Pauline Elaine Davis-Thompson (born 9 July 1966) is a former Bahamian sprinter. She competed at five Olympics, a rarity for a

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

athlete. She won her first medal at her fourth Olympics and her first gold medals at her fifth Olympics (

Sydney 2000 The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

) at age 34 in the

4 × 100 m Relay 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smallest c ...

and, after

Marion Jones Marion Lois Jones (born October 12, 1975), also known as Marion Jones-Thompson, is an American former world champion track and field athlete and former professional basketball player. She won three gold medals and two bronze medals at the 2000 ...

' belated disqualification nine years later, in the 200m.

Career

In 1984, she was awarded the Austin Sealy Trophy for the most outstanding athlete of the

1984 CARIFTA Games The 13th CARIFTA Games was held in Nassau, Bahamas on April 21–23, 1984. Participation (unofficial) For the 1984 CARIFTA Games only the medalists can be found on the "World Junior Athletics History" website. An unofficial count yields the numb ...

. Her first high-profile success came in 1989 when she became the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

National Champion in the 200-meter dash while setting a collegiate national record as a member of the

Alabama Crimson Tide The Alabama Crimson Tide refers to the intercollegiate athletic varsity teams that represent the University of Alabama, located in Tuscaloosa. The Crimson Tide teams compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I as a me ...

team at the

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and largest of the publi ...

. Then in 1995, she won the silver medal in the

200 metres The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400 metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run the race. A slightl ...

at the

IAAF World Indoor Championships The World Athletics Indoor Championships are a biennial indoor track and field competition served as the global championship for that version of the sport. Organised by the World Athletics, the competition was inaugurated as the ''World Indoor G ...

and won another silver, this time in the 400 metres, at the 1995 World Championships in Athletics. She ran at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics the following year and although she narrowly missed out on a medal in the 400 m, she helped the Bahamian team to a silver medal in the 4 x 100 metres relay. She suffered a dip in form in 1997 – she made both the 400 m and 100 m relay finals but failed to win a medal in either event. She received her first World Championships gold medal two years later, in 1999, aiding the Bahamian relay team to victory. She won a gold medal in both the

and the 4 × 100 m relay at the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 ( Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from ...

in Sydney. She originally finished in second place in the women's 200 m behind

, but on 5 October 2007, Jones admitted to taking performance-enhancing steroids and was stripped of the title. On 9 December 2009, Davis-Thompson was finally awarded the gold medal. After her track career, she went into athletics administration, being elected to the IAAF council in 2007.

Personal life

She is married to Jamaican Olympic hurdler (1992) Mark Thompson. As a teenager, she had to constantly wear a sports bra to deal with her unoptimal physique at the time.

Personal bests

Achievements

References

External links