Valerie Ann Brisco-Hooks (born July 6, 1960, in
Greenwood, Mississippi) is an Olympian who won three gold medals as an
Olympic
Olympic or Olympics may refer to
Sports
Competitions
* Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896
** Summer Olympic Games
** Winter Olympic Games
* Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece bet ...
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 at the
1984 Olympics at
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
, making her the first Olympian to win gold medals in both the 200- and 400-meter races at a single Olympics.
Career
Valerie's outstanding high school performance led her to the collegiate level of track and field at
California State University, Northridge. She continued to excel, winning the 200-meter title at the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) Championships and earning a spot on the U.S. team for the 1979 Pan American Games, where she helped her 4 × 100-meter relay team win the gold medal.
Her
400 metres time of 48.83, set while winning the 1984 Olympics was at the time the
Olympic record and still ranks her as the
tenth fastest woman of all time.
She also won a gold medal for the 4 × 400 m. Brisco competed in the 1988 Olympic Games, which took place in Seoul, South Korea, running on the American 4x400 meter-relay team, which finished in second place (but below the older record, also), behind the Soviet team that broke the 4x400 meter-relay world record.
To this date, the American time possesses the second-fastest 4x400 relay of all time, behind only the Soviet winner of that race.
Brisco-Hooks is currently coaching with the
Bob Kersee
Bob Kersee (born in the Canal Zone, Panama) is an American track coach. He was the coach and husband of Olympic gold medallist Jackie Joyner-Kersee.
Career
He is a graduate of San Pedro High School, Los Angeles Harbor College where he was a stat ...
group of athletes and at
West Los Angeles College.
Achievements
3 x Olympic Games Gold medallist
1 x Olympic Games Silver medallist
1 x World Championships Bronze medallist
5 x Olympic Games finalist
1 x World Championships finalist
1 x Current NACAC Record holder - 4 × 400 m
Personal Bests
Event Result Wind Venue Date
50m individual 6.24 Rosemont (USA) 16.02.1986
100m 10.99 +1.3 Westwood (USA) 17.05.1986
200m 21.81 -0.1 Los Angeles (USA) 09.08.1984
200m indoor 22.83 New York (USA) 22.02.1985
300m 35.47 Seoul (KOR) 26.09.1988
400m 48.83 Los Angeles (USA) 06.08.1984
400m indoor 52.31 Fairfax (USA) 14.02.1988
4 × 400 m 3:15.51 Seoul (KOR) 01.10.1988
Television guest appearance
Brisco races Cliff (
Bill Cosby) at the
Penn Relays in ''
The Cosby Show'' episode Off to the Races, first aired Thursday May 8, 1986, on
NBC.
Personal life
Valerie Brisco-Hooks, who won three gold medals at the 1984 Summer Olympics, gained over 40 pounds during her pregnancy and did not resume training until well after her child was born in 1982.
Husband: Alvin Hooks (
NFL football player, m. 1981), Son: Alvin Hooks, Jr. (b. 1982) & Valerie's nephew, Amar Brisco, was a football cornerback in the 1990s at NCAA
UNLV
The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. It includes th ...
.
Valerie Brisco-Hooks with her son Alvin Jr. at the 1984 Olympic trials.
The
West Athens Elementary,
Locke High School,
California State University Northridge
California State University, Northridge (CSUN or Cal State Northridge) is a public university in the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. With a total enrollment of 38,551 students (as of Fall 2021), it has the second largest u ...
Alum was inducted in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
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 ...
Hall of Fame in 1995. Valerie Brisco-Hooks Sports Foundation Inc is located at 1138 E 71st St Los Angeles, California 90001. She became an advocate for drug-free schools and actively sought out opportunities to interact with students in the classroom to convey her message. She made time in her training and competition schedule because she felt so passionately about making a difference.
It was not until meeting
Jackie Joyner Kersee that she changed her work ethic
As a young girl she moved with her family from the rural south to the urban Watts neighborhood in Los Angeles. She was inspired to run by her older brothers, Robert and Melvin Brisco. Robert and Melvin were finishing a hard workout at their high school track late one day, when the violence of the neighborhood struck and a stray bullet shot from a gun held by a ninth-grader killed Robert.
References
External links
SportingHeroes.net article on Valerie Brisco-Hooks1984 Olympic Women's 200 meters 1984 Olympic Women's 400 metersImage of Valerie Brisco-Hooks showing her Olympic medals to students at West Athens Elementary school in Los Angeles, California, 1984.Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...
Photographic Archive (Collection 1429). UCLA Library Special Collections,
Charles E. Young Research Library
The Charles E. Young Research Library is one of the largest libraries on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles in Westwood, Los Angeles, California. It initially opened in 1964, and a second phase of construction was completed ...
,
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the Californ ...
.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brisco-Hooks, Valerie
1960 births
Living people
American female sprinters
People from Greenwood, Mississippi
Athletes (track and field) at the 1984 Summer Olympics
Athletes (track and field) at the 1988 Summer Olympics
Olympic gold medalists for the United States in track and field
Olympic silver medalists for the United States in track and field
American track and field coaches
World Athletics Championships medalists
Track and field athletes from California
Medalists at the 1988 Summer Olympics
Medalists at the 1984 Summer Olympics
Athletes (track and field) at the 1979 Pan American Games
Athletes (track and field) at the 1987 Pan American Games
Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States
Cal State Northridge Matadors women's track and field athletes
Pan American Games medalists in athletics (track and field)
World Athletics Championships athletes for the United States
Medalists at the 1987 Pan American Games
Olympic female sprinters