Tori Bowie: A Gold Medal Sprinter Who Won Three Olympic Medals and the World Championship
Key Highlights :
Tori Bowie was a sprinter who made history in 2016 when she won three medals at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, including a gold medal in the 4x100 relay. The following year, she won the world championship in the 100-meter dash with a stunning comeback. Sadly, Bowie passed away at the age of 32.
Born in Sand Hill, Mississippi, Bowie graduated from Pisgah High School in Brandon in 2008. She was a multi-sport athlete, playing basketball and running track while also competing in long jump. In 2011, Bowie became the national champion in the long jump while attending the University of Southern Mississippi, where she graduated in 2012 with a degree in interdisciplinary studies.
At the 2016 Olympics, Bowie won gold in the 4x100 relay with teammates Tianna Bartoletta, Allyson Felix and English Gardner. The U.S. relay team advanced to the Olympics final only after winning an appeal of a ruling that would have disqualified them for dropping a baton in a qualifying race. The American runners were allowed a rerun after Olympic officials decided that a Brazilian runner had interfered with Felix as she was about to hand off the baton to Gardner. To make it to the finals, the U.S. team had to run alone on the track in a time trial and do so faster than the slowest qualifier for the finals. They did, recording the fastest time that day, and went on to win the gold with Bowie as anchor.
Bowie also won the silver medal in the 100-meter dash and bronze in the 200-meter at the 2016 Olympics. Her sister, Tamarra Bowie, told Sports Illustrated magazine in 2018, “Tori has a second gear that nobody else has.”
The following year, Bowie won the world championship in the 100-meter dash in London with a dramatic comeback. Marie-Josee Ta Lou of Ivory Coast had sprung into the lead and seemed well ahead of the rest of the pack. But Bowie accelerated, passing Ta Lou before tumbling to the ground. “I think it was more of a lean, and, you know, I just lost control of it,” Bowie told an interviewer from the BBC after her win, adding that the fall came from “just wanting to win so bad.” She won one more gold at that world championship, in the 4x100 relay.
In 2019, Bowie placed fourth in the long jump at the World Championships in Doha, Qatar. She also worked as a model. Her death was confirmed in a statement on Wednesday by U.S.A. Track and Field, which provided no other details. The Orange County, Fla., sheriff’s office said in a statement that its personnel went to a house in Winter Garden, Fla., on Tuesday to check on a woman in her 30s who had not been seen or heard from in several days. They entered the home and found the body of a woman, whom they tentatively identified as Frentorish “Tori” Bowie. The statement said “there were no signs of foul play.”
Bowie's legacy will live on in the sport of track and field. She was an inspiration to many and her achievements will not be forgotten. She is survived by her sister.
