MIKE CONLEY

MIKE CONLEY
Born October 5, 1962 
in Chicago, Il
6-1/1.85m	170lbs./77kg
Luther South HS, Chicago, Il '81
Arkansas '85

PRs (outdoors):
100	10.36 '86
200	20.21 '85 (20.12w '85)
LJ	27-9.25/8.46m '96
TJ	58-7.5/17.87m '87

PRs (indoors):
55	6.38 '83
LJ	27-3.25/8.31m '86
TJ	58-3.25/17.76m '87 (AR)

Major Meets (TJ unless noted):
1981	1)USA Junior
	2)USA Junior LJ
1982	4)NCAA Indoor
	8)NCAA Indoor LJ
	13q)NCAA
	2)NCAA LJ
	5)USA
	6)USA LJ
1983	2)USA Indoor
	5)USA Indoor LJ
	1)NCAA Indoor
	6)NCAA Indoor LJ
	2)NCAA
	2)NCAA LJ
	2)USA
	3)USA LJ
	4)World Championships
	3)World Championships LJ
1984 	2)USA Indoor
	3)USA Indoor LJ
	1)NCAA Indoor
	1)NCAA Indoor LJ
	1)NCAA
	1)NCAA LJ
	1)USA
	1)Olympic Trials
	7)Olympic Trials LJ
	2)Olympic Games
1985	1)USA Indoor
	1)USA Indoor LJ
	1)NCAA Indoor
	1)NCAA Indoor LJ
	1)NCAA
	2)NCAA 200
	1)NCAA LJ
	2)USA
	1)USA LJ
	1)World Cup LJ
	1)GP Final LJ
1986	1)USA Indoor
	1)USA Indoor LJ
	2)USA
	2)USA LJ
	1)GP Final
1987	1)USA Indoor
	6)USA Indoor LJ
	1)World Indoor
	1)USA
	3)USA LJ
	1)Pan-Am Games
	2)World Championships
	8)World Championships LJ
	5)GP Final LJ
1988	1)USA
	2)USA LJ
	4)Olympic Trials
	5)Olympic Trials LJ
	1)GP Final
1989	1)USA Indoor
	2)USA Indoor LJ
	1)World Indoor
	3)World Indoor LJ
	1)USA
	3)GP Final LJ
	1)World Cup
1990	2)USA
	3)GP Final
1991	2)USA
	3)World Championships
1992	1)USA Indoor
	9) USA Indoor LJ
	2)Olympic Trials
	4)Olympic Trials LJ
	1)Olympic Games
	6)GP Final
1993	1)USA
	7)USA LJ
	1) World Championships
	7)GP Final LJ
1994	1)USA
	1)GP Final
1995	nm)USA Indoor	
	1)USA
	7)World Championships
1996	2)USA Indoor LJ
	2)Olympic Trials
	4)Olympic Games
	6)GP Final


Major Relays:
1984	5)NCAA 4 x 100 [3]
1985	6)NCAA 4 x 100 [3]

The 1992 Olympic champion in the triple jump, Mike Conley is one of the sport's preeminent veterans. His career has spanned 16 years at the highest levels and in it he has accomplished almost everything an athlete could want.

Coming out of Chicago's Luther South High School, Conley had won the USA Junior triple jump title and had leaped 24-5.75 and 51-10 by the time he reported to the Fayetteville campus of the University of Arkansas. He went to work with jumps coach Dick Booth and within a year had added two feet to his LJ best and nearly four feet to his best TJ. In 1983, as a Hog sophomore, Conley won a bronze in the first World Championships long jump and placed fourth in the triple jump.

While the World Championships have been a major highlight of Conley's career -- he has competed in all five editions and won medals in four -- it is his quest for Olympic glory that drove his career:

1984: Conley tried to make the team in both jumps but could only manage seventh in the Trials long jump. In the triple, however, the college junior was labelled a "clear favorite." He led the qualifying at 56-11.5, then sprained his ankle on his first jump in the final. "I had my head together and decided I would jump with pain," he said. "This is the Olympics." Teammate Al Joyner, however, had the meet of his life, leaping a windy 56- 7.5 in round one, a mark no one could pass and only Conley could approach. He produced only two legal jumps, topped by a 56-4.5. Of his four fouls, observers described one as a monster leap near 58 feet.

1988: Windy conditions at the Trials TJ upset the formchart. After four rounds, Conley sat in sixth. On his fifth attempt, he landed at 57-9.75w, moving into third. Willie Banks popped an amazing 59-8.5 wind-aided leap in round six. That energized the competition, and Charlie Simpkins went 58-10w to push Conley off the squad. On his last leap, Conley needed only to improve a centimeter to make the team. He reached down and produced a big leap. But officials measured from a point behind where Conley's feet had landed, saying his shorts had brushed the sand. Conley protested that his shorts were innocent and that the foot measurement be made (it was: 57-11.25, which would have put him on the team). The final result: fourth. In the following long jump, he only managed fifth in 27-0.

1992: Conley made the team in the triple jump, producing the three longest outdoor marks of the year, topped by a meet record 58-0.25. That mark, though, was beaten by Charlie Simpkins, who rode a big wind out to a winning 58-7.25w. In the long jump, Conley missed again, taking fourth. In Barcelona, Conley's first jump of 55-2.25 left him in seventh, but his next attempt of 57- 10.25 broke the Olympic record and gave him the gold. As often is his style, Conley saved the best for last, bouncing out to 59-7.5 on his last jump. As fate would have it, the mark was the only wind-aided leap of the day, the 2.1 measurement one tick over the maximum allowable. Otherwise Conley would have had the World

record. "I'd be greedy to complain about the wind," he said.

1996: Troubled by his step pattern at the Trials, Conley had four long fouls, but managed to finish second in the triple jump with his 57-7.75. Four days later he contested the long jump. His 27-1.75 missed knocking Carl Lewis off the team by little more than an inch.

At the Games, Conley leaped 57-1, which put him into third until Yoelbi Quesada knocked him out. He went for it on his last two, fouling each time. "I thought I was going to get a medal," he said. "You can't worry about fouling. You just have to go for it."

World Championships: Conley has competed in all five editions of the world title meet, but only won in 1993. His 58-7.25 would be the year's longest jump. In Gothenburg in 1995, he finished seventh at 55-7.75w with only two fair leaps. He remained optimistic: "I'm the type, if I'm jumping 52-feet, I still think I will win."

NCAA: The dominant collegiate jumper of the early '80s, Conley captured a total of nine individual NCAA crowns, a record for field event victories only surpassed by a jumper he helped recruit, Erick Walder. In 1984 and '85, Conley made a clean sweep of the horizontal jump titles indoors and out (something only Bob Beamon had done before), and the latter year added a runner-up finish in the 200.

Indoors: The winner of the World Indoor Championship in 1987 and '89, he held the World record of 58-3.25 until 1994, when Russia's Leonid Voloshin added a centimeter to that.

When Conley is not jumping, he finds plenty to keep him busy. The Arkansas alum trains police and attack dogs and is a deputy sheriff for Washington County, Arkansas. He has earned a second-

degree black belt in tae-kwan-doe and works as a volunteer coach for the Arkansas track program that nurtured him to greatness. An all-state selection in basketball as a prep, the game remains close to his heart. He won the Foot Locker Celebrity Slam Dunk Contest in 1988, '89 and '92. With all his time seemingly taken, where does he find the motivation? He explained to Track & Field News, "There's always been something left for me to go after, and that has kept me in this sport so long."