- Wyomia Tyus
Wyomia Tyus (born
August 29 ,1945 inGriffin, Georgia ) is an American athlete, and the first woman to retain the Olympic title in the 100 m.Tyus, from
Tennessee State University , participated in the1964 Summer Olympics at age 19. In the heats of the event, she equalledWilma Rudolph 's World Record, propelling her to a favourite for the final, where her main rival would be fellow AmericanEdith McGuire . Tyus won the final, beating McGuire by two tenths. At the same Olympics, she also won a silver medal with the 4 x 100 m relay team, finishing only behindPoland .The following years, Tyus won numerous national championships in the sprint events, and a gold medal in the 200 m at the
Pan-American Games . In1968 , she returned to the Olympics to defend her title in the 100 m. In the final, she set a new World Record of 11.0 to become the first woman to retain the Olympic 100 m title. Tyus also qualified for the 200 m final, in which she finished sixth. Running the final leg for the relay team, Tyus helped setting a new World Record, winning her third gold medal.Tyus retired from amateur sports after the 1968 Olympics.
In 1973 she was invited to compete in the 60-yard dash in the new Professional International Track Association competitions. Her first year back she won eight of eighteen events, but the following year she won every event she entered, a total of twenty-two races. Tyus went on to coach at
Beverly Hills High School and was a founding member of theWomen's Sports Foundation .During the
Richard Dawson era of "Family Feud ", Tyus appeared with her family. They won the $5,000 prize.In 1980, Tyus was inducted into the National Track & Field Hall of Fame. [http://www.usatf.org/halloffame/TF/showBio.asp?HOFIDs=175 Retrieved 2008-08-22.] In 1985, she was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame.pronunciation: why-o-ma
External links
* [http://www.gshf.org Georgia Sports Hall of Fame]
* [http://www.spaldingcounty.com/photos/wyomiatyusolympicpk.htm Wyomia Tyus Olympic Park]
* [http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/siforwomen/top_100/43/ Womens Sports Illustrated]
* [http://web1.ncaa.org/cent/94_Tyus.jsp NCAA Top 100]
* [http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-836&hl=y New Georgia Encyclopedia]References
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