Wyomia Tyus

Wyomia Tyus (born August 29, 1945) is a retired American track and field sprinter, and the first person to retain the Olympic title in the 100m. Quotes I'm going to a new life. I'm not going to be running anymore. I've got to have a new career. I've got to do all these things. I need to change. You know, I might as well go out as big as I could. All my friends were calling me, asking, 'How could he say that? I know one thing and I still do say it. They can't talk about history unless they speak my name. I was the first to do it. And then they come out and ... with Usain Bolt, you know, that's all they talk about all the time. And you have three women - black women - that have won back-to-back 100m. You've got myself, you have got Gail Devers and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and nobody ever speaks of it. So it's all that not giving women credit. I say women - it doesn't matter what colour you are. They don't give women that much credit anyway We all went, but nobody knew what they wanted to do. And it was left up to you what you wanted to do. It was because I was fighting for human rights and that was the right thing for me to do. I just knew I had my dark shorts and this will be my way of standing with people [who] were saying what is happening in the world is unfair. I was brought up with this. I was brought up with Jim Crow [laws enforcing racial segregation] so that was my reason for wearing it. We have to make a stand and make all the people that are saying - what's that thing - 'Shut up and dribble, pass the ball or whatever, shut up and run...' Well, we can't! We have to speak out. Just as fast as I could run, I should be able to speak out just as fast. People asked 'did they say anything to you?' What are they going to say? 'You can't wear those shorts.' I'll come out there and what - are you going to make me strip down, take them off?! That's not going to happen. It's like they never saw a black woman. They weren't recognising me anyway. They weren't recognising what I would have to say or what I would have to protest. They couldn't care less about what women did - especially black women - what they really did in the Olympic Games. You would think somebody winning back-to-back 100m that would be a big thing. Everybody said it's because of what John Carlos and Tommie Smith did. And I said, well I ran before they did! They ran two days later after I had finished. I don't know what you're saying. I saw them walk out and went: Ohhhh they have no shoes. When they start playing the national anthem and they raise their fists it was like, 'Oh my gosh'. And I just thought OK that's their protest. This is how they protested. And what's frightened me more was the stadium that's so quiet. Nobody said anything. After the national anthem... you had people talking, you hear yelling, screaming, whistling, booing, and all these kinds of things that were going on. And then for me immediately, I went, 'oh my gosh, they could get killed'. Something could really happen to them. What I could hear around me it was just not good things that were being said. Then I started thinking about my safety. I need to get out of here! Ralph Boston [the US long jumper] was a few seats down from me. He was like 'Tyus, we got to get out of here'! I was like 'yes we do!' It was their protest. It was what they felt they should do. And when they did it people thought it was horrible. They felt they were the worst people in the world. They need to be kicked out of the country. And now here we are over 50 years later, they're celebrating it and it's the right thing to do. I think back about this all the time, how he [Temple] convinced parents and mums and dads to let their child, their daughter come to Tennessee State not knowing nothing about it, not being able to visit, not being able to go. My mum sent me on a train by myself! And never thinking anything about it. And that's what I did. They didn't have to worry about it, I was not going to talk to anybody. So I sat there with my dignity and my little lunch box that they fixed. Mr Temple had said, 'I'll meet you at the train station - don't worry. At that time I didn't know who Wilma Rudolph was. I wasn't watching TV. I didn't know anything about her and she had won the three gold medals in the Olympics the year before [1960] and I didn't know anything about it. It made me who I am today. I was aware of my surroundings, but I also became more aware of what's happening in the world, because what was happening to us was not just here in the States it was happening around the world, people being mistreated. Mr. Temple had coached us enough to let us know, not just on an athletic field but in life, you're not going to get respected. First of all, you're a black woman and you're not going to be respected. So what you do, you have to be all in. You have to know why you're doing it, because no one celebrates you because you won back-to-back medals. You know you did it. He came into my life, I had just lost my father, so he has truly, truly been a father figure to me. He has given a lot to me and made me who I am today. I am proud to be who I am today, and the only reason I'm that way is because of him. He sacrificed a lot, not just for me, but for all the Tigerbelles, all of us. I still remember it as it was then, and it is something that will always be very close to my heart. Now people are more aware of what's going on in the world and what we need to do to change a lot of things in this world. We can make more history by writing about it and talking about it and encouraging people to stand up about human rights. Wyomia Tyus: The forgotten story of one of history's greatest Olympians - and a pioneer of protest in sport, July 22 2021 External Links Category:Track and field athletes Category:1945 births Category:1940s