Aries Merritt: From jumping a fence to an Olympic champion

One-day more at the athletics stadium, perhaps the most visited place during the Olympics Games London 2012. People around holding different flags, paint on their faces and smiles everywhere. That is the spirit of the Olympics!
One of the most expected events was the 110 meters hurdles. After the first round people got even more exited after seeing US athlete Aries Merritt, running as what seems so easy for him. He ran the distance in 12.94s. Then, the wait for the final. “He is going to break the record”, someone said. In between, the spectators got to see the long jumps, women’s 1500 meters, 110 and 400 meters hurdles among other competitions. And just before the race started, the wave was seen all around the tribunes, people could not hide their emotion, and actually, I thought that was only a Colombian thing.
Finally, the moment was here, “he is not British, but he is really good” said another spectator who was sitting behind me. Suddenly everyone got quiet, total silence at that massive stadium, and the shot to start the race was hear in the whole stadium and with it people started clapping and cheering. Merritt stop the chronometer at 12.92 followed by Jason Richardson who did the distance in 13.04 and Parchment 13.12.
Aries Merritt, the gold medal was born on 24th July 1985 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. In his list of success, he can count a gold medal at the Junior World Championships 2004 in Grossetto, 110 meters hurdles, in 2006 during his college time he was unbeatable and became the second fastest collegiate with a 13.21. Gold medal in the 2012 World Indoor Championships, Istanbul 60 meters hurdles.
His hurdle career started in a funny way, after his coach saw him jumping a fence, with no experience or technique. The coach saw in Aries potential and here he is, the best and a golden medallist in London 2012. For him, winning the trial was absolutely important as it gave him the ticket to be part in an Olympics Games for the first time and London 2012 is another chapter where is writing his own story. Aries enjoys and loves what he does, he is very happy, he said “hurdling is just fun.”