During the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, assistant UAB track team coach Vonetta Flowers (left) and her teammate, Jill Bakken, won the inaugural women’s bobsled event. Flowers was the first black person to win a gold medal in the Winter Olympics; it had been almost 50 years since the United States had won a medal in the sport.
Flowers, pictured here at a UAB event with a student, is a UAB alumnae, earning her bachelor’s in physical education in 1997. During college she was a star sprinter and long jumper, earning seven All-American nods and six conference MVP titles.