Marie-José Pérec

Marie-José Pérec

Personal information
Born	(1968-05-09) 9 May 1968 (age 48) Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe
Height	5 ft 10 1⁄2 in (179 cm)
Weight	132 lb (60 kg)
Sport
Sport	Athletics
Medal record Women's athletics Representing  France Olympic Games 1992 Barcelona 400 m 1996 Atlanta 200 m 1996 Atlanta 400 m World Championships 1991 Tokyo 400 m 1995 Gothenburg 400 m European Championships 1994 Helsinki 400 m 1994 Helsinki 4x400 m relay 1990 Split 400 m
Updated on 23 May 2015.

Marie-José Pérec (born 9 May 1968) is a retired French track and field sprinter who specialised in the 200 and 400 metres and was a three-time Olympic gold medalist.

Pérec won the 1991 World Championships 400 metres title in Tokyo and repeated the feat at the 1995 World Championships in Gothenburg. She was the 400 metres champion at the 1992 Olympics Games in Barcelona. Four years later, she entered the 200 metres and 400 metres events at the 1996 Olympics Games in Atlanta and won both, thus achieving the second-ever Olympic 200 metres/400 metres gold medal double (the first was achieved by Valerie Brisco-Hooks in Los Angeles in 1984). Pérec won the 1996 400 metres title in an Olympic record time of 48.25 seconds, which also ranks her as the third fastest woman of all time.

In addition to her Olympic and World titles, Pérec also won the 400 metres title and was a part of the gold medal-winning 4 × 400 metres relay team at the 1994 European Championships in Helsinki.

The two 1996 Olympic titles were Pérec's last international titles. On 22 September 2000, she pulled out of the 200 metres and 400 metres events of the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, several days before they were due to begin. Pérec claimed that she had been threatened and insulted several times since arriving in Australia and that the Australian press had been trying to sabotage her chances of winning the gold medal in the 400 metres.

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