Mary Decker Slaney - Middle Distance (Inducted 2003)

Born August 4, 1958

The only athlete ever to hold every American record from 800 meters to 10,000 meters, Mary Decker Slaney continues to own the U.S. women’s records in the 1,500 (3:57.12), mile (4:16.71), and 3,000 (8:25.83). Her greatest international achievement came at the 1983 World Championships in Helsinki, where she won the 1,500 and 3,000 meters – a feat that would become known as the “Decker Double” and that helped earn her the title of Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year for 1983. In 1982, she set world records in the mile (4:18.08), 2,000m (5:32.7), 3,000m indoors (8:47.3), 5,000m (15:08.26) and 10,000 meters (31:35.3, in her first race at that distance), and won the AAU Sullivan Award. Decker Slaney also set the mile world record in 1980 (4:21.7) and 1985 (4:16.71). Over her career, Decker Slaney set 36 national records and 17 official and unofficial world records at various distances. A six-time winner of the Millrose Games in New York, she won her first Millrose crown at age 15 and her last at age 38. Decker Slaney first received international fame at the age of 14 with a surprise victory in the 800 meters at a U.S. vs. USSR dual meet, and she went on to qualify for four Olympic Teams. She competed in her final Olympics in 1996 in Atlanta at the age of 37.