Women in sports - Running Short-distance
by Sanju[ Edit ] 2010-02-21 22:54:39
Women in sports - Running Short-distance
* In 1932 Babe Didrikson Zaharias became the only athlete, man or woman, to win an Olympic medal in a running event (80-m hurdles), a throwing event (javelin) and a field event (high jump).
* Chi Cheng of Taiwan was the first woman to run 100 yards in 10 seconds flat. She accomplished this on June 13, 1970, in Portland, Oregon.
* Wilma Rudolph lost the use of her left leg when she was four. She wore a brace until she was eight years old and then a special shoe until she was eleven. Five years later she earned a place on the U.S. Olympic relay team that won her a bronze medal in 1956. She was the first woman ever to win three track and field gold medals at one Olympic Games. She earned the gold medals for the 100-, 200-, and 400-meter races in 1960.
* Florence Griffith Joyner, nicknamed “Flo-Jo,” became the fastest woman in the world when at the 1988 Olympics she ran the 200 meter in 21:34.
* Jackie Joyner-Kersee was given the title of “World's Greatest Athlete” by Track & Field News and owns three gold medals, as well as the world heptathlon record.
* Evelyn Ashford has more olympic track and field gold medals than any other American woman. She has four golds to go along with her one silver.
* American superstar Marion Jones was one of the best sprinters and one of the best long jumpers in the world. Jones, a former basketball star at the University of North Carolina, attempted to win five gold medals at the 2000 Olympic games in Sydney. She came away with three golds (in the 100-, 200-, and 4x400-meter relay) and two bronzes (in the long jump and 4x100-meter relay).
In 2008, former track star Marion Jones was sentenced to 6 months in prison for lying to investigators who were probing her possible use of performance-enhancing drugs. Jones pleaded guilty to drug use and returned the five Olympic medals she won in 2000. The International Olympic Committee has erased all of the records Jones set since 2000, the year she started using steroids.
