Ferguson-Mackenzie, Debbie

Debbie Ferguson-Mackenzie ( born Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie ; born January 16, 1976 , Nassau ) is a Bahamian athlete. Olympic champion and two-time world champion in short-distance running.

Sports Awards
Athletics
Olympic Games
Silver	Atlanta 1996	Relay 4x100 m
Gold	Sydney 2000	Relay 4x100 m
Bronze	Athens 2004	200 m
World Championships
Gold	Seville 1999	Relay 4x100 m
Gold	Edmonton 2001	200 m
Bronze	Berlin 2009	200 m
Silver	Berlin 2009	Relay 4x100 m
Pan American Games
Gold	Winnipeg 1999	200 m
Commonwealth Games
Gold	Manchester 2002	100 m
Gold	Manchester 2002	100 m
Gold	Manchester 2002	Relay 4x100 m

She graduated from high school in Nassau, then the University of Georgia in the United States, where she began her sports career. In 1993 , at the age of 17, she won a silver medal in the 200 meter race at the Games of Central America and the Caribbean in Cali . At the same competitions in 1997 she won a gold medal in the 100m race in San Juan . In 1999, she won the Pan American Games in Winnipeg in the 200m race.

Debbie Ferguson twice won the World Championships in Athletics, in 1999 in Seville in the relay 4 × 100 m and in 2001 in Edmonton in the 200-meter race. In Edmonton, during the competition, she came to the finish line second, but the winner, Marion Jones , was later disqualified for using illegal drugs and was deprived of the gold medal that was awarded to Ferguson. At the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, she won three gold medals - in the 100 and 200 meters race and in the 4 × 100 m relay.

Debbie Ferguson won the first Olympic medal at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta in the relay 4 × 100 m, although she participated only in the preliminary race. In the 100 meters race, she could not get into the finals, taking seventh place in her semifinal.

At the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Ferguson, as part of the Bahamas team (together with Savatida Fiennes , Chandra Sturrup and Pauline Davis , as well as Eldis Clark-Lewis in the preliminary run) won the country's first Olympic gold medal in athletics - relay 4 × 100 m, ahead of the national teams of Jamaica and the USA (the latter was later deprived of medals due to the disqualification of Marion Jones). She also ranked eighth in the 100 meter race and fifth in the 200 meter race. Both of these distances were won by Marion Jones, who was later disqualified and deprived of medals. The IAAF is expected to redistribute medals in the future, in which case Ferguson will be seventh at a distance of 100 meters and fourth at a distance of 200 meters.

In 2004 in Athens, Debbie Ferguson finally won the individual Olympic medal - the bronze medal in the 200-meter race, taking third place after Veronica Campbell and Allison Felix . She also finished seventh in the 100 meter race and fourth in the relay. At the 2008 games, she reached the finals at distances of 100 and 200 meters. but in both finals took only seventh place.

In 2004 and 2008, she was chosen as the standard bearer of the Bahamas at the opening of the Olympic Games.

In 2002, Debbie Ferguson was appointed ambassador of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization .

Since 2005, married to a Bahamian businessman Adrien Mackenzie.