Derrick R. Adkins (born July 2, 1970) is a former American athlete, winner of 400 m hurdles at the 1996 Summer Olympics.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Derrick Adkins rose into the international athletics scene in 1991, when he finished third at the US National Championships and qualified to the 1991 World Championships, where he finished in the sixth place.

Adkins won the World Student Games in 1991 and 1993 and finished seventh at the 1993 World Championships. Adkins made a rapid improvement in 1994, when he won his first US National Championships. He repeated this win in the next year and at the 1995 World Championships he was already a main favourite to the gold medal. At Gothenburg, Adkins won his heat easily and in the final he won the gold narrowly ahead of his career long rival Samuel Matete from Zambia.

Prior to the Atlanta Olympics, Matete beat Adkins in four races out of five, but at the Olympic Games itself Adkins turned the tables on Matete, winning in a time of 47.54 and beating Matete to a second place by 0.24 seconds.

In 1997, Atkins was second at the US National Championships, but missed the final for the first time at a World Championships by finishing only fifth at the semi-final. Adkins continued to compete in subsequent years, but it was obvious that his glory days were over and he retired from athletics in 2000.