Evelyn Ashford
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| Born |
April 15, 1957 (age 59) Shreveport, Louisiana, U.S. |
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| Height | 165 cm (5 ft 5 in) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 53 kg (117 lb) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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Evelyn Ashford (born April 15, 1957 in Shreveport, Louisiana) is an American retired track and field athlete, the 1984 Olympic champion in the 100-meter dash. She ran under the 11-second barrier over 30 times and was the first to run under 11 seconds in an Olympic Games.
As a 18-year-old, Ashford finished 5th in the 100 m event at the 1976 Summer Olympics. After beating the World Record holders in the 100 m and 200 m in 1979 at the World Cup of Track and Field in Montreal, Ashford was one of the potential medalists for the 1980 Summer Olympics, but these Games were boycotted by the United States. Evelyn also tore a quad muscle in May, and was out for the rest of the season.
Ashford was ranked #1 in the world by Track & Field News over 100 metres in 1979 and 1981, and over 200 metres in 1981. She also was named Track and Field News "Athlete of the Year" twice, in 1981 and 1984
She would again win the sprint double, at the World Cup of Track and Field in Rome, in 1981.
On July 3, 1983, she set her first World Record (be it at altitude) for the 100 metres, running 10.79 seconds at the National Sports Festival in Colorado Springs, Colorado and was one of the favourites to win the 100 metre title at the inaugural World Championships in Helsinki. In the final, however, she pulled a hamstring muscle and fell. The other main favourite, Marlies Göhr of East Germany (who had already beaten Ashford earlier that year) went on to win.
At the 1984 Summer Olympics, Ashford had a chance to win a gold medal. However, she had to withdraw from the 200 m heats with a minor injury. She competed in the 100 m, winning the event in a new Olympic Record of 10.77 secs. As the anchor runner for 4 X 100 m relay team, she won a second gold medal. In the absence of World Champions and world record holders East Germany, the US team clocked one of the fastest times in history and won by the biggest margin ever at an Olympics, 1.12 seconds.
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