Dawn Burrell

Dawn C. Burrell (born November 1, 1973) is an American chef and retired long jumper. She won the gold medal at the 2001 IAAF World Indoor Championships and represented the United States at the 2000 Summer Olympics. In her culinary career, she was a semifinalist in 2020 for a James Beard Foundation Award. Burrell is the younger sister of former 100 m world record holder Leroy Burrell.

Athletic career

Burrell attended Penn Wood High School and enjoyed her first athletic successes in 1991 when she won four Pennsylvania state titles in the jumps and hurdles and won a bronze medal at the United States Junior Championships. Burrell gradually began to focus more on the long jump and it was in this event that she made her first senior international appearance, taking fifth place in the final at the 1995 Pan American Games. She represented the University of Houston at the NCAA Track and Field Championships from 1993 to 1995 and was graduated the following year. That year she also set an outdoor best of 6.90 m and took the bronze at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. She came fourth at the 1998 Goodwill Games (two centimeters off third-placed Niki Xanthou) and competed at the 1998 IAAF Grand Prix Final, where she finished eighth. She won her first and only outdoor American title with a personal record of 6.96 m in Eugene, Oregon. She reached the long jump final at the 1999 World Championships in Athletics alongside fellow Americans Marion Jones and Shana Williams. Burrell finished sixth at what would be her first and only appearance on the outdoor world stage. Representing the United States at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, she reached the event final as the third best qualifier behind Heike Drechsler and Marion Jones, having cleared 6.77 m; however, Burrell could not match her earlier form and ended the competition final with a sole legal jump of 6.38 m, finishing in tenth place. She closed her season with a silver medal in the long jump at the 2000 IAAF Grand Prix Final, where she had a wind-assisted jump of 6.99 m behind Drechsler. She also ran in the 100 m hurdles at the competition and was seventh in the final. She began preparing for the outdoor season, but suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury to her knee in April which ruled her out for the entire season. The injury effectively ended her career as she competed sparingly thereafter but never again won a national title. She left the role following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic; at the time, she was caring for her mother who had recently had a stroke and the COVID exposure involved in working in a restaurant would have endangered her. She finished in the top three, making it to the season finale. Burrell said of her success on the show, “My platform is extremely important […] I’m happy to reveal on national TV that Black women can cook at a high level. Let’s normalize it.”