 Favor in 2016 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Suzy Favor Hamilton | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | American | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | August 8, 1968 Stevens Point, Wisconsin, U.S. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 5 ft 3 3⁄4 in (1.62 m) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 110 lb (50 kg) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Running | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Event | Middle-distance running | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| College team | University of Wisconsin | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Achievements and titles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal bests |
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Medal record
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Suzy Favor Hamilton (born August 8, 1968) is an American former middle-distance runner and escort. [1] She competed in the 1992, 1996, and 2000 Summer Olympics.
Suzy Favor was born in 1968 to Conrad and Rachel (Skundberg) Favor in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. [2] [3] She graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1991. [4]
Favor began running at age nine. She attended and competed at Stevens Point Area Senior High, graduating in 1986. She was the US Junior Record Holder at 1500m and won 3 National Junior Titles in High School. She was named by Scholastic Sports magazine as one of the top 100 High School Athletes of the Century and was inducted into the US National High School Sports Hall of Fame in 2010.
At the University of Wisconsin, she won the Honda Cup and Babe Zaharias Awards for Top Female Collegiate Athlete in the country. She was named by the Big Ten Conference as the top Female Athlete in Conference History. Coached by Peter Tegen, she became one of the top middle-distance runners in the US in the 1990s. She won a record nine NCAA championships, 32 Big-Ten championships and a silver medal in the 1989 World University Games. She won four USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships [5] and three USA Indoor Track and Field Championships [6] all in the 1500 meters.
In 1990, she won the Honda Sports Award as the nation's best female collegiate track and field athlete. In 1991, she won the Honda Sports Award in the top female cross country runner category. [7] In addition, she was awarded the Honda-Broderick Cup, given to the nation's best overall female collegiate athlete. [8] [9] [10]
In 1991 and 1992, Favor was a volunteer assistant cross country coach at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. [11] [12] [13]
Competing professionally, Favor competed in the Summer Olympics in 1992, 1996 and 2000, finishing 11th in her qualifying round race in the 1500 meters in 1992, and 4th in her qualifying race in the 800 meters in 1996. She made the finals of the 1500 meters in 2000 with the second best qualifying time (1/100 of a second slower than the best by the eventual winner). Though she led into the last lap of the final, [14] she later revealed that she deliberately tripped on the track after fading in the stretch. [15] [16]
In December 2012, after being confronted by a reporter, Favor Hamilton admitted that she had worked as an escort. [1] [17] [18] [19] Favor has said that her decision to become an escort was made under the influence of her antidepressant medication, a misdiagnosis of her bipolar disorder, and with the full involvement of her now-ex-husband. [20] She cited the effects of the suicide of her brother, Dan, in 1999, on her condition. [21] [22] She had learned from her therapist that the antidepressant she was taking had put her in a manic state, saying "It wasn't Suzy. I keep trying to emphasize that wasn't me. It was the disease." [20] In the immediate aftermath of her escorting becoming public, the Big Ten renamed its award for Female Athlete of the Year which had previously carried her name. [1] Favor Hamilton also lost several sponsorships and athletic business relationships, including with Nike. [23] [24] [25] However, Favor subsequently was inducted into the inaugural class of the Collegiate Athletics Hall of Fame, along with athletes such as Carl Lewis, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, and Steve Prefontaine. [26] She is now an artist and wrote her memoir Fast Girl [27] [28] about healing from bipolar disorder. [29]
Favor married Mark Hamilton, then a pitcher on the university baseball team in 1991; they were divorced in 2021. [30] Favor has one daughter. [31] Favor lives in Hermosa Beach, California. [32]
Evelyn Ashford is an American retired track and field athlete, the 1984 Olympic champion in the 100-meter dash, and the world record-holder in the 60-yard dash. She ran under the 11-second barrier over 30 times and was the first woman to run under 11 seconds in an Olympic Games. Ashford has the distinction of owning the longest unbroken athletics record.
Karin Kiefer Smith is a retired female javelin thrower from the United States. She was born in Germany. She is a three-time Olympian. Smith qualified for a fourth, the 1980 U.S. Olympic team, but was unable to compete due to the 1980 Summer Olympics boycott. She did, however, receive one of 461 Congressional Gold Medals created especially for the spurned athletes.
Jacqueline Joyner-Kersee is a retired American track and field athlete who competed in both the heptathlon and long jump. She won three gold, one silver, and two bronze Olympic medals at four different Olympic Games. Joyner-Kersee was also a four-time gold medalist at the world championships. Since 1988, she has held the world record for heptathlon.
Monique Marie Henderson is an American track and field athlete, who specializes in the 400-meter dash. Henderson was a gold medalist in both the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece and the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China as a member of the American 4×400-meter relay squad.
Angela Williams is an American athlete. Williams attended the University of Southern California, graduating in 2002. She won the Honda Sports Award as the nation's best female track and field competitor in 2002, which qualified her as a nominee for the Honda-Broderick Cup, awarded to the best overall female collegiate athlete in 12 sports. She was named the winner of that award also in 2002.
Virginia Crawford is a retired American track and field athlete who specialises in the sprint hurdles. She now is a 4th grade teacher after retiring track and field.
Sally Jepkosgei Kipyego is a Kenyan-born American long- and middle-distance runner. She was the silver medalist in the 10,000 metres at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics and the silver medalist in the same race at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. She has a personal record of 30:38.35 minutes for that event and her 5000 metres best of 14:30.42 minutes makes her the second fastest Kenyan woman for the distance.
Kimberley Smith is a New Zealand middle-distance and long-distance runner who retired in 2016.
Marie Roethlisberger, is a former gymnast who was a 1984 United States Olympic gymnastics alternate. She is almost completely deaf. She is the daughter of United States 1968 Olympic Gymnast Fred Roethlisberger and the sister of 1992, 1996, and 2000 Olympic gymnast John Roethlisberger. She was selected as a 1991 NCAA Top VI Award winner as one of the six top NCAA student-athletes and the 1991 female Walter Byers Scholarship winner as the National Collegiate Athletic Association's top scholar-athlete.
The Honda Sports Award is an annual award in the United States, given to the best collegiate female athlete in each of twelve sports. There are four nominees for each sport, and the twelve winners of the Honda Sports Award are automatically in the running for the Honda-Broderick Cup award, as the Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year. Three other athletes are honored as the Division II Athlete of the Year, Division III Athlete of the Year, and Inspiration Award winner.
Amy Yoder Begley is an American running coach and former middle and long-distance runner. Yoder Begley was a national champion at three different distances and competed in the 10,000 meter event at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
Lisa Uhl is an American runner. She is a four-time NCAA Division One champion, former NCAA record holder in the 10,000 meters, and the sixth fastest American woman to ever cover that distance. She competed in the 10,000 meters in the 2012 Summer Olympics. She competed for Iowa State University.
Angela BizzarriPflugrath is a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) and a former American distance runner. She competed for the University of Illinois (2006–2010) and won three NCAA national championships: in Cross Country, as well as in the 5000 meters (outdoor) and 3000 meters (indoor). As an Illini she earned nine All-American honours and five Big Ten Conference titles. She also holds Illini records in the 1500 meters, 3000 meters, 5000 meters (outdoor), 5000 meters (indoor), the mile, and, in Cross Country, the 6000 meters.
Sheila Reid is a Canadian track and field Olympian who competes in cross country, middle and long-distance running events. She competed collegiately at Villanova University. Reid won the 2010 and 2011 NCAA Women's Cross Country Championship, and in June 2011 became the first woman to win the 5000 m and the 1500 m at the NCAA Women's Outdoor Track and Field Championship. She won the Honda Sports Award as the nation's top female cross country runner in 2011, repeated as the best female cross country runner in 2012, and also won the Honda Sports Award for Track and field in 2012.
Jacquelyn Kate Johnson is an American heptathlete. She is a four-time NCAA outdoor champion, and a three-time NCAA indoor champion (2006–2008) while competing for Arizona State University. She also set a personal best of 6,347 points by placing second at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon, which guaranteed her a qualifying place for the Olympics. Johnson was a member of the track and field team for the Arizona State Sun Devils, where she wa coached and trained by Dan O'Brien, gold medalist in the decathlon at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2008, she won the Honda Sports Award as the nation's best female collegiate track and field athlete.
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Molly Seidel is an American long distance runner. Seidel represented the United States at the Great Edinburgh Cross Country in 2012, 2013, and 2018. In her first-ever marathon, Seidel placed second at the 2020 U.S. Marathon Olympic Trials. Later, she went on to win the bronze medal in her third career marathon at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. At the University of Notre Dame, Seidel was a 4-time NCAA champion, 6-time NCAA All-American, 6-time Atlantic Coast Conference champion and 2016 female ACC Athlete of the Year.
Dana Lynn Rettke is an American professional volleyball player for Eczacıbaşı Dynavit in the Turkish Sultanlar Ligi. She played collegiate volleyball at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and is the first five-time AVCA First Team All American in collegiate history. Rettke was also a member of the U.S. national team and has won All-Big Ten honors in each of her five college seasons, was the 2019–20 Big Ten Female Athlete of the Year and the 2021-2022 winner of the Honda Sports Award for women's volleyball.
USTFCCCA Collegiate Track & Field/Cross Country Athlete Hall of Fame | ||
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| Class of 2024 | ||
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