- Born
- Wyomia Tyus was born on August 29, 1945 in Griffin, Georgia, USA.
- She attended Tennessee State on a scholarship, where she was coached by Ed Temple, who also coached Wilma Rudolph and several other Black female Olympic athletes.
- She grew up on a tenant dairy farm in Griffin, Georgia with three older brothers. Her father was a sharecropper who worked the farm, which was owned by a white family. When she was 14, her family's house burned down. Her father died a year later from illness.
- She was the first athlete to win the 100 meters at consecutive Summer Olympic Games; she won the gold at the 1964 Tokyo Games and again in Mexico City in 1968. She set or tied the 100-meter world record four times.
- There are going to be people in history who are going to be talked about, but it takes all of us to make it work. When the numbers are larger, you can get a lot more done. I didn't do my protest [at the Mexico City Olympics] to get credit for it. I did it because it was the right thing to do for human beings. It was the right thing to do for people of color. It was the right thing to do for women.
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