Marlon Shirley, a Symes amputee and top DS/USA and U.S. Paralympic athlete, has broken the long- standing 11-second ceiling for the 100-meter sprint by clearing the distance in 10.97. The feat occurred this summer at the Utah Summer Games in Cedar City in which Marlon came in second against a field of able-bodied runners. Another milestone was achieved in July when Marlon received an ESPY Award for Best Disabled Athlete. His reaction? "I’ve always believed that I could eventually break that 11-second barrier. It feels great to have accomplished that goal."

Up until the year 2000, the world’s sprint record for leg amputees was held by Brian Frasure, a below-knee amputee.

Noted the new champ, "Both Brian and I had the ability to go under 11 seconds. It was just a matter of who would end up doing it first!"

Back in the fall of 2000 after the Sydney Paralympic Games, Marlon was one of 800 Olympic and Paralympic athletes who gathered in Washington, D.C., at the White House. The Utah track and field athlete was given the honor of making a presentation to the President based on his outstanding performance in the Paralympics – he won a gold medal in the men’s 100m (T44) sprint, setting a then new world record of 11.09 seconds, and he took a silver in the men’s high jump (T46).

Years earlier, as a teenager, the Washington state athlete, a wisp under six feet tall, topped the former Paralympic high jump world record by two inches on one of his first tries. At that time, his personal best jump was 6’6" – impressive for anyone, but amazing for someone with one foot.

Marlon trains under Brooks Johnson, an Olympic sprint coach and head coach of the U.S. High Performance Team based in Chula Vista, Calif. He had previously worked with Bryan Hoddle, a USA Track and Field Level II instructor who was recently named head coach for the U.S. Paralympic Athletics Team. The two met at Idaho’s Implot Track and Field Games in 1997 in Pocatello. Marlon, a senior at Tremonton (Utah) High School, cleared 6’3" in the high jump even though he’d incurred a stress fracture in his good right leg just a week earlier. Four months later, Coach Hoddle had a new pupil.

Three years ago, Marlon focused on entering a range of 2000 Paralympic events, including the long jump and the 100m and 200m sprints. In the 2004 Paralympics in Athens, Greece, he hopes to expand the field to the 4 x 100 and 4 x 400, in addition to the long jump and the 100m and 200m races.

One of his first major competitions was the 1997 DS/USA National Summer Games in which he won the high jump with l.78m. In 1998, Marlon won a gold and set a world’s long jump record (20.4) at the Flex-Foot Ultimate Challenge in San Diego. He also scored bronze medals in both the javelin and the 100m. At the ’98 Track and Field World Championships in Birmingham, England, he earned a silver in the long jump (6.14m) and a bronze in the 100m (12.03). At the ’98 Summer Nationals, the DS/USA member took golds in the high jump, the long jump and javelin (43.75m) and a silver in the 100M (12.36).

Marlon turned in another outstanding performance at the ’99 Disabled World Championships in Barcelona, setting two new world records – long jump at 6.33m and high jump at 1.97 m or 6.6 feet.

He also came in second in the 100m (11.41), third in the 200m, and was part of the U.S. amputee foursome that won the 4 x 100m relay and took second in the 4 x 400m.

Later at the DS/USA Summer Nationals in Fairfax, VA, Marlon placed second in the 100m and third in the 200m. He won the javelin with a throw of 39.39m, the long jump with 6.24m, and the high jump with 1.91m.

In February 1998, Marlon ran a much-publicized race against the man touted as the world’s greatest athlete Dan O’Brien. The disabled athlete remembers a puzzled O’Brien asking an official prior to his race with an amputee, "Am I supposed to jog?"

Marlon answered with his feet, breaking the previous time of 7.15 established by amputee sprinter Tony Volpentest and setting a new 55m indoor record of 7.05.

A left Symes-level amputee, Marlon incurred his amputation at age six, while running next to a lawn mower; he slipped on the grass and slid under the mower blade, slashing his left foot. A later surgical revision took the amputation to the Symes level, leaving Marlon his left ankle and an intact heel pad. He now wears a Flex Sprint III foot from Ossur, coupled with a socket and alignment from Scott Sabolich Prosthetics & Research. Marlon is presently working with Ossur on the design of a new sprint foot that will increase the efficiency of amputee sprinters. It’s possible that a whole new generation of disabled athletes will benefit from such advanced technology.

For more information on Marlon Shirley, visit www.mshirley.com.