About Butch Reynolds
Harry Lee "Butch" Reynolds Jr. (born June 8, 1964) is an American former track and field athlete who competed in the 400 meter dash. He held the world record for the event for 11 years 9 days with his personal best time of 43.29 seconds set in 1988. That year, he was the silver medalist at the 1988 Seoul Olympics (0.06 seconds behind Steve Lewis) and a relay gold medalist. Reynolds was falsely accused and banned for drug use for two years by the IAAF until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Reynolds due to an apparent drug testing procedural flaw. Reynolds was awarded $27.3 million dollars due to the false accusation damages but he never received the money. On his competitive return, he became the 1993 World Indoor Champion and won two successive 400 meter silver medals at the World Championships. He also enjoyed success with the 4 × 400 meter relay team, winning the world title three times in his career with the United States (1987, 1993 and 1995). His team's time of 2:54.29 minutes at the 1993 World Championships in Athletics is the current world record. Reynolds remains the third fastest of all-time in the 400 m after Michael Johnson and Wayde van Niekerk, the current world and Olympic record holder. In 2016, he was elected into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.