Debra Elaine Sapenter (born February 27, 1952), is an American

athlete An athlete is most commonly a person who competes in one or more sports involving physical strength, speed, power, or endurance. Sometimes, the word "athlete" is used to refer specifically to sport of athletics competitors, i.e. including track ...

who competed mainly in the 400 meters. She was born in

Prairie View, Texas Prairie View is a city in Waller County, Texas, United States, situated on the northwestern edge of the metropolitan area. The population was 8,184 at the 2020 census. Prairie View A&M University, the second-oldest public university in Texas, i ...

. In 1975 she was rated as the number one 400 meter women's sprinter in the United States. She competed for United States in the

1976 Summer Olympics The 1976 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Montreal 1976 (), were an international multi-sport event held from July 17 to August 1, 1976, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Montreal ...

, held in Montreal, in the

4 × 400 metres relay The 4 × 400 metres relay or long relay is an athletics track and field, track event in which teams consist of four runners who each complete 400 metres or one lap, totaling 1600 meters. It is traditionally the final event of ...

where she won the silver medal with her teammates

Sheila Ingram Sheila Rena Ingram (March 23, 1957 – September 1, 2020) was an American Sport of athletics, athlete who competed mainly in the 400 metres. Born in Washington, D.C., she competed for United States in the 1976 Summer Olympics held in Montrea ...

, Pamela Jiles and Rosalyn Bryant. After her running career Sapenter found a career in Information Technology holding Corporate Information Officer positions at Genuity, Harvard Pilgrim HealthCare / Harvard Vanguard, and Zürich Financial Group. In 1995 she was inducted into the

Southwestern Athletic Conference The Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, which is made up of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southern United St ...

Hall of Fame as Debra Sapenter-Speight.

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* 1952 births Living people People from Prairie View, Texas Sportspeople from Waller County, Texas American female sprinters Athletes (track and field) at the 1976 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1976 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medalists for the United States in track and field Athletes (track and field) at the 1975 Pan American Games Medalists at the 1975 Pan American Games Pan American Games silver medalists for the United States in athletics (track and field) Olympic female sprinters 20th-century American sportswomen Prairie View A&M Lady Panthers track and field athletes {{US-sprint-athletics-bio-stub