By Senior Correspondent Marty Ogden, Editing and Graphics by Ron Knapp

MySportsResults continues our look back at some of the greatest athletes in the history of track and field who attended high school in Connecticut or have their roots in our state. Check out the number of “Nutmeggers” who have gone on to compete at the pinnacle of the sport - The Summer Olympics from 1960 to the Present.

Check out our previous article at: Connecticut at the Summer Olympics – Part 1 

1960 - Present

Bill Toomey was 12 years old when an accident severed a nerve in his right hand, and he would need five surgeries over the next few years just to regain about 75 percent functionality. By using the power of positive thinking, he never let that stop him as he led New Canaan to several Class championships in high school competing in the relays, broad jump, high jump, javelin and pole vault. He used those talents to win five AAU decathlon titles in the 1960s and the ultimate gold medal at the '68 Mexico City Games where he set the world records in decathlon and pentathlon.

Danbury cross country and track coach Dan O’Grady, whom the O’Grady Relays is named after, was in the middle of his career when he was chosen to be an Olympic Observer to the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. An observer is invited by the International Olympic Committee and provides a “behind the scenes” look at the day-to-day operational demands of hosting the Games. The program allows each future Organizing Committee to not only witness how things are done, but also study specific areas so that they can learn and improve upon them for future Olympics. O’Grady built a reputation while coaching at LaSalle Academy in Rhode Island where he won 10 New England titles between 1943 and 1950. He continued his success at Danbury where he compiled a record of 206-46 in track and 311-56 in cross country that included a 1960 State Open cross country championship.

The Montreal Olympics in 1976 had a strong Connecticut contingent. Caitlyn Jenner (formerly known as Bruce) transferred to Newtown High School from New York and made an immediate impact winning the high jump and pole vault at the 1968 State Open. Flash forward eight years and Jenner earned the title of “World’s Greatest Athlete” winning the decathlon in a new world record of 8,618 points and earning an iconic spot on the Wheaties cereal box.

One of the greatest marathoners of all-time, Bill Rogers, got his start at Newington High where he was seventh at the New England Cross Country championships in 1965 and the silver medalist at the State Open 2-mile in 1966. He remained in state competing for Wesleyan University where he had a good, but not stellar collegiate career. Several years after graduation, he began to pile on the mileage, and he became the greatest marathoner of his generation. Between 1975-1980, Rodgers won both the Boston and the New York Marathons four times earning the nickname “Boston Billy”. He set several American records including a marathon best of 2:09:27. He was also an Olympian competing in the ’76 Montreal Games where he finished 40th and qualified for the 1980 Olympics but didn’t compete due to the American boycott of the Games. Rodgers is now seen as one of the key figures in America's running boom of the 1970s and was always willing to lend his credibility to any number of road races throughout the country including many in Connecticut.

It was reported (falsely) that “11 wretched women, 5 of whom dropped out before the finish, while 5 collapsed after reaching the tape,” in the 1928 Olympic 800m race, After that race women were not allowed to compete in any distance above 400m in the Olympic Games until 1960. By the mid of the 1970s women were beginning to get more recognition in the distance events and from that era Jan Merrill arose as one of the country’s best. As a senior at Waterford High, she had won state championships in the half mile and the mile and had put the shot 35-feet. In the next few years, she progressed and set the American record in the 1500m of 4:02.61 during the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, plus records in the 3,000m and 5,000m distances. She managed to break the world record in the 5000m three times with a best of 15:30.6. She lost other record opportunities because the only times she could get a decent race in the United States was against men which were not recognized as records. By 1976, the Olympics had allowed women to compete in the 1500m, but the greater distance events were not part of the program. Merrill-Morin eventually became a successful coach, guiding one of Connecticut’s greatest distance runners, Liz Mueller, to four straight State Open and New England titles in cross country plus many records on the track. Merrill-Morin is currently the head coach of boys track and field at Old Saybrook.

They say timing is everything. While the men's hammer throw has been part of the Olympics since 1900, the IAAF did not start ratifying women's marks in the event until 1995 and the event was not included in the Olympics until 2000. Anna Norgren Mahon swam and was an FCIAC scorer in the 300IH, shot put and discus for Stamford High but didn’t pick up the hammer until she entered the University of Vermont. In 2002, Mahon won the U.S. National Championship to qualify for the World Championship. In the same year she shattered the American hammer throw record when she threw 72.01 meters. In 2004, Mahon clinched a spot on the Olympic team when she finished second at the Olympic Trials and finished 29th in the Athens Games. Mahon just became the assistant superintendent in Brookfield after serving as the Amity High principal. She is married to two-time NCAA Division II National high jump champion and current Amity cross country coach Sean Mahon.

In the early 1990s, the name of Jerome Young was revered in high school track circles. He was the most dominant sprinter in state history and didn’t lose a race in any distance from 200m to the 500m for three years and graduated with the current state records in the 400m indoors (46.88) and outdoors (45.01). He was even named Track and Field News "High School Athlete of the Year" in 1995. He won the NCAA Division II championship for St. Augustine's College and was also part of the world record breaking 4×400 m relay team in 1998 along with Michael Johnson, Antonio Pettigrew, and Tyree Washington. He went on to win gold medals with the United States 4×400-meter relay team at the 2001 World Championships in Athletics and 1997 World Championships in Athletics but was later stripped of those medals due to charges of doping and was ultimately banned from the sport. He also ran in heats for the relay team at the 2000 Summer Olympics, where the Americans won gold, but that medal was rescinded as well. 

In high school, Craig Kinsley switched from baseball to track because of a broken hand. That setback propelled him to the highest pinnacle of sports. Kinsley scored points at the Class LL meet in the hurdles, high jump, javelin and took fifth in the CIAC Decathlon for Fairfield Prep. After he graduated in 2007, he went to Brown University and won the javelin at the 2010 NCAA Outdoor Championships and was named as an Academic All-American by the USATFCCCA. He also placed third at the US National Championships that year. He graduated from college in 2011 and took a year to totally focus on the javelin before entering the “real world.” Before the 2012 Olympic Trials he achieved the Olympic "A" Standard with a new personal best of 82.31 meters (270 '0 ft). At the Trials, he placed third and qualified to represent the United States at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London where he was the top American placing 23rd in the Qualifying round. After his athletic career was over, Kinsley returned to Brown where he is currently the assistant throws coach.

Michael Hartfield of Manchester was a State Open champion in the long and triple jumps with a high school best jump of 24’8.25” which is still the second farthest leap in Connecticut history. He eventually enrolled in Ohio State University where he broke Jesse Owens 77-year-old school record in the long jump in 2013. Hartfield placed fifth at the 2016 United States Olympic Trials with a wind-aided jump of 8.39 m (27ft-6in) One of the jumpers ahead of him did not have the Olympic qualifying standard, so Hartfield was named to the American team as an alternate; he received the opportunity to compete at the Olympics after Marquis Dendy withdrew due to an injury. At the Rio 2016 Olympic Games the Manchester native finished in 25th place with a jump of 7.66 meters (25’1.5”).

In the last two decades Connecticut distance running has had a renaissance and state records seem to be broken every year. One of the first in a long line of record breakers was Glastonbury’s Donn Cabral who ran a 8:56.35 2-mile at the Danbury Dream Invitational, ran 14:32.60 in the 5000m at the Manchester Midnight Invitation and was a multiple State Open champion in cross country, indoor and outdoor track. With all his success in high school, he she never tried the event that eventually led to the greatest athletic performance in his career. While competing for Princeton University, Cabral broke the American collegiate steeplechase record and was the 2012 NCAA steeplechase champion. After college, he signed with Nike and made the finals in the 2012 London Olympics where he finished eighth and repeated that accomplishment at the 2016 Rio Games. He recently retired after finishing sixth in the Olympic Trials in 2021 and has begun a career as an attorney in Philadelphia.

Alexis Holmes is a name that might not be as familiar to fans of CT track and field. While she grew up in Hamden, and competed as a youth for the New Haven Age Group Track Club, she attended Cheshire Academy and never competed against CIAC athletes. But when she raced, she ran fast. She won NBNO in the 400m with a time of 51.21, the fastest high school time in the country in 2018. In college she was NCAA DI All American for Penn State and Kentucky in the 400m and helped the Wildcats to a national championship in the 4x400m. As a professional now running for Nike, she was a member of the United States’ mixed 4x400m team that won the gold medal at last year’s World Championship and this winter she won her first national championship and then earned the bronze medal at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in early March. At the Olympic Trials in June she finished in 3rd place to earn a spot in the Olympic Games setting a PR of 49.78. 

Check out more articles in this series of state athletes at the Summer Olympics

Connecticut at the Summer Olympics – Part 1

Connecticut at the Summer Olympics – Part 3

Connecticut at the Summer Olympics – Part 4