Aries Merritt

The Chicago-born hurdler had what I'd call a perfect storm of a year in 2012: Olympic gold in London and then, just weeks later, a world record of 12.80 seconds in the 110m hurdles that still stands as of 2024. That combination alone cements his legacy. But what really gets me is the 2016 story — the guy competed in the Rio Olympics on one functioning kidney, having just donated the other to his sister, and still managed to bronze. That's not athletic achievement, that's something else entirely. I think Merritt is criminally underappreciated outside of track circles, and frankly deserves to be talked about in the same breath as the all-time greats of the hurdles.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Name (English)

Aries Merritt

Name (Japanese)

アリエス・メリット

Reading

ありえす・めりっと

Born

July 24, 1985 (age 41)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Leo / Ox

Origin

Chicago, Illinois, United States

Height

185 cm

Occupation

hurdler / athletics competitor

High school

Joseph Wheeler High School

University

University of Tennessee

• Official sitehttp://ariesmerrittonline.com/
• Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/amhurdlestar/
• Xhttps://x.com/amhurdlestar
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aries%20Merritt
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%A2%E3%83%AA%E3%82%A8%E3%82%B9%E3%83%BB%E3%83%A1%E3%83%AA%E3%83%83%E3%83%88
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1683

Tags

• Illinois
• hurdler
• athletics competitor

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.