Who Is Evelyn Ashford?

Evelyn Ashford is a five-time Olympian in multiple track and field events. She was born on April 15, 1957 in Louisiana. Today, she is 57, going on 58. For her education, Ms. Ashford had attended Roseville High School and UCLA. Evelyn Ashford was the first woman to run the 100 meters in 11 seconds and the oldest woman in history to compete in the Olympics.

Surprisingly, there is not much said about Ms.Ashford’s childhood. Her father, Samuel Ashford, was in the Air Force. Her family had to move a lot. Because of that she was not able to join any teams until high school. One day , while she was in High school , running in her physical education class, the football coach pulled her aside and asked her to race his fastest runner. he had even
said that he thought she could beat him. She did, and became that only female runner at her school to run track. By her senior year, she had won multiple state meets and regional meet racing against other girls. In 1975, she had gotten an athletic scholarship to UCLA because she had made a good first impression with the Track and Field coach, Pat Connolly. He truly believed that she could make it to the olympics.

After her high school chapter ended, the chapter as a professional track runner began.
In 1976, as a freshman in College, Ms. Ashford went to the Olympics and had 5th in the 100 meter dash. In 1979, she had ran in the 100 meters and 200 meters for the world cup; she came in first place for both races. She earned another title for the World Cup in 1981. For the Olympic Games in 1984, Ms. Ashford got first place in the 100 meter dash, and had also made a new world record, being the first woman to run under eleven seconds. Her new personal best was 10.76 seconds. Also in this year, she ran for the U.S Olympic team for the 4x100, and received first place along with Alice Brown, Jeanette Bolden, and Chandra Cheeseborough. After this, she parted from her coach since college, Pat Connolly, and had a child with her husband, Ray Washington. The child was a daughter, Rania Ashley. She was still not done even after having a child. In 1988, Ms. Ashford went back to the Olympics and won the Silver in the 100 meter dash, coming second to Florence Griffith-Joyner, and won Gold on the 4x100 relay with Alice Brown, Sheila Echols, and Florence Griffith-Joyner.. Her last Olympics is in 1992. She had ran the 4x100 relay, and won the gold alongside Esther Jones, Carlette Guidry, and Gwen Torrence. After this, she had
retired.

After retiring from track, she became a business woman. Even though she was done with track, track was not done with her. In 1997, she was inducted into the /USA Track and Field Hall of Fame. In 2005, her, with many others were put into the US Olympic Hall of Fame.