Félix Sánchez (born in August 30, 1977) —nicknamed Super Felix, the Invicible and the Dictator— is a track and field athlete from New York, New York (U.S.). Sánchez's event is the 400 m hurdles for which he won the first olympic gold medal ever for the Dominican Republic in August 28, 2004 during the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. Although Sánchez was born in the United States, his parents were born in the Dominican Republic, and he has competed for that country since 1999.
In 1999, he was a Pac-10 champion (400 m IH) and All-American relay chamion (1600 m) at the University of Southern California[1], where he majored in psychology. Between 2001 and 2004 he won 43 races in a row at 400 m hurdles. He won a share of the Golden League million dollar-jackpot in 2002 after winning all 7 races.
Sánchez has been having injury problems since the 2004 Olympics and didn't come close to his previous form until the 2007 World Championships where he won a surprising silver medal.
He presently is a track and field instructor at the Harvard-Westlake School in North Hollywood, California.
He is currently the only gold medalist representing the Dominican Republic.
International medals
400 m hurdles
Other victories
400 m hurdles
- 2001: Monaco (Golden League-meet) - 48.46 s; London (Grand Prix) - 47.95 s; Zürich (Golden League-meet) - 47.38 s; Brisbane (Goodwill Games) - 48.47 s
- 2002: Oslo (Golden League) - 48.91 s; Paris Saint-Denis (Golden League) - 47.91 s; Rome (Golden League) - 47.73 s; Monaco (Golden League]] - 47.86 s; Zürich (Golden League) - 47.35 s; London (Grand Prix) - 48.08 s; Brussels (Golden League) - 47.99 s; Berlin (Golden League) - 48.05 s; Paris (Grand Prix Final) - 47.62 s
- 2003: Ostrava (Grand Prix) - 48.10 s; Athens (Grand Prix) - 48.07 s; Lausanne (Grand Prix) - 47.80 s; Paris Saint-Denis (Golden League-meet) - 48.30 s; Rome (Golden League-meet) - 48.15 s; Zürich (Golden League-meet) - 47.82 s; Rieti (Grand Prix) - 48.62 s; Monaco (World Athletics Final) - 47.80 s
- 2004: Ostrava (Grand Prix) - 48.44 s; Bergen, Norway (Golden League) - 48.54 s; Eugene (Grand Prix) - 48.12 s; Rome (Golden League) - 48.43 s; Lausanne (Grand Prix) - 47.86 s; Paris Saint-Denis (Golden League) - 47.99 s; Zürich (Golden League) - 47.92 s
400 m
- 2001: Gateshead (Grand Prix) - 44.90 s;
- 2002: Palo Alto (Grand Prix) - 45.24 s; London (Grand Prix) - 45.14 s
Trivia
- After failing to make the final of the 400 m hurdles at the Sydney Olympics, Sanchez wore a souvenir red band around his wrist as motivation. He wore it when winning 43 consecutive races from 2001 to 2004, including his two world titles and Olympic title. He retired it after the Athens Olympics, and donated it to the IAAF for auction.citation needed
External links
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