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Roger Kingdom had made an incredible comeback from long-term injury in
1988 to successfully defend his 110m hurdles Olympic title. He
continued to remain free from major injury during 1989 and 1990, until
he was again sidelined in 1991, missing the entire season due to
problems with his right knee that required two operations. Although he
returned to competition in 1992, his injury continued to affect him, and
he failed to finish at the USA Olympic trials when attempting to make
his third Olympic team. Roger underwent reconstructive knee surgery in
September 1992, but he continued to be plagued by injuries, which
restricted his program throughout both 1993 and 1994
. By that time,
Roger was into his early thirties, and it seemed, with his history of
injuries, that his best years were well and truly behind him. However,
Kingdom came back in 1995 as if his injury-plagued years had never
occurred. In March, at Mar del Plata, Argentina, he won the 110m
hurdles at the Pan-American Games, a title which he had won once before
in 1983. He followed this in June by winning his fifth (first since
1990) national title at Sacramento in a wind-assisted time of 13.09sec.
This qualified Roger for his first and only World Championships held at
Gothenburg later that year. In the weeks preceding the World
Championships, he produced his fastest legal time of the year, when he
recorded 13.11sec at Lausanne on 5 July.
At Gothenburg, Roger breezed
through (see photo above) the first two rounds on 11 August, and
then on the following day, he finished third in the final to win the
bronze medal. Roger made his last attempt to make another Olympic team
in 1996, but failed to do so when he finished fifth in the USA trials. (Ron Casey)
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