The former Olympic and world champion sprinter Tori Bowie has died at the age of 32, her management company confirmed on Wednesday.
“My heart breaks for the family of Tori Bowie,” wrote the three-time Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce on Twitter. “A great competitor and source of light. Your energy and smile will always be with me. Rest in peace.”
Bowie was found dead at her home in Orlando, Florida after the local sheriff’s department said they went “for a well-being check of a woman in her 30s who had not been seen or heard from in several days.” The department said they were not treating the death as suspicious.
“USATF is deeply saddened by the passing of Tori Bowie, a three-time Olympic medalist and two-time world champion,” Max Siegel, the CEO of USA Track and Field, said in a statement. “A talented athlete, her impact on the sport is immeasurable, and she will be greatly missed.”
The American won three gold medals on the global stage. Her first came as part of the USA 4x100m relay team at the 2016 Olympics. 2017 was even more successful: she added another relay gold at the World Athletics Championships in London and won individual gold in the 100m, beating Ivory Coast’s Marie-Josée Ta Lou in a photo finish.
“I had no idea. All I knew was I wanted to give it everything I’ve got,” Bowie said after her victory. “Am I really world champion?”
She won two other Olympics medals: a silver and bronze in the 100m and 200m respectively in Rio in 2016.
Bowie was born and raised in Mississippi. She played basketball as a girl before her talent on the track became apparent: she won state titles in the 100m, 200m and long jump.
“I remember just racing everywhere as a child, like in the trees, wherever ... I raced all the time,” she told the Guardian in 2017.
She enjoyed more success at college after securing an athletic scholarship to the University of Southern Mississippi, where she won national titles in 2011 in indoor and outdoor long jump. She concentrated on that discipline after graduation before her explosive speed persuaded her to focus on sprinting in 2014. Bowie returned to the long jump in 2019, finishing fourth at the world championships. She did not attempt to qualify for the US team at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
“She was a very enthusiastic, sparkling personality,” Craig Poole, who coached Bowie at several points in her career, told the Associated Press. “She was really fun to work with.”
Bowie was raised by her grandmother in the town of Sand Hill, which had fewer than 100 people, but her talent propelled her to the global stage.
“One day I hope that I can come to Sand Hill and there’s this huge sign that says, ‘Welcome to Sand Hill, home of Tori Bowie,’” she said in 2016.
