Steven Solomon

Steven Solomon (born 16 May 1993) is an Australian Olympic sprinter. He is a six-time defending Australian 400 metres champion.

In 2011, he broke the 30-year-old national junior record in the 400m. At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London at the age of 19, Solomon competed in the finals of the men's 400m race, placing eighth with a time of 45.14 after running a time of 44.97 in the semifinals. He was the first Australian man in 24 years to reach the 400m Olympic final, and became the first Australian since Cathy Freeman to make the final of the 400m at the Olympic Games for Australia. At the 2012 IAAF World Junior Championships he won a bronze medal.

At the 2013 Maccabiah Games, Solomon won a silver medal in the 400m race. At Stanford in 2013, he established a new freshman record in the 400m. In 2014, he set a new Stanford record in the outdoor 400m with a time of 45.36, and ran a 500m in 1:01.44 (the third-fastest time in the world to that point).

Early life Solomon was born in the Sydney suburb of Vaucluse, New South Wales, Australia, and is Jewish. His local rabbi is Levi Wolff, a Chabadnik who runs Sydney Australia's largest Modern Orthodox Judaism congregation, Central Synagogue. His father, Michael, is a South African-born orthopedic surgeon, and his mother is Lucille Solomon. He has a younger sister, Bianca. He is attending Duke University in 2017–18 to study for a Masters in Management Studies (MMS) at the Fuqua School of Business.

Career Solomon first began formal track training in 2009, and that year he won the Under-17 All-Schools Championship in the 400m. Solomon competed for Australia in the Maccabiah Games, the "Jewish Olympics", as captain of the junior soccer team at the 2009 Maccabiah Games. He was named the 2009 Maccabi New South Wales Junior Sportsman of the Year. He won the 2011 Australia National Championship in the 400m at 17 years of age. He was the first Australian man in 24 years to reach the 400m final at the Olympics.

Solomon competed for Australia again as captain of the junior soccer team at the 2013 Maccabiah Games. At Stanford in 2013, he established a new freshman record in the 400 with a 46.12 (No. 3 on the school's all-time list), and was named a second-team All-American.

In 2014, he set a new Stanford record in the outdoor 400m while winning the Australian national championship, running 45.36, and also finished second at the Pac-12 Championships in a time of 45.79.

Solomon just missed the qualifying time to represent Australia at the 2016 Olympic Games. The cut-off was 45.40, and he missed it by one-10th of a second.

In April 2017, he won a record-tying fifth Australian National Championship in the 400m, in a time of 46.66 in wet conditions. He finished the season as first team All-ACC, and a second team All-American. After the Olympics were postponed, he maintained competitive training with his coach Penny Gillies, a former 100m Olympic hurdler.

Solomon competed in the 400m at the 2020 Summer Olympics, held in early August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, setting a PB of 44.94 in his heat in making the semi-finals wherein he finished fourth in his heat in 45.15 (13th overall in the semifinal times). He also competed in the 400m at the 2022 World Athletics Championships held in July at the Hayward Field in Eugene, USA but didn't advance from the heats.

Achievements