Derrick Ralph Adkins is a former American track and field athlete who specialized in the 400-meter hurdles. He was an Olympic gold medalist in that event at the 1996 Summer Olympics and World Champion at the 1995 World Championships in Athletics. He was the fastest man in the world in the 1994 and 1996 seasons, and holds a personal record of 47.54 seconds. Adkins was a two-time national champion at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
Abderrahmane Hammad Zaheer is the Algerian Minister of Youth and Sports and a former track and field athlete who competed in the high jump. He represented his country at the Summer Olympics in 2000, taking the bronze medal and made a second appearance at the 2004 Athens Olympics. His personal best of 2.34 m is the Algerian record for the event. He retired from the sport in 2010. In 2020, he became the President of the Algerian Olympic Committee. Hammad was appointed as minister on 16 March 2023.
Patrick Ndururi Kinaga was a Kenyan middle-distance runner who specialized in the 800 metres. On 13 August 1997 he ran a personal best of 1:42.62 minutes at the Weltklasse Zürich meeting. This time ranks him in the top twenty fastest people in history over this distance.
Dawn C. Burrell 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.
Deon Minor is an American former track and field athlete who specialized in the 400 meter dash. He won two consecutive gold medals in the relay at the IAAF World Indoor Championships from 1997 to 1999, setting a world record mark of 3:02.83 minutes in the latter competition.
Ryan Wilson is an American track and field athlete who specializes in the 110 meters hurdles. He is a previous national champion after winning at the 2013 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, and the current national silver medal holder at the 2014 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. He was the 2003 NCAA champion in the event and won four hurdles titles in the Pacific-10 Conference. He was the bronze medalist at the 2008 IAAF World Athletics Final and was the runner-up at the 2010 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. His personal best time of 13.02 seconds, set in 2007 at the Reebok Grand Prix, ranks him within the top twenty fastest of all time in the event.
Michael "Mike" Franks is a former American track and field athlete who competed in the 400-meter dash.
Raphael Fernandes is a Brazilian track and field athlete who competes in the 400 metres hurdles. His personal best for the event is 49.29 seconds, set in 2007. He represented his country at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics.
Dalilah Muhammad is an American track and field athlete who specializes in the 400 meters hurdles. She is the 2016 Rio Olympics champion and 2020 Tokyo Olympics silver medalist, becoming at the latter the then-second-fastest woman of all time in the event with her personal best of 51.58 seconds. Muhammad was second at both the 2013 and 2017 World Championships to take her first gold in 2019, setting the former world record of 52.16 s. She was the second female 400 m hurdler in history, after Sally Gunnell, to have won the Olympic, World titles and broken the world record. At both the 2019 World Championships and Tokyo Games, she also took gold as part of women's 4 × 400 metres relay team.
The 1998 IAAF Golden League was the first edition of the annual international track and field meeting series, held from 9 July to 5 September. It was contested at six European meetings: the Bislett Games, Golden Gala, Herculis, Weltklasse Zürich, Memorial Van Damme and the Internationales Stadionfest (ISTAF). The series tied in with the 1998 IAAF Grand Prix Final, with the jackpot of US$1,000,000 being decided at that competition. The million-dollar prize represented the single largest prize pot ever in athletics at that point.
Anna Mikhaylovna Knoroz is a retired Russian hurdler who specialised in the 400 metres hurdles. She won a bronze medal in the 400 m hurdles at the 1994 European Championships, and a gold medal in the 4 × 400 metres relay at the 1991 World Championships. She also competed at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
Matthew Simson is a male British former shot putter. He was the gold medallist in the event at the 1994 Commonwealth Games, which he won with his career best throw of 19.49 m.
Courtney Hawkins is an American former track and field athlete who competed in the sprint hurdles. He was a medallist at the Pan American Games and the IAAF World Indoor Championships in 1995. He holds personal bests of 13.17 seconds for the 110-meter hurdles and 7.41 seconds for the 60-meter hurdles. He won one national title in his career, taking the 60 m event at the USA Indoor Track and Field Championships in 1996.
Shamier Little is an American track and field sprinter specializing in the 400 metres hurdles. As a 20-year-old college sophomore at Texas A&M University, Little was the 2015 US champion. She then went on to win the silver medal in her signature event at the 2015 and 2023 World Championships. In July 2021, she became the fifth fastest woman of all time at the event.
Angie Vaughn is an American former track and field athlete who specialized in hurdles. She was the 100-meter hurdles winner at the 1998 Goodwill Games and a silver medalist in the event at the 1998 IAAF World Cup. Collegiately, she ran for the Texas Longhorns and was a three-time champion at NCAA-level, winning two hurdles title and one in the relay.
Laurence Elloy-Machabey is a French track and field athlete who competed in the sprint hurdles. She is a former French national record holder with her best of 12.69 seconds for the 100 metres hurdles. She twice represented France at both the Summer Olympics and the World Championships in Athletics and was a three-time participant at the European Athletics Championships.
The 1997 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships was organised by USA Track & Field and held from June 20 to 24 at the IU Michael A. Carroll Track & Soccer Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana. The four-day competition served as the national championships in track and field for the United States and also the trials for the 1997 World Championships in Athletics in Athens, Greece.
Suziann Reid is an American-Jamaican former track and field sprinter who specialized in the 400-meter dash. She set a personal record of 50.74 seconds for the distance in 1999. She was a silver medalist with the American women's 4 × 400-meter relay team at the 1999 World Championships in Athletics. She was part of the World Championship team twice more, in 2001 and 2005, and helped the United States to silver at the 2002 IAAF World Cup and gold at the 2001 Goodwill Games.
Kendall Ellis is an American sprinter. Ellis won gold in the 4x400 m relay and bronze in the Mixed 4x400 metres at the Tokyo Olympics. She competed in the 400 meters at the 2017 and 2019 World Championships, winning gold medals as a part of prelim 4×400 m relays. As a junior, Ellis took gold in the 4×400 m relay and bronze in the 400 meters at the 2015 Pan American Junior Championships.
Chris Nelloms is an American male former track and field sprinter who specialized in the 200- and 400-meter dash. In 1992, Nelloms was shot by an unknown assailant during athletic practice in a park. He made a full recovery and returned to competitive running. In 1999, Nelloms was charged and convicted on eight counts of sexual offenses against a minor. He was sentenced to four life terms in prison.
United States 
