Vonetta Flowers

Vonetta Flowers ( born October 29, 1973 as Vonetta Jeffery in Birmingham ) is a former American track and field athlete and Bobsportlerin. She is the first colored winner of a gold medal at the Winter Olympics, especially in the United States is of great historical importance sport.

Flowers first operational athletics, volleyball and basketball. When she studied at the University of Alabama, their achievements in athletics were so strong that it won several competitions and trained with the goal of competing in the Olympic games. At the U.S. Trials for the games in 1996 she went to the sprint and long jump, qualifying but could not. Shortly before the Trials to the games of 2000, she was operated on for the fifth time in eight years and could not attend. Then she stepped back from the track. At the suggestion of her husband and only with the knowledge of the Bobs from the movie " Cool Runnings " she turned to bobsledding. Within a short time was one of the best Anschieberinnen Flowers to the U.S. team. In their first season they went top of the world with the earlier Weltklasserodlerin Bonny Warner. In the following season they started out with Jill Bakken.

With Bakken she could reach her ​​greatest success this season. At the Olympic Games in 2002 in Salt Lake City both won the first gold medal, which was awarded to women in bobsleigh. Following the two Bobfahrerinnen allowed to wear the American flag at the closing ceremony. Flowers became very popular, she was chosen, among other things by the magazine People Magazine 's 50 most beautiful women. It was Alabama's Athlete of the Year, won the U.S. Olympic Spirit Award, and was named with Bakken Team of the Year by the Olympic Committee of the United States. After the games Bakken could not continue her career because of injuries two years and Flowers entered the next four years with the pilot Jean Racine / barge to. With it, she won several races in the Bob World Cup and the bronze medal at the Bob World Cup in Koenigssee 2004. Your career ended Flowers after the 2006 Olympics, where she finished sixth with barge.