Valerie Brisco-Hooks Biography - Brother's Death Shaped Her Life, Pregnancy Impeeds Performance, Chronology, An Unprecedented Olympic Achievement
games gold meter shone
1960-
American sprinter
Valerie Brisco-Hooks
Like a shooting star, sprinter Valerie Brisco-Hooks shone for a brief, glorious moment in the public's eye before speeding away, never to reach the same vaunted height. While she shone, however, Brisco-Hooks burned especially bright. In the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, Brisco-Hooks accomplished what no other athlete, man or woman, had ever done by winning gold medals in 200- and 400-meter races in the same Olympic Games. She capped her starring performance by running a leg on the United States women's 4×400 meter relay team and capturing her third gold medal of the games.
Sketch by Ian David Hoffman
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Though she was born in the heart of the rural South in Greenwood, Mississippi, Brisco-Hooks moved with her family to an urban ghetto—the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles—before she entered elementary school. Brisco-Hooks was one of ten children. Her father was a metal worker and her mother taught school. One of Brisco-Hooks's older brothers, Robert, was a star runner at Locke…
Brisco-Hooks continued to excel in her track career at the collegiate level while she attended California State-Northridge. In 1979 she won 200-meter final in the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) championships. In that same year she represented the United States and the Pan-American Games in San Juan, Puerto Rico, winning a gold medal as a member of the United States…
By early 1984, Brisco-Hooks was back in better form than she had ever been before. She won the national 200-yard indoor crown and that summer captured the 400-meter outdoor title. At the Olympic trials, Brisco-Hooks qualified to represent the United States in the individual 200- and 400-meter races and the 4×400-meter relay. When the 1984 Olympics began Brisco-Hooks aimed to do what no athl…
Brisco-Hooks's life has not been without tragedy since the death of her older brother Robert. In 1985, Valerie's brother Melvin, who was at the track the day his brother Robert was shot, tried to cross a Los Angeles freeway when his car broke down. Melvin was hit by a passing car and suffered two broken legs. In 2002, Valerie's nephew Amar Brisco, a former University of Nevada…
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