Tori Bowie, the starlet sprinter who was three-time world champion and an Olympic gold medallist after being put into foster care and raised by her grandmother, has died suddenly aged 32.
The shy athlete never forgot her roots growing up in a tight-knit community in Sandhill, Mississippi, and credited her ‘tough’ upbringing with making her the winner she was.
Her crowning glory was her pivotal role in Team USA winning Olympic gold in the 4×100 relay at Rio in 2016, where she ran the anchor leg and outlasted Jamaica’s ten-time world champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.
‘We’re devastated to share the very sad news that Tori Bowie has passed away,’ Icon Management Inc. said in a statement Wednesday morning.
‘We’ve lost a client, dear friend, daughter and sister. Tori was a champion…a beacon of light that shined so bright! We’re truly heartbroken and our prayers are with the family and friends.’
Tori Bowie celebrates winning Olympic gold in the women’s 4x100m relay final at Rio 2016
Bowie (left), Aaliyah Brown, Allyson Felix and Morolake Akinosun of Team USA pose with their gold medals following their 4x100m relay triumph in at the 2017 World Athletics Championships
Outside of her track success, Bowie was a model appearing in magazines & fashion campaigns
The statement did not reveal or release what led to Bowie’s untimely death.
Born Frentorish Bowie on August 27, 1990, ‘Tori’ was put into foster care with her sister Tamarra, 11 months her junior, at the age of 2.
Her grandmother, Bobbie Smith, fought a fierce custody battle to raise them on her own – and Bowie frequently cited Smith as her biggest influence.
‘My grandmother has been the role model in my life,’ she told People in 2016, as she reflected on her early years ahead of the Rio Olympics.
‘She ended up fighting for us, got custody of us. We didn’t have much, but something she did give was character.’
Bowie nurtured her competitive instinct playing basketball with her male cousins, who she said ‘never took it easy…never let me win’ and ‘made me tough’.
She and her sister excelled and won back-to-back state basketball championships.
But their love of basketball almost stopped their running careers in their tracks, as Bowie’s first coach Angie Reynolds told NBC.
‘They were so used to wearing the long basketball shorts that they are comfortable in, so when I ordered the track shorts they didn’t want to run,’ Reynolds said. ‘Tori said she is not gonna run.’
‘I just thought we were too young for our butts to be showing, you know,’ said Tamarra.
Born Frentorish Bowie on August 27, 1990, ‘Tori’ was put into foster care with her sister Tamarra, 11 months her junior, at the age of 2
But they did run and Bowie immediately stood out as a future star.
She won two state high school sprinting championships and three state relay titles.
Bowie gained an athletic scholarship at the University of Southern Mississippi, but it was in 2014 that she came to national attention after clocking 10.91 in the semifinals of the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships – the top time in her heat.
After winning the bronze medal at the 2015 World Championships, Bowie qualified for the US Olympic Team for the Rio Olympics in 2016.
There, she won silver in the 100m dash and bronze in the 200m.
But she finally won gold alongside fellow sprinters English Gardner, Allyson Felix, and Tianna Bartoletta in the 4x100m relay.
A year later at the 2017 World Athletics Championships in London, she was victorious in the 100m and the 4x100m relay.
At the 2019 World Championships in Qatar, Bowie made the semifinals of the 100m but did not start after qualifying. She was not part of the women’s 4x100m team.
Her final Instagram post from October of 2019 showed a video competing in the long jump at that same event with the caption: ‘What a journey what a journey… finishing 4th in the world considering I’ve been away from it for 5 years is a huge accomplishment for me!
Bowie was also successful the next year on the world stage, winning the 100m in London
Bowie last competed on the world stage at the 2019 World Championships held in Qatar
Her final Instagram post alluded to a five year absence from competing in track & field events
‘Let’s just say I’m looking forward to Tokyo! To everyone chasing their dreams out there keep the courage and determination! I know I will.’
But according to records from the 2020 US Olympic Team Trials, Bowie didn’t compete in qualifying for either the 100m or the long jump.
Bowie and her family remained close throughout her life, with Tamarra following her compete around the world.
‘I was that annoying little sister,’ Tamarra said. ‘Even when she went to college. I followed her there. But it finally hit her the other day when she was going through processing that she’s going to the Olympics. I told her: “I’ve been waiting for it to hit you!”‘
‘My grandmother told me a long time, ago I don’t care if you’re sweeping a porch for a living. She said, you need to do your best. So I’ve lived by that every single day,’ added Tori.
‘Its not about where you’re from you know,’ said Tori. ‘It’s just about where we’re trying to go and what we’re trying to accomplish. And I’m trying to be that person, to show everyone there that it is possible.’
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