Ivory Williams

Ivory Williams (born May 2, 1985) is an American sprint athlete who specializes in the 100 meters.

Born in Jefferson County, Texas, Williams competed at the 2002 United States Junior Championships, taking bronze in the 200 meters and finishing in fourth place in the 100 m. His first major junior tournament was the 2004 World Junior Championships in Athletics. He produced a season's best of 10.29 seconds to win the 100 m event, beating favourite Abidemi Omole. He followed this up with another gold medal in the 4×100 meters relay, setting a junior world record of 38.66 seconds with teammates Omole, Trell Kimmons, and LaShawn Merritt.

In the 2008 season he won the 100 m at the Prefontaine Classic. Shortly after, Williams broke the 10-second barrier for the first time, running a new 100 m personal best of 9.94 seconds in the quarter-finals of the 2008 US Olympic Trials. The time made him the fifth fastest American in the 100 m that year, and ninth in the world rankings. However, he failed to progress beyond the semi-finals: Williams was beaten into fifth place, and out of qualification, by Xavier Carter by just a thousandth of a second.