Christopher Devon "Chris" Brown OLY (born 15 October 1978), also known as "Fireman", is a Bahamian track and field athlete from the Bahamian island of Eleuthera, who mainly competes in the 400 m. In addition to winning medals in individual contests, he has also won four World Championships medals in the relay. He also won a gold medal in the relay at the 2012 London Olympic Games. He is an alumnus of Norfolk State University.
In 2005 he finished fourth in the 400 m final at the World Championships. Also took a silver medal in the 4 × 400 m relay a few days later.
In 2007, his most successful year, Brown won gold medals in both the individual 400 m and the 4 × 400 m relay at the 2007 Pan American Games. In the 2007 World Championships in Osaka, Brown tied the Bahamian national record, when finishing fourth in the 400 m final. Brown (together with Avard Moncur, Andrae Williams and Michael Mathieu) also won silver in the 4 × 400 m relay at the 2007 World Championships.
In 2008 at the Beijing Olympics he placed fourth in the 400 m final when he was initially in 3rd place, American runner David Neville dived across the line just ahead of him. He lost the bronze by 0.04 seconds. A few days later he picked up a silver medal in the 4 × 400 m relay along with Andretti Bain, Michael Mathieu and Andrae Williams.
In 2012, Brown finished third in the 400 m finals at the World Indoor Championships behind countryman Demetrius Pinder. He once again finished fourth in the Olympic 400 m final. He won his first Olympic gold medal four days later in the 4 × 400 m relay with Demetrius Pinder, Michael Mathieu and Ramon Miller, They beat the defending champions the United States, marking the first Olympic men's gold medal in any athletics event for the Bahamas and the first American loss in that race at the Olympics since 1972. [2] [3]
At both the 2014 and 2015 IAAF World Relays held in his home country of The Bahamas he was part of the silver medal-winning 4x400 men's relay team.
On 22 August 2012 the Bahamian government named a street in his honor in his hometown of Wemyss Bight, Eleuthera.[4]
References
edit- ^ The Bahamas 4 x 400 team won originally the silver medal, but the USA 4 x 400 team, which originally finished first in 4 x 400 m relay, was disqualified in 2008 due to Antonio Pettigrew confession of using human growth hormone and EPO between 1997 and 2003.
- ^ "'Golden Knights' Honoured In Grand Bahama During Pre-Celebration Event". The Tribune 242. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
- ^ "'Golden Knights' Honoured". The Tribune 242. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
- ^ "'Fireman' Has More Time To Prepare For Olympics". The Tribune 242. Retrieved 7 February 2022.