Fred Kerley

Fredrick Lee Kerley is an American track and field sprinter. He is a multi-time Olympic medalist, having earned a silver medal in the 100 meters at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and a bronze medal in the same event at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Kerley has won six World Championship medals, highlighted by a gold medal in the 100 meters in 2022. Throughout his career, he has achieved international success across the 100-meter, 200-meter, 400-meter, and relay events, securing eleven Diamond League race wins and two Diamond League season titles.

Kerley was raised in Texas, where he attended Taylor High School and competed for the College Station Sprinters. He began his collegiate career at South Plains College from 2013 to 2015 before transferring to Texas A&M University. In 2016, Kerley represented the United States at the NACAC Under-23 Championships, anchoring the 4 × 100 meters relay team to a gold medal. During his senior year at Texas A&M in 2017, he set an NCAA record in the 400 meters with a time of 43.70 seconds and won both the 400 meters and 4 × 400 meters relay at the NCAA Division I Championships before turning professional.

After signing with Nike in 2017, Kerley won the 400 meters at the USATF Championships and earned a silver medal in the 4 × 400 meters relay at the World Championships in London. In 2018, he won the Diamond League season trophy for the 400 meters and secured a silver medal in the 4 × 400 meters relay at the World Indoor Championships. The following year, Kerley claimed the US national title over 400 meters with a personal best of 43.64 seconds, making him the tenth fastest man in history over the distance. At the 2019 World Championships in Doha, he earned an individual bronze medal in the 400 meters and a gold medal in the 4 × 400 meters relay.

During the pandemic, Kerley transitioned to short sprints to improve his basic speed. In 2021, he broke the 10-second barrier in the 100 meters and qualified for his first Olympic team. At the Tokyo Olympics, Kerley won the silver medal in the 100 meters with a time of 9.84 seconds. Later that year, he won the 100-meter Diamond League title, becoming one of only three sprinters in history—alongside Michael Norman and Wayde van Niekerk—to run sub-10 seconds in the 100 meters, sub-20 seconds in the 200 meters, and sub-44 seconds in the 400 meters.

At the 2022 US Outdoor Championships, Kerley recorded his 100-meter personal best of 9.76 seconds in the semi-finals before winning the national title. He followed this by winning his first individual world title in the 100 meters at the 2022 World Athletics Championships in 9.86 seconds. In 2023, Kerley earned another World Championship gold medal as part of the United States 4 × 100 meters relay team. He returned to the Olympic podium at the 2024 Paris Games, taking the bronze medal in the 100 meters with a time of 9.81 seconds.

Off the track, Kerley has three children with his estranged wife, Angelica Taylor, and his cousin Jeremy Kerley played in the NFL. In July 2025, Kerley converted to Islam. That same year, the United States Anti-Doping Agency issued him a two-year ban for whereabouts failures expiring in August 2027, resulting in the disqualification of his results from December 2024 to August 2025. Kerley was also involved in legal proceedings in 2024 and 2025, including a May 2025 battery charge that was subsequently dismissed after he agreed to complete a six-month pre-trial diversion program.