KEVIN YOUNG INDUCTED INTO TRACK & FIELD HALL OF FAME

In an electrifying performance that would have won the flat 400m title as recently as the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Kevin Young became the first and only man in history to shatter the 47-second barrier by winning the 1992 Olympic men's 400m hurdles gold medal in the astounding world record time of 46.78 seconds. Using his unusual technique of switching between 12 and 13-stride intervals between hurdles, Young bettered the world record of 47.02 set by Edwin Moses in 1983 despite slamming the final hurdle and raising his arms in triumph prior to reaching the finish. His record still stands and he remains the only athlete ever to break the 47-second barrier.

As a collegian, Young was nicknamed "Spiderman" by his teammates at UCLA, where he won the 1987 and 1988 NCAA 400m hurdles crowns. After winning the 400m hurdles at the 1993 USA Outdoor Championships, later that summer Young won the gold medal at the World Outdoor Championships in Stuttgart, Germany.

Young, who was inducted into the National Track & Field Hall of Fame as a member of the class of 2006, recently discussed his accomplishments.

What was your reaction when you learned that you had been elected to the National Track & Field Hall of Fame?

It felt good, and that has to do with the company that has already been selected to the Hall of Fame. I think of many of my track heroes like John Carlos, and of course Edwin Moses and Evelyn Ashford. It kind of gives me the stamp of approval that I'm a track great. It's something that can be focused on and talked about. It was never really something I considered until President Bill Roe called me to let me know. I thought originally that it was a crank call until I recognized his voice and he said it.

How did your track and field career begin?

I got started when my third grade teacher took us all out to recess one day and showed us some track and field events. My first love was actually the long jump and high jump. I was a 300-meter hurdler in high school that eventually segued to the 400-meter hurdles. I loved the high hurdles and I took third in state in the high hurdles my senior year, and when I went to UCLA I thought I'd be an awesome high hurdler, where they already had a slew of high hurdlers on scholarship. My freshman year was John Smith's first year as a coach at UCLA, and we gravitated towards one another. That's when I started paying more attention to the intermediate hurdles. At UCLA my regimen was to train with the high hurdlers in workouts and warm-ups and I'd do high hurdle drills. Then it was time to train with the quarter-milers and I just basically meshed those things together.

UCLA had an amazing track tradition during your era, didn't they?

Those guys were all superstar athletes at UCLA. That's one of the greatest things we had in that I was a fan of everybody who was out there on the track training with me. We had FloJo (Florence Griffith Joyner), Alice Brown, Andre Phillips, Greg Foster, so it was an atmosphere in which if you watched them do their thing it was like osmosis. If you were dedicated that you would learn from them. It all taught me to be a more disciplined athlete.

What was your stride pattern as an intermediate hurdler?

A lot of people kept telling me that I needed to go 13 strides (in between hurdles) to be like the great Edwin Moses. I tried my best to go 13 strides for the whole race and I was just suffering because I was in great shape but I couldn't make the rhythm transition, running on the back end and chopping to get 13 strides for the first few hurdles and then on seven, eight and nine be totally exhausted. By the time I got to my sophomore year I just kind of threw the whole 13 stride thing off the track. I decided that I would approach these hurdles and develop a stride pattern that I'm comfortable with. John (Smith) and I developed our own game plan as to how I should run the hurdles.

What were your expectations going into the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, where you won the gold medal and set the world record?

I was sick of taking fourth place in major championships and I knew that I needed to place higher than that to get a medal. My goal was to run 46.89, and I wrote it down. I told everybody I was going to run under 47 seconds and nobody would believe it. In Barcelona it was just a matter of putting it together and sticking to my game plan of 19 (strides) out of the blocks, 13 for two and three, 12 for four and five and back to 13 for the duration of the race. What blew my mind is that it caught everybody by surprise but me, and so when it happened it was overwhelming that I shattered Edwin's record. To do it in the Olympic Games is the ultimate.

What are you doing these days?

Right now I've got a lot on my plate. I spent the summer working with the Mets Baseball Academy, working with Little League kids and showing them how to run fast. I'm also involved in a performance company called Phew! It's a fitness performance company that teaches athletes how to run fast in all sports such as lacrosse, football, baseball and I even work with basketball players where I utilize what I've learned in track and field to help other athletes in other sports. I'm also involved in children's books.

from U.S.A. Track & Field