Tori De Force

Published by SPIKES on July 24, 2014

It has been a long road since Tori Bowie’s days of leaping over ditches in rural Mississippi. One of the breakout stars of the 2014 Diamond League, she tells SPIKES how she turned early potential as a long jumper into crazily good performances on the track.

“I’ve had a wonderful year so far,” says Bowie.

No kidding. The 23-year-old tops the 100m Diamond League rankings after victories in Monaco, Rome and New York. She also sits third in the 200m rankings, aided by a world leading winning time of 22.18 in Eugene in May.

Yet her meteoric rise to success has been born out of adversity. Bowie grew up in the small community of Sand Hill, Mississippi, in America’s deep South. As a toddler, Bowie and her sister were turned over to foster care by their mother, later being adopted by their paternal grandmother.

They were, she admits, “difficult times” growing up in a “really, really poor area”.

But sport provided an outlet. Bowie, a self-confessed tomboy, liked to hang out with the boys – “playing basketball, racing the guys and having competitions jumping over ditches.”

She excelled at shooting hoops and played for the state at high school. Then, in her sophomore year, she was introduced to athletics.

“I didn’t really have much choice,” says Bowie, whose basketball coach saw the conditioning value in the sport.

“I had no idea what track was. All I wanted to do was hang out with the boys and play basketball. At first I thought, ‘I don’t want to wear those tight shorts’,” she adds with a laugh.