Carmelita Jeter

American sprinter nicknamed 'The Jet', the 2011 world 100m champion and 2012 Olympic 100m silver medalist who ran the second-fastest 100m in history at the time.

Born on 24 November 1979 in Gardena, California, Carmelita Jeter initially focused on basketball at Bishop Montgomery High School before trying track as an off-season activity. She attended California State University, Dominguez Hills, becoming the school's first Olympian and earning multiple All-America honours before turning professional in 2007. Jeter's international breakthrough came at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka, where she won 100m bronze and 4x100m relay gold. In 2009, she enjoyed a career-transforming season, breaking 11 seconds in the 100m 16 times in six months and lowering her personal best from 10.97 to 10.64 seconds — at the time the second-fastest 100m in history behind only Florence Griffith-Joyner's world record. Her career peaked at the 2011 World Championships in Daegu, where she won 100m gold, 200m silver and 4x100m relay gold, becoming the only American to win a world or Olympic 100m title during an era of Jamaican dominance in the sprints. At the 2012 London Olympics, Jeter completed a full set of individual medals, taking 100m silver behind Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and 200m bronze, before anchoring the U.S. 4x100m relay to gold in world record time. Across her career, Jeter won nine World Championship medals and three Olympic medals. Her 10.64-second best remained the fifth-fastest 100m in history for years, and she is remembered as one of the finest American sprinters never to hold the outright world record.

Explosive, powerful sprinting technique

One of the most decorated American sprinters of the Jamaican-dominated era