Michael Norman (sprinter)

Michael Norman, Jr. (born December 3, 1997) is an American track and field athlete who competes in the 100 meters, 200 meters, and 400 meters. He graduated from Vista Murrieta High School in Murrieta, California in 2016. He currently attends University of Southern California. He broke the NFHS record in the 400 meters with a time of 45.19 seconds at the 2015 CIF California State Meet held at Buchanan High School in Clovis, California on June 6, 2015. His time is the fastest 400 meters run by a U.S. high school athlete against other high school-aged athletes, along with Aldrich Bailey who also ran 45.19 seconds in Lubbock, Texas on April 28, 2012. The time, however, is not the fastest 400 meters ever run by a U.S. high school-aged athlete according to the List of United States High School National Records in Track and Field. The time of 44.69 seconds set by Darrell Robinson is the fastest. However, it was set at a non-NFHS sanctioned meet, therefore only being acknowledged as a National Record by Track & Field News. Norman's NFHS record is currently awaiting NFHS ratification. On June 30, 2015, Norman was named the Gatorade Player of the Year for his achievements in Track and Field. He is only the 2nd non-senior to win the Gatorade Player of the Year award in the 30-year history of the program and the first male sprinter to win the honors as a non-senior.

On June 6, 2015, Norman had arguably one of the most impressive one-day performances by a high school athlete. The Vista Murrieta High School junior started his day at the 2015 CIF California State Meet by completely separating from the field on the first leg of the 4 × 100 m relay, a performance that PrepCalTrack editor Rich Gonzalez described as "jaw-dropping." In his second event of the day, Norman ran 45.19 seconds in the 400 meters, a time that ranked #6 All-Time for U.S. high school athletes and tied the NFHS record. Norman came back to win his second individual State title in the 200 meters with a time of 20.30 seconds (+0.7 m/s), a time that also ranked #6 All-Time for U.S. high school athletes. Just one hour later, Norman was back on the track with his team for the 4 × 400 metres relay and produced yet another memorable performance by roughly splitting 44.9 seconds on the anchor leg to bring Vista Murrieta from 7th place to 3rd place in the event. With a total contribution of 21.5 points out of the 37 points scored, Norman proudly led his school to its first-ever State title in any sport. Also worth noting is that, including the preliminary rounds from the previous day, Norman ran 7 races within 28 hours at the CIF California State Meet and still produced some of the top marks in the history of high school athletics.

On June 13, 2015, Norman competed in the Adidas Dream 100m at the Adidas Grand Prix at Icahn Stadium in New York City. With this being his first competitive race in the 100 meters, Norman shocked some of the most talented U.S. high school 100m runners by winning the race in 10.36 seconds (-0.5 m/s). On June 27, 2015, Norman set a California State record in the 200 meters at the 2015 USA Junior Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Eugene, Oregon by running 20.24 seconds (+1.8 m/s), and in doing so equaled the #5 All-Time mark for U.S. high school athletes in the event. Although he lost the race to Noah Lyles from T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia, Norman is now ranked #8 All-Time on the U.S. Junior (U20) list and #10 All-Time on the World Junior (U20) list. Norman's placement in this race qualified him to compete at the 2015 Pan American Junior Athletics Championships, but he decided to forgo his spot on the United States team to avoid extending his competitive season by another month. Norman's times from the 2015 season in both the 200 meters and 400 meters made him eligible to compete at the 2016 United States Olympic Trials.