Sandra Farmer-Patrick

Sandra Marie Farmer-Patrick (née Miller, born 18 August 1962) is a Jamaican-born American former athlete who competed mainly in the 400 metres hurdles. She won silver medals in that event at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, and at the 1993 World Championships in Stuttgart. She also won the 400 metres hurdles at the World Cup in 1989 and 1992. Her best time for the event of 52.79 seconds, is the former U.S. record. That performance once ranked her second on the world all-time list, and as of 2024, ranks her 15th on the world all-time list.

Early life Farmer-Patrick was born Sandra Miller in Kingston, Jamaica and lived there until she was eleven years old bouncing between an aunt and her grandmother. She moved to Brooklyn, New York adopted by her great-aunt Vita Farmer and took on the Farmer last name. Vita brought Sandra up in a deeply Pentecostal environment, attending church six times a week, three times on Sunday. To get out of the house, she joined the Flashettes Track Club.

Track and field career At first, Farmer was forced to run in a dress for religious reasons. She continued to run in short skirts and tutus as part of her more flamboyant professional career, whenever she had the choice of uniform. Her stylish, flashy attire was perhaps as notorious as FloJo at the time.

Farmer set an American Junior record of 58.90 in the 400 hurdles at age 14, which ranked her number five among all Americans. Scholarship money she won in the Colgate Games kept her in St Angela Hall Academy. She lowered her time to 58.31 while in high school. She briefly attended the University of Arizona, but ended up running for California State University, Los Angeles (at the same time as the Howard sisters). In addition to some very fast relays with the sisters, she still holds the school record in the 400 hurdles. She was elected into the CSULA Athletic Hall of Fame in 2007.

Starting in 1982, she represented Jamaica in international competition, until 1987, removing her name from the American rankings list. At the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, she finished eighth in the 400 m hurdles final in a sub-par race, the first time the event was held in the Olympics.

Farmer was ranked in the world's top ten for the 400 m hurdles for the first time in 1987. In July of that year, she ran 54.59 to win a silver medal at the Pan American Games in Indianapolis behind Judi Brown-King. Then in September at the World Championships in Rome, she finished fourth in the final in 54.38, only 0.07 from a medal.

After marrying David Patrick and hyphenating her name, Farmer-Patrick began competing for the US in 1988 and attempted to qualify for the US Olympic team for Seoul, but was disqualified in her semi-final at the US Olympic trials for inadvertently running out of her lane. Having dual citizenship, she had the option to run for Jamaica, but by switching to the US, some Jamaican newspapers had branded her as a traitor. Her appeal to the Jamaican Federation went unanswered.

She competed for the United States in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, where she ran 53.69 to win the silver medal behind her greatest rival, Great Britain's Sally Gunnell. A month after the Olympics, she successfully defended her World Cup title in Havana, ahead of Gowry Retchakan and Margarita Ponomaryova. The following year at the 1993 World Championships held in Stuttgart, Germany, she broke the existing world record running 52.79. But Gunnell also broke the record finishing .05 faster at 52.74, passing after the last hurdle and pushing the diving Farmer-Patrick to another silver medal.

She was ranked number 1 in the US from 1988 to 1993.

In 2019, she was inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame.

Personal life Farmer-Patrick married fellow 400 m hurdler David Patrick in January 1988 and is currently living in Austin, Texas with their two children David and Sierra. Sierra played collegiate volleyball and ran track at the University of Texas.

Achievements

Central American and Caribbean Games Havana, Cuba

58.15sec Commonwealth Games Brisbane, Australia 9th 59.07 1984 Olympic Games Los Angeles, United States 8th 57.15 1986 Goodwill Games Moscow, Soviet Union 7th 56.28

Pan American Games Indianapolis, United States

54.59 World Championships Rome, Italy 4th 54.38 Grand Prix Final Brussels, Belgium

55.30

Grand Prix Final Fontvieille, Monaco

54.60 World Cup Barcelona, Spain

53.84 1990 Goodwill Games Seattle, United States

55.16

World Championships Tokyo, Japan 4th 53.95 Grand Prix Final Barcelona, Spain

53.74

Olympic Games Barcelona, Spain

53.69 World Cup Havana, Cuba

55.38

World Championships Stuttgart, Germany

52.79 Grand Prix Final London, England

53.69 1996 Olympic Games Atlanta, United States