Michael Norman

At the 2015 USA Junior Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Hayward Field on June 27, 2015, Norman ran the 200 meters in 20.24 seconds, breaking the previous California state record, and tying the fifth-best time in history for high school athletes in the US. This race also moved Norman to eighth on the US junior list and tenth on the international junior list. Norman’s performance in this race allowed him to compete in the 2015 Pan American Junior Athletics Championships. However, he opted not to compete because it would have added another month to his competitive schedule.

Norman qualified for the 2016 American Olympic Trials based on his performances in the 200 and 400 meters during the 2015 season. For his accomplishments in track and field, Norman was named the Gatorade Player of the Year on June 30, 2015. In the 30-year history of the program, he is the first male sprinter to earn the Gatorade Player of the Year title as a non-senior and only the 28th non-senior across all sports.

On June 30, 2018, Michael Norman made his professional debut at the 2018 IAAF Diamond League in Paris, winning the (non-scoring) 200 m with a personal best time of 19.84 seconds, ahead of USC teammate Rai Benjamin, who finished second in 19.99 seconds. On July 20, 2020, he ran a 9.86s in the 100m sprint at the AP Ranch High Performance Invite Track Meet, his first sub-10 100m sprint. Michael Norman joined the Sub 10s, 20s, 44s club for the 100m, 200m, and 400m sprints with this effort, becoming the second athlete after the 400m world record holder, Wayde van Niekerk.

Norman claimed two gold medals at the World Championships 2022 held in Eugene, Oregon, by winning the 400 meters and 4 X 400 meters competitions. He delivered a powerful sprint over the final 100 m to defeat Grenada’s Kirani James and win his first individual world gold medal in 44.29 seconds. Besides this, it was the United States’ first world championships medal in the event since LaShawn Merritt won in the year 2013.

Norman’s biggest rival to date is his compatriot Champion Allison. Allison specializes in the 400 meters discipline and competed for the Florida Gators during the collegiate.

Norman was born in San Diego, California on December 3, 1997, to an African-American father and a Japanese mother. Norman broke the NFHS record in the 400 meters as a high school junior at Vista Murrieta in Murrieta, CA, on June 6, 2015, with a timing of 45.19 seconds during the 2015 CIF California State Meet held at Buchanan High School. Along with Aldrich Bailey, who ran 45.19 seconds in Lubbock, Texas on April 28, 2012, his mark is the fastest 400 meters run by a US high school athlete against the other high school-aged athletes.