Pérec won the 1991 World Championships 400 metres title in Tokyo and repeated the feat at the 1995 World Championships in Gothenburg. She was the 400 metres champion at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. Four years later, she entered the 200 metres and 400 metres events at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and won both, thus achieving the second-ever Olympic 200 metres/400 metres gold medal double (the first was achieved by Valerie Brisco-Hooks in Los Angeles in 1984). In 1996, Pérec won the 400 metres title in an Olympic record time of 48.25 seconds, which also ranked her as the third fastest woman of all time. It took 23 years until 2019 before Salwa Eid Naser, surpassed her mark to push Pérec to number 4 of all time.