Angelo Taylor

Angelo F. Taylor (born December 29, 1978) is an American track and field athlete, winner of 400-meter hurdles at the 2000 and 2008 Summer Olympics. His personal record for the hurdles event is 47.25 seconds. His time puts him in a tie with Félix Sánchez for the #14 performer of all time. Sánchez also won two Olympic gold medals, in 2004 between Taylor's two golds and 2012, immediately following. Taylor also has a 400-meter dash best of 44.05 seconds, ranking him as the #25 performer of all time, superior to any other athlete who has made a serious effort in the 400 metres hurdles. He won the bronze medal in the 400 m at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics.

He is a three-time world champion in the 4×400 m relay with the United States (2007, 2009 and 2011), and was also a relay gold medalist at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and silver medalist at the 2012 London Olympics.

Early life
Born in Albany, Georgia, Angelo Taylor studied at the Georgia Institute of Technology and won the NCAA title in 1998 and placed second in 1997. In 1998, Taylor also won a silver medal at the US National Championships. He went on to win the title three times from 1999 to 2001.

Taylor made his debut in a major international meet at the 1999 World Championships, where he finished third in his heat in 400 m hurdles, but ran a third leg at the gold medal-winning US 4x400 m relay team.

2000 Olympic champion
In 2000, Taylor ran a world-leading time at the Olympic Trials and entered the Sydney Games as a favorite. In a thrilling final, Taylor moved from fourth place to first over the final two hurdles and barely edged Saudi Arabia's Hadi Souan Somayli by 0.03 seconds in the closest finish in the history of the event. Taylor ran in the heat and semifinal of 4x400 m relay race, the finals team for which won the gold medal. On August 2, 2008, the International Olympic Committee stripped the gold medal from the U.S. men's 4x400-meter relay team, after Antonio Pettigrew admitted using a banned substance. Three of the four runners in the event final, including Pettigrew and twins Alvin and Calvin Harrison, and preliminary round runner Jerome Young, all have admitted or tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs. Only Taylor and world record holder Michael Johnson were not implicated.

Taylor was eliminated in the semifinals of the 2001 World Championships in 400 m hurdles while struggling with a sinus infection and flu, but won a gold as a member of US 4x400 m relay team. He didn't make the US World Championships team in 2003 and was unsuccessful in defending his Olympic title at the 2004 Summer Olympics, finishing fourth in the semifinal.

Second Olympic title
In 2007 Taylor set a new personal best in the 400 m and won the American title in the event. He won the 400 m bronze medal at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka and won another gold medal as part of the USA 4×400m relay team.

At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, Taylor became a double Olympic champion, winning gold in the 400 metre hurdles and the 4×400 m relay. At the 2009 World Championships in Athletics he failed to make it out of the heats of the hurdles, but was part of the American 4×400 m relay team which successfully defended its world title.

Taylor finished second in the 200m at the 2010 Rieti IAAF Grand Prix in August with a new personal record time of 20.23 seconds. He fell behind Kerron Clement and Bershawn Jackson in the hurdles rankings that year, but in the 2010 IAAF Diamond League he managed top three finishes in Lausanne, Monaco and Stockholm. He had a season's best of 47.79 seconds for the event that year. He also had two podium finishes in the 400 m, coming second at the Golden Gala and third in a season's best of 44.72 seconds at the Weltklasse Zurich.

He came third in the 400 m hurdles at the 2011 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships with a season's best run of 47.94 seconds, gaining a place on the national team. He won at the Herculis meeting in July, but did not peak for the 2011 World Championships in Athletics, where he finished seventh in the final. He performed well in the relay, however, taking the United States to victory in a time of 2:59.31 minutes alongside Greg Nixon, Bershawn Jackson and LaShawn Merritt.

Taylor began his 2012 season with a runner-up finish at the Mt. SAC Relays. He was third over 400 m at the Doha 2012 Diamond League meet and won the first 400 m hurdles race in Shanghai.

2012 London Summer Olympics
Taylor was captain of the USA men's track Olympic squad in his fourth Olympics. The two-time 400m hurdles gold medalist finished fifth in the event in a time of 48.25. In the 4x400m relay finals, Taylor ran the anchor leg and was given the lead but was chased down by the Bahamas, so the USA team won the silver medal.

Personal life
Taylor currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia with wife Lynnita and is father to twin boys Xzaviah and Isaiah. His father, Angelo Taylor Sr., was also involved in sports and he competed in football and track at Albany State University. His family spent time living in Saudi Arabia in the 1990s as he was training & seeing his sights on the Olympics.

SafeSport suspension
On May 16, 2019, the Orange County Register published an exposé of the failure of the United States Center for SafeSport to suspend Taylor after receiving notification of his criminal convictions, as required by the United States Center for SafeSport code. USA Track & Field issued a "provisional suspension" for Taylor later that day. He was placed on USATF's list of suspended individuals, where as of February 2022 he still remained. SafeSport officially noted Taylor's violation that same day, and declared him ineligible, with the announced reason being "Criminal Disposition – involving minor."