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Career Highlights: 2007 World Outdoor bronze medalist; eight-time U.S. champion (’00-’07); 2004 World Athletics Final champ; American record holder; 4th at 2001 World Outdoor Championships; 3rd at 1996 Olympic Trials; 2nd at 2001 Goodwill Games; 2003 Pan Am Games bronze medalist; Greer, who had rotator cuff surgery in December, 2007, placed 17th at the 2008 Olympic Trials in Eugene, Ore. He was placed on the Team USA roster for the Olympic Games in Beijing following the Trials. USATF rules enable the track & field chair to allow the selection of an injured athlete who has reached the Olympic ‘A’ standard as long as another athlete is not displaced from the team. Still not fully healed from his surgery nine months earlier, Greer was unable to qualify for the final in Beijing. In 2007 he won the bronze medal at the World Outdoor Championships in Osaka, Japan, and broke the American record on two occasions. The second time gave him his eighth USA championship as he inches closer to the 300-foot mark at 91.29m/299-6, and it was the farthest throw in the world in 2007, which marked the first time an American ended a season with the world leading mark in the javelin since Tom Petranoff in 1983. His first AR of the year came in May at the adidas Track Classic (90.71m/297-7). Injury problems plagued Greer in 2005 (as they did in 2004) to the point that they kept him from competing at the 2005 World Outdoor Championships in Helsinki, Finland. The two-time Olympic Trials champion chucked the spear 87.25m/286-3 on his first throw at the 2004 Olympic Games to post the best mark in qualifying. His throw was just 14 cm off his American record - a remarkable feat for a single qualifying throw, done on a torn ACL ligament in his knee. At that time it was the #2 American performance of all time. Greer tore the ligament while breaking the American record on June 11, 2004, with a throw of 87.39m/286-9 in Bergen…although doctors suggested that Greer undergo surgery immediately, he decided against it in hopes of continuing to compete through the Olympic Games…Greer’s Olympics came to a heartbreaking end in the final when he threw 74.36m/243-11 on his first throw as his leg crumpled beneath him. The knee held up no better on his next two throws, which were fouls, and Greer placed 12th. He could only watch as Andreas Thorkildsen of Norway won the competition with a personal-best throw of 86.50m/283-9, which was two-and-a-half feet shorter than the 87.25m/286-3 Greer had thrown in the Olympic qualifying round. Later that year on September 19, Greer extended his AR to 87.68m/287-8 at the World Athletics Final in Monaco, which was the second best throw in the world in 2004. He ended the 2004 campaign with three of the top five throws in the world that season. He went on to finish fourth at the World Outdoor Championships with a best effort of 87.00m/285-5, which was his ninth personal best in 2001, and just five inches off the American record. His 4th place finish in Edmonton was the best by an American at a World Championships since Tom Petranoff’s silver medal in 1983 and 4th place finish in 1987… …he competed in the 1998-’99 season with a torn ulnar collateral ligament. By competing in the 2000 Games in Sydney, Greer joined pole vaulter and National Track & Field Hall of Famer John Pennel (1964-68) as the only Northeast Louisiana stars to compete in Olympic track and field…was drafted to be a professional baseball pitcher out of high school, but opted to compete in track instead…has his own clothing line…known for his deadpan and constantly “on” sense of humor…stars as “Hurricane” on the NBC television series “American Gladiators.” 2008:
17th at Olympic
Trials preliminaries (67.20m/220-06)…12th in qualifying at Olympic
Games (73.68m/241-9)…best of 73.68m/241-9.
10/20/08 |
BREAUX GREER
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