McGuire, Edith (1944—)

views updated

McGuire, Edith (1944—)

African-American track star . Born Edith Marie McGuire in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 3, 1944.

Won an Olympic gold medal in the 200-meter run at 23.05, a silver in the 4x100-meter relay, and a silver in the 100-meter run at 11.62 (1964).

Several American schools produced outstanding women in track and field, among them Tuskegee Institute and Tennessee State University, both African-American institutions. One high school which fed these colleges with soon-to-be celebrated track- and field-competitors was David T. Howard High School in Atlanta, Georgia. Howard High's coach, Marian Armstrong-Perkins , produced some of America's finest, including Mary McNabb, Mildred McDaniel, Margaret Matthews, Anna Lois Smith , and Edith McGuire. An honor student in high school, Edith was named best all-around student in her class. Because of her athletic and academic ability, no one was surprised when McGuire was awarded a scholarship to Tennessee State and given the opportunity to run with some of the world's finest women athletes as a member of the Tennessee Tigerbelles.

In 1961, as a freshman, McGuire qualified for the U.S. women's international team and was soon on her way to Europe. Armstrong-Perkins described McGuire's reaction:

I think Edith was the most surprised person of us all when she made the team. When she realized what the trip entailed, being away from home for at least a month, she became very depressed. She began crying when she got to New York, and she cried all the way into Germany. She had a terrific homesickness and only realized that the trip was worthwhile when we got into Poland.

In the early 1960s, the Cold War was in full force. Western and Eastern athletes worked to prove that their ideological and economic systems were superior not only in the business world but also on the playing fields. When Edith McGuire arrived at Kiev's Central Stadium in the USSR, the competition between East and West that greeted the young American runner was fierce. Wilma Rudolph and Wyomia Tyus , two Tennessee Tigerbelles, had held the world record in the 100 meters until Irena Szewinska and Ewa Klobukowska , two Poles, wrested the title from them in Prague, Czechoslovakia, three weeks before. The Americans were determined to win back their titles. In the 100 meters in Kiev, Wyomia Tyus finished first and Edith McGuire finished second, matching the new world record set by Szewinska and Klobukowska. In the 200 meters, McGuire finished first while Tyus finished second. In the 4x100-meter relay, McGuire, Tyus, Willye B. White , and Diana Wilson , all from Tennessee, took first place. They left Kiev having established clear American dominance, and Edith McGuire had unquestionably contributed to the Americans' success. But the Tigerbelles had less success in Warsaw, where Irena Szewinska won the 100 and 200 meters as well as the long jump and Klobukowska helped win the 400-meter relay. (In 1967, Klobukowska would fail a sex-determination test and a Times story would report that she had "one chromosome too many.")

McGuire went on to a remarkable career at Tennessee State. In 1963, she won the 100 meters and the long jump at the AAU indoor and outdoor meets. She also led the 100 meters at the Pan American Games that year in Sao Paulo, Brazil, with a Pan Am record of 11.5 seconds. In 1964, McGuire established a world record in the 70-yard dash, an American record in the 100-meter run, an American record in the 200-meter run, and an American outdoor record in the 220-yard dash. That same year, she won the AAU 200-meter run. She qualified for the Olympic team at the 1964 Tokyo Games, where she finished ahead of Irena Szewinska and won a gold medal in the 200 meters with a time of 23.05, an Olympic record. She also won silver medals in the 4x100-meter relay, with a time of 43.92, and in the 100 meters, with a time of 11.62.

In 1965, McGuire defended her title in the 220-yard dash at the AAU and repeated this feat in 1966. During seven years of national and international competition, she held World, Olympic, Canadian, AAU American, and AAU champion records in the 200-meter run and the 220-yard dash. She won a place on six AAU All-American track-and-field teams. After graduating from Tennessee State University in 1966, McGuire became a schoolteacher in Detroit, where she specialized in working with underprivileged children.