Tonique Williams-Darling
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Tonique Williams-Darling is a Bahamian athlete. |
Tonique Williams-Darling (born
January 17,
1976) is a
Bahamian sprint athlete. She won the gold medal in the
400 meters at the
2004 Summer Olympics in
Athens, Greece.
She attended the
University of South Carolina and graduated with a degree from the
Moore School of Business in 1999.
It was her goal to make
2004 her most successful year, and she may have achieved just that. She started the year with a
bronze medal at the
2004 IAAF World Indoor Championships in
Budapest,
Hungary running a personal best behind
Russia's
Natalya Nazarova and
Olesya Krasnomovets. In
July 2004, at the
Rome meeting of the
IAAF Golden League, Tonique broke
Mexican world champion Ana Guevara's 23 race winning streak in the 400 meter race.
Then at the
2004 Summer Olympics in
Athens,
Greece she 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 Bahamas first individual
Olympic gold medalist.
After the Olympics she secured the win in the overall
Golden League-jackpot, cashing in 500.000 dollars (after splitting the million dollar pot with
Christian Olsson).
She is married to fellow Bahamian Track and Field athlete
Dennis Darling.
She won the gold medal in the 400 meters at
2005 World Championships in Athletics, in a head-to-head race with american
Sanya Richards.
At the
2006 Commonwealth Games, despite being the favourite, she was unexpectedly beaten both in her semi-final and the final by
Christine Ohuruogu of
England, claiming silver instead.
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Tonique Williams Pictures*
Caribbean Net News - Surprise loss at the Commonwealth Games
