BATON ROUGE -- LSU senior Richard Thompson has proven to be the most dominant sprinter in collegiate track and field in 2008, and the Tiger great has been honored by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association with the release of its national awards Tuesday.
Thompson was named this year’s NCAA Men’s Track Athlete of the Year for his performance in leading the Tigers to their third straight national runner-up finish at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Des Moines, Iowa, this past weekend.
He joins a select group of Tigers to earn national acclaim for their transcendent performances at the collegiate level as former LSU stars Walter Davis in 2002 and Xavier Carter in 2006 are the only other athletes to receive such an honor during their illustrious careers.
Thompson will go down as arguably the greatest sprinter to ever wear the LSU uniform with his performance as a senior in 2008.
The native of Cascade, Trinidad, became the first Tiger in history to sweep NCAA sprint titles in the 60-meter and 100-meter dashes at the NCAA Championships, and he is the first collegiate athlete to accomplish the remarkable feat in the same season since Tennessee star Justin Gatlin in 2002. He joins Carter as the only Tigers to be crowned NCAA champion in the 100 meters.
In addition, Thompson ran the second leg on LSU’s NCAA champion 4x100-meter relay that ran the sixth-fastest time in collegiate history at 38.42 seconds this past weekend. He added a fourth All-America honor on the season by finishing runner-up in the 200 at the NCAA Outdoor meet.
No one has run faster than Thompson in the history of the LSU track and field program as he will leave Baton Rouge as the school-record holder in both short sprints.
He won the NCAA Indoor title in the 60-meter dash with a world-leading and meet record time of 6.51, which is a dramatic improvement from his school record of 6.64 entering the season. He carried that momentum outdoors by setting a new school record in the 100-meter dash at the SEC Outdoor Championships with a winning time of 9.93 in the finals of the event.
Thompson just missed breaking the collegiate record in the 100 meters by a mere one one-hundredth of a second as he trails only UCLA’s Ato Boldon in the history of collegiate track and field as the Bruin great and fellow Trinidadian set the mark at 9.92 at the NCAA Championships in 1996. Thompson is also the fifth-ranked performer in collegiate history at 60 meters.
Thompson not only dominated NCAA competition as a senior, but he also proved to be the class of the SEC in 2008 by sweeping SEC Men’s Indoor and Outdoor Runner of the Year honors.
After being crowned the SEC champion in the 60-meter dash during the indoor season, he went on to sweep 100-meter and 200-meter titles at the SEC Outdoor Championships in May. He is the first Tiger to sweep sprint titles at the SEC Outdoor meet since Byron Logan in 1998.
In all, Thompson racked up an impressive three NCAA titles and four SEC titles to go along with four All-America selections and four All-SEC honors during his senior season.
He now turns his attention to a professional career that kicks off with the Olympic Trials in his native Trinidad and Tobago on Friday. The three-day Sagicor National Open Track and Field Championships will be held at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Port of Spain as Thompson looks to qualify in the 100 meters for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China.