Tonique Williams-Darling ( Williams; born January 17, 1976) is a Bahamian sprint

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 ...

. She won the gold medal in the 400 meters at the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

Athens, Greece Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

College

She attended the

University of South Carolina The University of South Carolina (USC, SC, or Carolina) is a Public university, public research university in Columbia, South Carolina, United States. Founded in 1801 as South Carolina College, It is the flagship of the University of South Car ...

, graduating with a bachelor's degree from the Moore School of Business in 1999.

Professional

Williams-Darling had a breakout year in 2004. She started with a

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receives ...

at the

2004 IAAF World Indoor Championships The 10th IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) were held in the Budapest Arena, Hungary between March 5 and March 7, 2004. A total off 139 countries were r ...

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

, running a personal best behind

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

's Natalya Nazarova and Olesya Krasnomovets. Then in July, at the

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

meeting of the

IAAF Golden League The IAAF Golden League was an annual series of outdoor track and field meetings organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). Athletes who won specific events at all of the series meetings were awarded a jackpot prize ...

, Tonique broke Mexican world champion

Ana Guevara Ana Gabriela Guevara Espinoza (born March 4, 1977) is a Mexican former track and field athlete who specialized in the 400 meters and is the 7th fastest female 300-meter runner in the world, running 300 meters in 35.3 seconds on May 3, 2003. She ...

's 23 race winning streak in the 400 meter race. At the

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

Williams-Darling beat Guevara again. In a head-to-head final straight, she proved to be more powerful than the Mexican runner who had been hampered with injuries and trained only on a limited basis prior to the Games. Winning the race, she became the Bahamas' first individual Olympic

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have b ...

ist. After the Olympics she secured the win in the overall Golden League-jackpot, cashing in US $500,000 after splitting the US $1M pot with Christian Olsson. She also won the gold medal in the 400 meters at

2005 World Championships in Athletics The 10th World Championships in Athletics (, ), under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), were held in the Olympic Stadium, Helsinki, Finland (6 August 2005 – 14 August 2005), the site of the first ...

, in a head-to-head race with American 400-meter specialist Sanya Richards. At the

2006 Commonwealth Games The 2006 Commonwealth Games, officially the XVIII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Melbourne 2006, were an International sport, international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth held in Melbourne ...

, despite being the favourite, she was beaten unexpectedly both in her semi-final and the final by Christine Ohuruogu of

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, claiming silver instead. Williams-Darling took the 2007 season off to nurse a hamstring injury and did not compete during the 2008 season. In November 2012, she was elected as Public Relations Director of the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations (BAAA) for the period 2012-2015. In 2015 Williams-Darling served as senior director of event media services for the BTC/IAAF World Relays in the Bahamas.

Personal life

She graduated from St. John's College, Bahamas. She is married to fellow Bahamian Track and Field athlete Dennis Darling and is the sister-in-law of former NFL wide receiver Devard Darling.

Commemorations

In 2009 Williams-Darling was inducted into the University of South Carolina's Athletic Hall of Fame. For her achievements to date, the

Bahamas The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of its population. ...

Government honoured her by naming a major highway the Tonique Williams-Darling Highway.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Williams-Darling, Tonique 1976 births Living people Athletes from Nassau, Bahamas Bahamian female sprinters 21st-century Bahamian sportswomen South Carolina Gamecocks women's track and field athletes Olympic athletes for the Bahamas Olympic gold medalists for the Bahamas Athletes (track and field) at the 2000 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2006 Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 1999 Pan American Games Pan American Games athletes for the Bahamas Commonwealth Games silver medallists for the Bahamas Commonwealth Games athletes for the Bahamas World Athletics Championships medalists Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field) IAAF Golden League winners World Athletics Indoor Championships medalists World Athletics Championships winners Olympic female sprinters Medallists at the 2006 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games silver medallists in athletics