Joanna Hayes

Who is Joanna Hayes?

Joanna Dove Hayes is an American hurdler, who won the gold medal in the 100 metres hurdles at the 2004 Summer Olympics.

She originally specialized in the 400 metres hurdles. She won the silver medal at the 1999 Summer Universiade in a career best time of 54.57 seconds, and the gold medal at the 2003 Pan American Games. She competed at the 1999 World Championships and 2003 World Championships without reaching the final.

From 2004 she competed internationally in the 100 metres hurdles. She finished fourth at the 2004 World Indoor Championships, and in August she won the Olympic gold medal in a career best time of 12.37 seconds. She also won the 2004 World Athletics Final toward the end of the season.

At the 2005 World Championships, she was among the favorites, having run 12.47 seconds in June. She did reach the final race, only to fail to finish after stumbling in the hurdles. She finished third at the 2005 World Athletics Final. After that, mediocre seasons followed with 12.76, 13.28 and 12.63 seconds as her season's best times. She failed to qualify for the 2008 Olympics due to injury.

While in high school at John W. North High School in Riverside, California she won both the 100 meter hurdles and 300 meter hurdles at the CIF California State Meet in 1995 and was named the national Girl's "High School Athlete of the Year" by Track and Field News.