Veronica Campbell Brown

Early life

Campbell was born to Cecil Campbell and Pamella Bailey in Clarks Town, Trelawny, Jamaica on 15 May 1982. She has nine brothers and sisters and attended Troy Primary and Vere Technical High School in Clarendon before pursuing higher education in the United States at the University of Arkansas.

Junior career

In 1999, she won two gold medals, the 100 m and 4 x 100 m relay at the inaugural IAAF World Youth Championships. The following year, she became the first female to win the sprint double at the IAAF World Junior Championships. She took the 100 m in 11.12 s (which was a championship record at the time) and the 200 m in 22.87 s. At the 2000 Olympic Games, she ran the second leg on the silver medal winning 4 x 100 m relay team. In 2001, she was awarded the Austin Sealy Trophy for the most outstanding athlete of the 2001 CARIFTA Games. That year, she won 3 gold medals (100 m, 200 m, and 4 × 100 m relay) in the junior (U-20) category.

College career

Campbell attended Barton County Community College in Great Bend, Kansas, where she set several records and won many titles, including four national junior college titles in the 60, 100 and 200 metres both indoors and outdoors. She holds the current record for Barton County CC in the outdoor 100 m and 200 m. Campbell also excelled academically, earning an associate degree from Barton County in 2002 with a 3.8 grade average. She later attended the University of Arkansas, where she stood out as a sprint star in a programme dominated by long-distance runners.

Professional career

At 18 years old, Campbell-Brown won the first Olympic medal of her illustrious career. She competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics in the 4 x 100 m relay along with Tayna Lawrence, Beverly McDonald, Merlene Frazer and sprint veteran and Olympic legend, Merlene Ottey where the team finished second in the finals in a time of 42.13 seconds behind Caribbean neighbors, Bahamas. Campbell-Brown had shown herself to be a promising athlete as a junior, having won at the junior level and at Jamaica's yearly Boys and Girls Championship for her High School Vere technical High, the same High School as Sprint legend and her icon Merlene Ottey. The Championship has been credited as the engineer behind Jamaica's success on Track and Field World stage. It was here that VCB, as she is known to many, blossomed. The same can be said for fellow Jamaican compatriots such as Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake for example.

At the age of 22, Campbell-Brown represented Jamaica at the 2004 Athens Olympics.. She competed in both the 100 m and 200 m. In the finals of the 100 m she placed third. Campbell-Brown later competed in the 200 m finals, a race American Allyson Felix was favored to win. VCB went on to decimate the field in the 200 m finals. She ran a blistering curve, and held her form down the final stretch to become the first Jamaican and Caribbean woman in the history of the Olympic games to win a sprint Olympic title. At the medal ceremony, a visibly emotional Campbell-Brown was brought to tears as her national anthem was played in the stadium and flag hoisted.

Campbell-Brown then teamed up with Aleen Bailey, Tayna Lawrence, and Sherone Simpson in the finals of the 4 × 100 m. VCB ran a scintillating anchor leg as Jamaica went on to win the women's 4 × 100 m. Jamaica created history as it was the first time Jamaica had won the 4 × 100 m relay at the Olympics.

In August 2005, Campbell won the silver medal in the 100 m at the 2005 World Championships in Athletics. She won another silver medal in the 4 x 100 m relay (together with Daniele Browning, Aleen Bailey and Sherone Simpson).

At the 2007 World Championships, Campbell won three medals, a gold in the 100 m, silver in the 200 m (second to Felix) and silver in the 4 x 100 m relay.

At the 2008 Jamaican Olympic trials, she finished fourth in the 100 m, thereby missing the qualifying requirement to automatically make the Jamaican Olympic roster for that event. She clocked 10.88 s in the final, which is the second fastest time ever for a fourth-place finish. She however bounced back to take the 200 m final in what was then a personal best time of 21.94 s. Having failed to qualify for the 100 m, she only competed in the 200 m and the 4 x 100 m relay at the Olympic Games. At the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics, Veronica Campbell-Brown carried the Jamaican flag during the Athletes' Parade. She successfully defended her Olympic 200 m title in a new personal best time of 21.74 s. She competed at the 4 x 100 m relay together with Shelly-Ann Fraser, Sheri-Ann Brooks and Aleen Bailey. In the first round heats, Jamaica placed first in front of Russia, Germany and China. The Jamaican teams' time of 42.24 s was the first time overall out of sixteen participating nations. With this result, Jamaica qualified for the final, replacing Brooks and Bailey with Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart. Jamaica did not finish the race due to a mistake in the baton exchange.

At the end of the 2008 season, Campbell-Brown was selected the top 200 m runner in the world as well as the fourth best in the 100 m (following three other Jamaicans) by Track and Field News. She also finished eighth overall in voting for the magazine's Woman of the Year.

She qualified for her third World Championships by winning the 200 m national title. She beat runners up Shelly Ann Fraser and Simone Facey with a time of 22.40 seconds in June 2009, although a toe injury had left her lacking full fitness. At the 2009 World Championships Campbell-Brown was fourth in the 100 m final behind teammates Fraser and Stewart. She then won her second World 200 m silver behind American Allyson Felix. She closed the season at the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix, recording her fastest of the year (10.89) to take second behind Carmelita Jeter, who became the second fastest ever with 10.64 seconds. Although she was beaten by Jeter, Campbell-Brown was the fourth fastest 100 m sprinter overall that season.

In 2010, she won her first World Indoor 60m Gold medal in a time of 7.00. She later went on to run the fastest time for the 200 m in 21.98 in New York. She also ran a 10.78 in Eugene Oregon beating Fraser Pryce and Jeter.

In 2011 Veronica Campbell-Brown won the Jamaican athletic trials in both the 100 & 200 m and was one of the favorites for both gold medals at the world championships in Daegu. At the championships she won the silver medal in the women's 100 m in 10.98 behind Jeter, who won in 10.90. She later went on to win her first 200 m world title in a timer of 22.22, beating Jeter and Felix who were second and third respectively. In 2015 Campbell made it to the Semi's and Finals of the World Championships 100 and 200m, Finishing 3rd in the 200m which was won by Dafne Schippers.

In 2012, she defended her 60m World Indoor Gold medal where she won in a time of 7.01. Later in June Veronica qualified for the 2012 Olympic games in London in both the 100 m and the 200 m. In the 100 m she came third behind Shelly Ann Fraser Pryce and Carmelita Jeter. In the 200 m she finished just outside the medals in 4th place, 0.24 of a second outside of bronze. In the 4 × 100 m relay final, she and Jamaican team came second behind the U.S. team who won the event with a new world record of 40.82.

Positive doping test

On 14 June 2013 it was reported that Campbell-Brown had tested positive for diuretics while competing at the JAAA Supreme Ventures, a Jamaican meet. She was provisionally suspended from competition. Campbell-Brown denied that she had intentionally taken any banned substances. On 2 October 2013 she was cleared by the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) to resume competition. The panel said this is not one of the most serious offences and it was appropriate that she should be given a public warning, with no ban from competition. They deemed she did not use the prohibited substance for performance enhancement. The substance in question—Lasix, not necessarily a performance-enhancing drug, but rather a potential masking agent for other banned substances—was contained in a cream the athlete had used for a leg injury.

The International Association of Athletics Federations appealed this decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The court decided to clear Campbell-Brown of all doping charges as the JAAA doping procedures did not comply with required international standards.

Personal life

In 2007, Campbell married Omar Brown, a fellow Jamaican sprinter and University of Arkansas alumnus, changing her name to Campbell-Brown. They currently live and train in Clermont, Florida. She was appointed as a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador in late 2009, and stated that she would use the role to promote gender equity in sport.

Achievements

Campbell-Brown's personal best of 10.76 s in the 100 m ranks her all-time top ten in the world (9th place) and fourth among Jamaican women. Her 200 m best (21.74 s) ranks her in the all-time top ten in the world. This time is the third best among Jamaican women. It is the fourth fastest time of the 21st century, and was the fastest since Marion Jones's 21.62 s in Johannesburg 1998. She has earned a total of 46 medals in her illustrious career (27 gold, 16 silver, 3 bronze).

Personal bests

+ = en route to a longer distance