny Harris at World Athletics
• Danny Harris at Olympics.com
• Video of 1983 California State Meet 300 Hurdles on YouTube

v t e 1984 USA Olympic track and field team
Qualification	1984 United States Olympic trials (track and field)
Men's track and road athletes	Ray Armstead Alonzo Babers Kirk Baptiste Ron Brown Tonie Campbell Don Clary Paul Cummings Brian Diemer Marco Evoniuk Greg Foster Sam Graddy Johnny Gray John Gregorek Danny Harris Tranel Hawkins Jim Heiring Thomas Jefferson Earl Jones Roger Kingdom Steve Lacy Carl Lewis Henry Marsh John Marshall Antonio McKay Walter McCoy Edwin Moses Sunder Nix Daniel O'Connor Vince O'Sullivan Doug Padilla Pete Pfitzinger Pat Porter Alberto Salazar Carl Schueler Steve Scott Calvin Smith Willie Smith Jim Spivey John Tuttle Craig Virgin
Men's field athletes	Duncan Atwood Willie Banks Earl Bell Tim Bright Ed Burke Art Burns Michael Carter Mike Conley Sr. John Crist Milton Goode Bill Green Al Joyner Dave Laut Carl Lewis Jud Logan Doug Lytle Mike McRae Larry Myricks Doug Nordquist Tom Petranoff John Powell Steve Roller Dwight Stones Mike Tully Mac Wilkins Augie Wolf Jim Wooding
Women's track and road athletes	Evelyn Ashford Sharrieffa Barksdale Joan Benoit Jeanette Bolden Cindy Bremser Valerie Brisco-Hooks Alice Brown Judi Brown Julie Brown Robin Campbell Chandra Cheeseborough Mary Decker Diane Dixon Benita Fitzgerald-Brown Kim Gallagher Randy Givens Florence Griffith Joyner Joan Hansen Denean Howard Sherri Howard Julie Isphording Missy Kane Lillie Leatherwood Pam Page Diana Richburg Kim Turner Angela Wright-Scott Ruth Wysocki
Women's field athletes	Jodi Anderson Carol Cady Laura De Snoo Leslie Deniz Cindy Greiner Lorna Griffin Joni Huntley Jackie Joyner Carol Lewis Ramona Pagel Louise Ritter Karin Smith Pam Spencer Lynda Sutfin Cathy Sulinski Angela Thacker
Coaches	—

• 1965 births
• Living people
• African-American track and field athletes
• American male hurdlers
• American sportspeople in doping cases
• Athletes (track and field) at the 1984 Summer Olympics
• Doping cases in athletics
• American homeless people
• Iowa State Cyclones men's track and field athletes
• Medalists at the 1984 Summer Olympics
• Olympic silver medalists for the United States in track and field
• World Athletics Championships athletes for the United States
• World Athletics Championships medalists
• People from Perris, California
• Sportspeople from Riverside County, California
• Sportspeople from Torrance, California
• Track and field athletes from California
• 21st-century African-American sportsmen
• 20th-century African-American sportsmen
• Hawthorne High School (California) alumni
• NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships winners