The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Vonetta Flowers Named To Alabama Sports Hall of Fame
12/15/2010 12:00:00 AM | General
Dec. 15, 2010
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ----- Former UAB track and field star Vonetta Flowers, who went on to gain world notoriety when she won a bobsled gold medal at the 2002 Winter Olympics, has been named to the Class of 2011 for induction into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.
Flowers is one of five members of the Modern Category class announced Wednesday. Joining the former Blazer All-American are former Alabama football standouts Shaun Alexander and Jeff Rutledge, former Auburn baseball power hitter Frank Thomas and long-time sports editor of the Gadsden Times, Jimmy Smothers.
The induction banquet will take place at the Sheraton Birmingham Hotel on Saturday, May 21, 2011.
Flowers (then Vonetta Jeffery) was a four-year letterwinner and seven-time track and field All-American at UAB, competing for the Blazers from 1993-96. She earned 35 conference championship awards, including Great Midwest Conference Newcomer of the Year (1993) and Most Outstanding Athlete at the Great Midwest Conference Outdoor Championship.
She still holds UAB records for the 100 and 200-meter dashes, as well as the long jump, both indoors and outdoors.
Flowers was a three-time member of the U.S. Olympic Festival Team, capturing the gold in the long jump in 1994 and the 4x100 meter relay in 1995. She was a nine-time USATF National Championship qualifier and a World University Games qualifier in 1995.
While her track and field career was nothing but stellar, it was at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City where Flowers gained world attention. Along with Jill Bakken, Flowers and her Olympic teammate captured the gold medal in the inaugural women's Olympic bobsled competition. Flowers became the first black athlete to win a Winter Olympic gold medal.
Flowers and Bakken carried the American flag at the Closing Ceremonies at the 2002 Games.
She later earned a bronze medal at the 2004 World Championships and also competed at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, finishing sixth in the bobsled with teammate Jean Prahm.
