Wyomia Tyus Biography
Wyomia Tyus was born on August 29, 1945. she is a retired American track and field sprinter, and the first person to retain the Olympic title in the 100 m (a feat since duplicated by Carl Lewis, Gail Devers, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Usain Bolt).
Raised on a dairy farm, as the youngest of four children, and the only girl in the family Tyus was encouraged by her father to participate in sports. While a high school athlete Tyus participated in basketball and began her track endeavors as a high jumper before transitioning to the sprints after being invited to a summer track clinic at Tennessee State University in 1960.
It was in this same year that Tyus’s father died leaving the job of a male role model in Tyus’s life to her soon to be track coach at Tennessee State Ed Temple.
Wyomia Tyus Age
Wyomia Tyus is 73 years old as of July 2019 in 37 days she will turn 74 years. born on 29 August 1945.
Wyomia Tyus Husband
In December 1968 Tyus moved with her then-boyfriend from Georgia to California, where she worked as a substitute teacher. She married her boyfriend in 1969 and held multiple jobs until becoming a teacher in 1971.
Tyus left this job within a year in order to stay at home with her first child. Tyus’s first marriage ended in 1974 and in 1978 she married Duane Tillman, with whom she had her second child, a son.
Wyomia Tyus Children
Wyomia Tyus two children that are Simone and Tyus.
Wyomia Tyus Childhood
Tyus was born in Griffin, Georgia, on August 29, 1945. She was the youngest child of Willie and Marie Tyus. She was also the only girl. With three older brothers to keep up with, Tyus learned early how to hold her own. Her father insisted that Wyomia not be left out by her brothers, no matter what they played. She had an early education in backyard football and basketball and other neighborhood games, playing equally with the boys.
She also had an early education in the inequities caused by racism and sexism. Tyus had to spend an hour on the bus to school each day because the school she could walk to was for white children only. In spite of these difficulties, she believed in herself and in working hard to achieve her goals. Tyus explained to Lyn Votava of Ethnic NewsWatch, “Now in my day, this wasn’t something women were encouraged to do.”
Through the love and encouragement of her father and her coach, Tyus was able to focus on her athletic abilities, letting them guide her to a better place. In high school, she was originally drawn to basketball. In 1960, she was invited to a summer clinic at Tennessee State University (TSU) by the track coach Ed Temple.
Tyus discovered her own talent for running through Temple’s clinic and became serious about the track. That same year, her father died, leaving her without his guidance. Temple would take on an important role in Tyus’s life, stepping in where her father once stood.
While still in high school Tyus competed in the Amateur Athletics Union (AAU) Girls’ National Championships. She won first place in the 50-yard, 75-yard, and the 100-yard races. She ended up attending TSU in Nashville, Tennessee, based upon Temple’s invitation and the fact that it was one of the only universities that offered women athletic scholarships. The women’s scholarships were unlike those given to men. While men could focus exclusively on their sports, women were required to work two hours a day for their scholarships.
Wyomia Tyus 1968
At college, Tyrus pursued her career in the Olympics. Tyus, from Tennessee State University, participated in the 1964 Summer Olympics at age 19. In the heats of the event, she equaled Wilma Rudolph’s world record, propelling her to a favored position for the final, where her main rival was fellow American Edith McGuire. Tyus won the final, beating McGuire by 0.2 seconds. At the same Olympics, she also won a silver medal with the 4 × 100 m relay team.
In the following years, Tyus won numerous national championships in the sprint events and a gold medal in the 200 m at the Pan-American Games. In 1968, she returned to the Olympics to defend her title in the 100 m. In the final, she set a new world record of 11.08 s to become the first person, male or female, to retain the Olympic 100 meters title. Tyus also qualified for the 200 m final, in which she finished sixth. Running the final leg for the relay team, Tyus helped to set a new world record, winning her third gold medal.
Director Bud Greenspan filmed Tyus casually dancing behind her starting blocks before the Olympic final. When interviewed later she said she was doing the “Tighten Up” to stay loose. Tyus retired from amateur sports after the 1968 Olympics. In 1973 she was invited to compete in the 60-yard dash in the new Professional International Track Association competitions. In her first-year return, she won eight of eighteen events. The following year, she won every event she entered, a total of twenty-two races. Tyus continued to compete in the 60-yard dash up until 1982.
Wyomia Tyus Dead
Tyus is still alive.
Wyomia Tyus Quotes
♦I wasn’t paid a dime for my track career. But participating in the Olympics gave me the opportunity to learn about different cultures; it made me a better person. I wouldn’t trade the time I competed for anything♦
♦My father used to tell us, ‘You will have to work twice as hard to get what you want♦
♦I never think about anybody. I let them think about me♦
♦My father used to tell us, ‘You will have to work twice as hard to get what you want♦
♦I never think about anybody. I let them think about me♦
Wyomia Tyus Book
1. Tigerbelle: The Wyomia Tyus Story wiki
In 2018 she published the memoir Tigerbelle: The Wyomia Tyus Story, with co-author Elizabeth Terzakis; it is part of Dave Zirin’s Edge of Sports series
Tigerbelle: The Wyomia Tyus Story wiki