Gwen Torrence
Encyclopedia
Gwen Torrence (born June 12, 1965) is a retired American
sprinter
and Olympic gold medal
ist. She was born in Decatur, GA. She attended Columbia High School
and the University of Georgia
.
Torrence won medals at the Summer Olympics, Outdoor
& Indoor World Championships
, Pan American Games
, Goodwill Games
, and World University Games.
In 1988, Torrence achieved a tie with Evelyn Ashford
in the 55 m race at the U.S. national indoor championships. She also had many battles both on the track and in the press with Florence Griffith Joyner.
In the 200 m at the 1995 World Championships
, she was disqualified for stepping out of her lane after finishing first. This left her idol, Merlene Ottey
, to be promoted to first place.
After retiring from athletics, Torrence became a hairdresser
. She lives with her husband Jody Smith and her children, a son named Manley and a daughter named E’mon.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
sprinter
Sprint (race)
Sprints are short running events in athletics and track and field. Races over short distances are among the oldest running competitions. The first 13 editions of the Ancient Olympic Games featured only one event—the stadion race, which was a race from one end of the stadium to the other...
and Olympic gold medal
Gold medal
A gold medal is typically the medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture...
ist. She was born in Decatur, GA. She attended Columbia High School
Columbia High School (Decatur, GA)
Columbia High School is a four-year public high school located in Decatur, Georgia that opened in 1966. The schools motto is "Students are our Business"...
and the University of Georgia
University of Georgia
The University of Georgia is a public research university located in Athens, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1785, it is the oldest and largest of the state's institutions of higher learning and is one of multiple schools to claim the title of the oldest public university in the United States...
.
Torrence won medals at the Summer Olympics, Outdoor
IAAF World Championships in Athletics
The World Championships in Athletics is an event organized by the International Association of Athletics Federations . Originally, it was organised every four years, but this changed in 1991, and it has since been organised biennially.-History:...
& Indoor World Championships
IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics
The International Association of Athletics Federations World Indoor Championships were inaugurated as the World Indoor Games in 1985 in Paris, France and were subsequently renamed in 1987 as they are known today.-History:...
, Pan American Games
Pan American Games
The Pan-American or Pan American Games are a major event in the Americas featuring summer and formerly winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Pan American Games are the second largest multi-sport event after the Summer Olympics...
, Goodwill Games
Goodwill Games
The Goodwill Games was an international sports competition, created by Ted Turner in reaction to the political troubles surrounding the Olympic Games of the 1980s...
, and World University Games.
In 1988, Torrence achieved a tie with Evelyn Ashford
Evelyn Ashford
Evelyn Ashford is a retired American athlete, the 1984 Olympic champion in the 100 m. She has run under the 11 second barrier over 30 times and was the first to run under 11 seconds in an Olympic Games.As a 19-year-old, Ashford finished 5th in the 100 m event at the 1976 Summer Olympics...
in the 55 m race at the U.S. national indoor championships. She also had many battles both on the track and in the press with Florence Griffith Joyner.
In the 200 m at the 1995 World Championships
1995 World Championships in Athletics
The 5th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held at the Ullevi Stadium, Gothenburg, Sweden between August 5 and August 13.This edition featured 1804 athletes from 191 nations....
, she was disqualified for stepping out of her lane after finishing first. This left her idol, Merlene Ottey
Merlene Ottey
Merlene Joyce Ottey , is a Jamaican-born Slovenian track athlete. Ottey began her career representing Jamaica, but since 2002, has represented Slovenia, where she now resides...
, to be promoted to first place.
After retiring from athletics, Torrence became a hairdresser
Hairdresser
Hairdresser is a term referring to anyone whose occupation is to cut or style hair in order to change or maintain a person's image. This is achieved using a combination of hair coloring, haircutting, and hair texturing techniques...
. She lives with her husband Jody Smith and her children, a son named Manley and a daughter named E’mon.
Major Achievements
- 1985
- World University Games - KobeKobe, pronounced , is the fifth-largest city in Japan and is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture on the southern side of the main island of Honshū, approximately west of Osaka...
, JapanJapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
- 4 x 100 m relayRelay raceDuring a relay race, members of a team take turns running, orienteering, swimming, cross-country skiing, biathlon, or ice skating parts of a circuit or performing a certain action. Relay races take the form of professional races and amateur games...
gold medal
- 4 x 100 m relay
- World University Games - Kobe
- 1986
- National Championships
- 200 m bronze medalBronze medalA bronze medal is a medal awarded to the third place finisher of contests such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The practice of awarding bronze third place medals began at the 1904 Olympic Games in St...
- 200 m bronze medal
- National Championships
- 1987
- Pan American Games - IndianapolisIndianapolis, IndianaIndianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
, United States- 200 m gold medal
- 4 x 100 m. relay gold medal
- World University Games - ZagrebZagrebZagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
, YugoslaviaYugoslaviaYugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
- 100 m gold medal
- 200 m gold medal
- Pan American Games - Indianapolis
- 1988
- National Championships
- 200 m gold medal
- National Indoor Championships
- 55 m gold medal (tied)
- 1988 Summer Olympics1988 Summer OlympicsThe 1988 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad, were an all international multi-sport events celebrated from September 17 to October 2, 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. They were the second summer Olympic Games to be held in Asia and the first since the 1964 Summer Olympics...
- Seoul, South Korea- 100 mAthletics at the 1988 Summer Olympics - Women's 100 metresThe Women's 100m at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea had an entrylist of 64 competitors, with eight qualifying heats , four second-round races and two semi-finals , before the final took off on Sunday September 25, 1988....
fifth place - women's 200 meters sixth place
- 100 m
- National Championships
- 1989
- World Indoor Championships1989 IAAF World Indoor ChampionshipsThe 2nd IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics were held at the Budapest Sportcsarnok in Budapest, Hungary from March 3 to March 5, 1989. There were a total number of 373 participating athletes from 62 countries.-Men:1985 | 1987 | 1989 | 1991 | 1993...
- BudapestBudapestBudapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
, HungaryHungaryHungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
- 60 m silver medalSilver medalA silver medal is a medal awarded to the second place finisher of contests such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, and contests with similar formats....
- 60 m silver medal
- National Indoor Championships
- 55 m gold medal
- World Indoor Championships
- 1991
- World Championships1991 World Championships in AthleticsThe 3rd World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held in the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo, Japan between August 23 and September 1 and athletes from 167 countries participated in the event.The event is best-remembered for the...
- TokyoTokyo, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, Japan- 100 m silver medal
- 200 m silver medal
- National Championships
- 100 m silver medal
- 200 m silver medal
- National Indoor Championships
- 60 m silver medal
- World Championships
- 1992
- 1992 Summer Olympics1992 Summer OlympicsThe 1992 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event celebrated in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, in 1992. The International Olympic Committee voted in 1986 to separate the Summer and Winter Games, which had been held in the same...
- BarcelonaBarcelonaBarcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, SpainSpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
- 200 m. gold medal
- 4 x 100 m relay gold medal
- 4 x 400 m relay silver medal
- National Indoor Championships
- 60 m silver medal
- 1992 Summer Olympics
- 1993
- World Championships1993 World Championships in AthleticsThe 4th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held in the Gottlieb Daimler Stadium, Stuttgart, Germany between August 13 and August 22 with the participation of 187 nations....
- StuttgartStuttgartStuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
, GermanyGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
- 100 m bronze medal
- 200 m silver medal
- 4 x 100 m relay silver medal
- 4 x 400 m relay gold medal
- National Championships
- 100 m silver medal
- 200 m gold medal
- World Championships
- 1994
- 1994 Goodwill Games1994 Goodwill GamesThe 1994 Goodwill Games was the third edition of the multi-sport event, created by Ted Turner, which was held in Saint Petersburg, Russia between July 23 and August 7, 1994...
- Saint PetersburgSaint PetersburgSaint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
, RussiaRussiaRussia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
- 100 m gold medal
- 200 m gold medal
- 4 x 100 m. relay gold medal
- National Indoor Championships
- 60 m gold medal
- 200 m gold medal
- 1994 Goodwill Games
- 1995
- World Championships1995 World Championships in AthleticsThe 5th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held at the Ullevi Stadium, Gothenburg, Sweden between August 5 and August 13.This edition featured 1804 athletes from 191 nations....
- GothenburgGothenburgGothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 519,399, with 549,839 in the urban area and total of 937,015 inhabitants in the metropolitan area...
, SwedenSwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
- 100 m gold medal
- 4 x 100 m. relay gold medal
- National Championships
- 100 m gold medal
- 200 m gold medal
- National Indoor Championships
- 60 m gold medal
- World Championships
- 1996
- 1996 Summer Olympics1996 Summer OlympicsThe 1996 Summer Olympics of Atlanta, officially known as the Games of the XXVI Olympiad and unofficially known as the Centennial Olympics, was an international multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1996 in Atlanta, Georgia, United States....
- AtlantaAtlanta, GeorgiaAtlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
, United States- 100 m bronze medal
- 4 x 100 m relay gold medal
- National Indoor Championships
- 60 m gold medal
- 200 m gold medal
- 1996 Summer Olympics
- 1997
- National Indoor Championships
- 60 m silver medal
- National Indoor Championships