Hollis Conway
Hollis Conway is an American track and field high jumper and a two-time Olympic medalist. He is currently employed by Lafayette Consolidated Government as the PARC Director in Lafayette Mayor-President Josh Guillory's administration. Conway previously served as the assistant director of Diversity, Leadership, & Education for the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns football team under head coach Billy Napier. Conway was the top-ranked high jumper in the U.S. seven straight years from 1988 to 1994 and in the world for two of those years. Conway, John Thomas and Dwight Stones are the only Americans to win two Olympic medals in the high jump.
Career
Born in Chicago, Illinois and a native of Shreveport, Louisiana, Conway went 7-8¾ in the event at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea, setting a U.S. collegiate record and earning a silver medal. He won a bronze medal in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain after going 7-8½ in winning the U.S. Olympic Team Trials that year.In 1989, Conway broke the American record twice in the high jump, winning the NCAA Men's Outdoor Track and Field Championship at 7-9¾ and the U.S. Olympic Festival at 7–10. He earned his first of two world No. 1 rankings in 1990 when he swept both the U.S. indoor and outdoor titles and won the Goodwill Games. He had ten jumps of 7-8 or better that year.
A six-time NCAA All-American and three-time NCAA champion at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He established a new NCAA indoor record of at the 1989 NCAA Indoor Championships: it remains as one of the longest-standing NCAA, and Championship Meet, records through 2011. He won the winner at the 1988 NCAA Men's Outdoor Track and Field Championship and at the 1989 he won with an American outdoor record height. Conway was ranked No. 1 in the world in 1991 by winning the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics in Seville, Spain, with an American indoor record of 7-10½.
He defended his U.S. outdoor championship and won the 1991 World University Games, while finishing third in the 1991 Pan American Games and World Outdoor Championships. He also won the British AAA Championships title at the 1991 AAA Championships.the He was ranked third in the world in 1992 and 1993. He was a Goodwill Games runner-up in 1994.
In all, Conway won ten USA championship high jump titles before his retirement at the 2000 Drake Relays. He is a member of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame and was inducted into the Drake Relays Hall of Fame in 1999. Conway wrote the foreword of the Complete Book of Jumps.
His IAAF biography also credits Conway with a personal best in the triple jump of, which is an international-class distance.
Conway was inducted into the USTFCCCA Collegiate Athlete Hall of Fame in 2024.