Evelyn Ashford (born April 15, 1957) is an American retired track and field athlete, the 1984 Olympic champion in the 100-meter dash. She ran under the 11-second barrier over 30 times and was the first to run under 11 seconds in an Olympic Games. Biography As a 19-year-old, Ashford finished 5th in the 100 m event at the 1976 Summer Olympics. After beating the world record holders in the 100 m and 200 m in 1979 at the World Cup of Track and Field in Montreal, Ashford was one of the potential medalists for the 1980 Summer Olympics, but these Games were boycotted by the United States. Ashford also tore a quad muscle in 1980 and was out for the rest of the season. In 1977, she won the first Broderick Award (now the Honda Sports Award) as the nation's best female collegiate track and field athlete. Ashford was ranked No. 1 in the world by Track & Field News over 100 meters in 1979 and 1981, and over 200 meters in 1981. She also was named Track and Field News "Athlete of the Year" twice, in 1981 and 1984 She again won the sprint double, at the world cup in Rome, in 1981. On July 3, 1983, she set her first world record for the 100 meters, running 10.79 seconds at the National Sports Festival in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and was one of the favorites to win the 100-meter title at the inaugural World Championships in Helsinki. In the final, however, she pulled a hamstring muscle and fell. The other main favorite, Marlies Göhr of East Germany (who had already beaten Ashford earlier that year), went on to win. At the 1984 Summer Olympics, Ashford had a chance to win a gold medal. However, she had to withdraw from the 200 m heats with a minor injury. She competed in the 100 m, winning the event in a new Olympic record of 10.97 secs. As the anchor runner for 4 × 100 m relay team, she won a second gold medal. In the absence of World Champions and world record holders East Germany, the US team clocked one of the fastest times in history and won by the biggest margin ever at an Olympics, 1.12 seconds. Later in the season, she finally defeated her main rival Göhr at the Weltklasse meeting in Zürich, Switzerland. The race saw Ashford make