Evelyn Ashford biography
Evelyn Ashford, (born April 15, 1957, Shreveport, Louisiana, U.S.), famend American sprinter who excelled within the 100 metres. She was a four-time Olympian and received 4 gold medals.
At her highschool in California, Ashford was invited to affix the all-male track-and-field crew when she outdistanced numerous its members in a collection of races; she cocaptained the crew her senior yr. She obtained one of many first athletic scholarships awarded to a lady by the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), and in her years there (1975–78) she received 4 nationwide collegiate championships and competed within the 1976 Olympics in Montreal.
After she give up faculty in 1978 to coach for the Olympics full-time, Ashford received two 1979 World Cup titles, beating German world-record holders Marlies Gohr and Marita Koch within the 100- and 200-metre sprints, respectively. She was voted the 1979 Woman Athlete of the Year. Although she was unable to take part within the 1980 Olympics in Moscow due to the U.S. boycott, she went on to win one other two world championships in 1981, when she was once more named Woman Athlete of the Year. In the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, Ashford captured the gold medal within the 100-metre sprint, regardless of residual difficulties from a hamstring damage she suffered in the course of the 1983 world championships. She was additionally a member of the gold-medal-winning 4 × 100-metre relay crew. In 1984 Ashford set a world document within the 100 metres (10.76 seconds).
After taking day without work to offer start to a daughter, Ashford started competing once more within the 100 metres in 1986, ending third within the U.S. championships and first within the Goodwill Games in Moscow. In the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, she received a silver medal within the 100 metres and a gold medal within the 4 × 100-metre relay. In the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Ashford, on the age of 35, competed once more with the 4 × 100-metre relay crew, turning into the oldest American lady to win an Olympic gold medal in observe and subject.