ESPN News Services2 minute read
Former world 100 meters champion and three-time Olympic medalist Tori Bowie has died at the age of 32, her management company announced on Wednesday.
World Athletics, the sport’s governing body, also announced on Wednesday that Olympic medalist Calvin Davis has died aged 51.
Bowie put on an electric performance at the Rio 2016 Olympics, winning silver in the 100m and bronze in the 200m and running the anchor leg of a 4x100m team with Tianna Bartoletta, Allyson Felix and English Gardner to win gold.
“We are devastated to share the very sad news that Tori Bowie has passed away,” Icon Management said in a statement on Twitter. “We have lost a client, dear friend, daughter and sister. Tori was a champion…a beacon that shone so bright! We are truly heartbroken and our prayers are with family and friends.”
After finishing second in the 100 meters in Rio, Bowie won the world championship race in London a year later, finishing less than a hundredth of a second ahead of Ivory Coast’s Marie-Josée Ta Lou.
“The USATF is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Tori Bowie, three-time Olympic medalist and two-time world champion,” USA Track and Field said. tweeted. “Her impact on the sport is immeasurable and she will be greatly missed.”
Growing up in Sandhill, Mississippi, Bowie was brought to track as a teenager and quickly rose through the ranks as a sprinter and long jumper. She attended Southern Miss, where she swept the NCAA Long Jump Championships in indoor and outdoor events in 2011.
Bowie was taken in by her grandmother as a baby after being left in foster care. She considered herself a basketball player and only reluctantly showed up for the track, but Bowie was a quick learner, becoming a state champion in the 100, 200 and long jump before going to the university.
Her first major international medal was a bronze medal in the 100 meters at the world championships in 2015. After winning, she said: “All my life, my grandmother told me that I could do anything I wanted.
Davis won bronze in the 400 meter hurdles at the Atlanta Games in 1996 and was part of the US team that won gold in the 4×400 meter relay at the 1995 World Indoor Championships in Barcelona.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.