Evelyn Ashford

Ashford gave birth to her daughter, Raina Ashley, in 1986 and went back to training shortly afterward. By 1988 she had won the 100-meter at the Goodwill Games and had qualified for the Olympics, although still battling the troublesome hamstring injury throughout 1987. At the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, Ashford finished second in the 100-meter race, narrowly losing to the celebrated American runner Florence Griffith-Joyner. Teaming up with Griffith-Joyner, Alice Brown, and Sheila Echols for the 4 × 100 relay, however, Ashford won her third Olympic gold medal, to go with her silver.

In the relay, she and Griffith-Joyner fumbled the baton exchange, leaving Ashford with the task of catching up to and beating Russian runner Natalya Pomoshchnikova and then her old opponent Marlies Gohr. Ashford passed them both for the win, wiping out any vestige of criticism that she was a second-place runner to the East German. However, Ashford was angry with herself for some time over losing the 100-meter to Griffith-Joyner, even though experts have said that "Flo-Jo" could not have been beaten by anyone that year.