Hasely Joachim CrawfordTC is a former track and field athlete from Trinidad and Tobago. In 1976, he became his country's first Olympic champion and the first Olympic 100m champion from a Caribbean country. A stadium was renamed in his honor in 2001.
Early years
Crawford was born in San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago, one of the eleven children of Lionel Crawford and Phyllis Holder, and began pursuing athletics at the age of 17. He is a six-time Trinidad and Tobago 100 metres champion, and won the 200 metre title in 1976. He debuted internationally in 1970, winning a bronze medal in the 100 metres at the Commonwealth Games. Only two years later, he surprisingly qualified for the 100 metres final of the Olympics in Munich, but pulled his hamstring after 20 metres and failed to finish.
Athletic career
Crawford ran for Eastern Michigan University under coach Bob Parks during his college years. After finishing as the runner up at the 1975 Pan American Games in the 100 metres, Crawford was added to the team of American coach Bob Parks. His new coach prepared him for the 100 metres and 200 metres events at the 1976 Summer Olympics with a strategy of only allowing him to run in a few races during the season. This tactic paid off, as Crawford, in the outside lane 1, narrowly won the 100 metres final in a time of 10.06 seconds, just 0.02 seconds in front of Don Quarrie of Jamaica, winning Trinidad and Tobago's first Olympic gold medal. He had also qualified for the 200 metres final, but was forced to pull out mid-race after injuring his pelvis After these Games, Crawford met with further success, winning the 100 metres event at the Central American and Caribbean Championships in 1977. On returning home, Hasely Crawford had both a jet and a stadium named after him. During his reign as the 100 metre Olympic champion, he also appeared on postage stamps and was awarded Trinidad and Tobago's highest honour, Trinity Cross, in 1978. This award was changed to the Order of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Crawford went on to compete in a total of four Olympic Games as he also represented T&T at both the Moscow and Los Angeles editions in 1980 and 1984, but was unable to qualify for another final. Crawford's last international medals were a bronze and a silver which he won at the 1978 Commonwealth Games in the 100 metres and the 4x100 metres relay respectively. In 2000, he was named the Trinidad & Tobago Athlete of the Millennium. He is a member of the Caribbean Hall of Fame, along with Ato Boldon and Arthur Wint, one of only three track and field athletes to be inducted.
