Photo by Clint Spaulding/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
In 2002 Vonetta Flowers became the first Black person to EVER to win a gold medal at the Winter Olympics!
According to Watch The Yard, Flowers was a star sprinter and long jumper at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who originally aspired to make the U.S. Summer Olympic Team. After trying multiple times, Flowers turned to bobsledding, where she was successful as a brakewoman and qualified for the 2002 Winter Olympics.
She became the first Black person to win a gold medal at the Olympics when she won the gold medal in the two-woman event along with driver Jill Bakken.
NEW YORK CITY – MARCH 26: Jill Bakken and Vonetta Flowers attend the premiere of “The Rookie” on March 26, 2002 at the Astor Plaza Hotel in New York City. (Photo by Ron Galella, Ltd./WireImage)
Flowers was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 2011.
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