Maurice Greene

He loves to run, he loves to compete, he loves his fans and he loves to break world records. He has as much enthusiasm for the sport now as he did when he was young. Maurice Greene can often be found at high school, college and professional track meets checking out the competition. He enjoys sharing his passion for track and field and offers tips and advice to those who listen as he hopes to be a coach when his career as a competitor is finished.

Along with training partner and Olympic silver medalist Ato Boldon, Greene has adopted a Los Angeles-area group of youngsters whom they mentor. Greene knows the importance of getting a head start in a competitive sport.

Greene got his start in the fourth grade when his age group coach pulled some strings to get him into an eraser shuttle race for fifth graders. Greene cruised to several easy wins and finished easily ahead of his older fifth-grade competition, thus planting the need-for-speed seed.

In high school, Greene nurtured his speed on the track as well as the football field—Greene’s all-time favourite athlete is football legend Walter Payton. In 1993, he won his third straight Kansas high school state meet 100- and 200-meter sprint double.

Greene hasn’t always known success. In 1996 Greene’s results at the Olympic Trials were disappointing and he failed to make the team. He knew he had the hardware to be the best in the world, but needed to sharpen his skills. And he knew just the place to do it. He moved to Los Angeles to train with renowned sprint coach John Smith and world-class sprinters Jon Drummond and Ato Boldon. Maurice is all about hard work and is willing to put everything he has into one of Smith’s workouts, and then he even digs a little deeper and gives it more. That’s what makes him a champion.

Greene’s buoyant personality and charming disposition coupled with his earth-shattering performances have won the hearts of people all over the world. Maurice has always appreciated the support of his fans.

Greene was the first to ever win both the 100m and 200m at the 1999 World Championships in Seville. He collected his third gold medal of the competition for his efforts on the 4 x 100-meter relay team.