Benita Fitzgerald Mosley, '79 Track & Field
Benita was a standout athlete at Gar-Field High school from 1976 thru 1979. She was a member of the VHSL State Championship Track and Field Team in 1976, a state champion in the 100 meter hurdles in 1978 and 1979, a state champion in the 200 meters in 1979 and a junior national champion in the 100 meter hurdles in 1978 and 1979. Benita received a track scholarship from the University of Tennessee where she went onto have a stellar collegiate career, winning four National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) titles in Track and Field, including 3 consecutive 100m hurdles outdoor championships, and earning All American honors 14 times. Most impressive, Benita was a member of the 1980 and 1984 Olympic teams and an alternate on the 1988 Olympic team. Benita Fitzgerald Mosley won a gold medal in the 100-meter hurdles in the 1984 Olympic Games making her just the second American woman to do so, behind "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias, and the first African-American woman to accomplish this feat. Benita was honored as one of eight U.S. Olympians to carry the Olympic flag into the stadium during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. Benita has earned honors that include being named the "Sportswoman of the Century" by The Potomac News, "Top Female Sports Figure of the Century from Virginia" by Sports Illustrated and "Hurdler of the Decade" (1980s) by the Track and Field News. Benita is also an inductee to the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame, the Virginia High School Hall of Fame and the inaugural class of the University of Tennessee Lady Vols Hall of Fame. She was recently appointed Chief of Organizational Excellence for the United States Olympic Committee and is the Women's Sports Foundation's Past Chair of the Board of Trustees. Benita also served as president of the Women's Sports Foundation Board of Trustees (1997-98). |
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