Valerie Brisco-Hooks: Track & Field

 American Star of the Women’s International Sports Hall of Fame

Valerie Brisco-Hooks was the first woman to win the gold medal in both the 200-meter and 400-meter dashes during the same Olympic Games. Her accomplishment during the 1984 Los Angeles Games was not only a first among women, but it also had never been accomplished by a man. Brisco-Hooks also captured the gold as part of the 4 × 400-meter relay team during the 1984 Olympics.

As a young girl she moved with her family from the rural south to the urban Watts neighborhood in Los Angeles. She was inspired to run by her older brothers, Robert and Melvin Brisco. Robert and Melvin were finishing a hard workout at their high school track late one day, when the violence of the neighborhood struck and a stray bullet shot from a gun held by a ninth-grader killed Robert. Valerie was a disobedient 14-year-old and the incident altered her life. She had a new purpose to her athletic career, to finish the run that her brother never would. Robert’s track coach encouraged her to come out for the team and carry on their family name, and she carried it proudly throughout her career and into the greatest athletic arena, the Olympic stadium.

Valerie’s outstanding high school performance led her to the collegiate level of track and field at California State University, Northridge (CSUN). She continued to excel, winning the 200-meter title at the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) Championships and earning a spot on the U.S. team for the 1979 Pan American Games, where she helped her 4 × 400-meter relay team win the gold medal. Cal State Northridge brought her success in her athletic career and her personal life. She met Alvin Hooks, an equally successful track athlete for CSUN who became a wide receiver for the Philadelphia Eagles. They were married in 1981 and a year later she gave birth to their son Alvin Jr.

Women experience significant changes to their body during pregnancy, and for a track athlete the changes can be truly detrimental. Valerie gained a great deal of weight with the pregnancy and consequently lost her motivation to be physically active, never mind training at an elite level. Her husband encouraged her and even asked Coach Bobby Kersee to try to instill the competitive drive in her once more, but it took Valerie herself to decide that she wanted to pursue her track career. Once she made that choice it took time and patience to get back into shape after 18 months of inactivity. Coach Kersee kept coaxing her into believing in herself and she kept picking up speed. Her husband cared for Alvin Jr., which allowed her time to dedicate to her talent and pursuit of a dream. Though women’s bodies are affected greatly by pregnancy, there have been several female athletes who have experienced staggering performance improvements after they return to their sport. Brisco-Hooks was one of them.

By 1984, she was in the best shape of her life and her athletic career was flourishing. She began the year winning the 200-meter indoor national championship and by the summer she added the 400-meter outdoor national championship to her successes. Sprinters have very selective training regimens to hone their fast-twitch response and the appropriate amount of strength for their particular race. If a sprinter decides to double in events, then it is usually the 100-meter and the long jump or the 100- and the 200-meter; if they are really talented, maybe all three events. But it is rare to see an athlete excel in the 200-meter and the longer 400-meter race because the 400-meter requires a certain level of anaerobic endurance not common in the shorter distances. Brisco-Hooks was primed for a victory in both events by the time the Olympic Trials occurred in 1984, and breezed through qualifying in each event. 

The political climate surrounding the 1984 Olympics was at best strained as a result of the U.S. boycott in 1980 and the Soviet’s retaliatory boycott of 1984. Neither country was secure in sending their athletes into their Cold War enemy’s boundaries. At the time the Soviet Union was thought to have the best sprint athletes in the world, so Brisco-Hooks would be running against the rest of the world instead of the best. She focused on what she could control and took solace in the rest of the world coming to her backyard to compete. Her performance proved she was the best during the 1984 Games. Her domination on the track in the 400-meter, the 200-meter, and finally the 4 × 400-meter relay left the crowd inspired by this driven young woman. Her coach, Bobby Kersee, husband and coach of the great heptathlete Jackie Joyner-Kersee, was so overcome with emotion that he leaped over walls and Olympic security to congratulate Brisco-Hooks in a bear hug of excitement and emotion. Brisco- Hooks collapsed on the track from the exhaustion and emotion, and it was a moment remembered as one of those great Olympic achievement stories celebrated by coach and athlete. Her career came full circle from Robert’s tragic fall on a Los Angeles’s high school track to three Olympic Gold Medals in the Los Angeles stadium. Brisco- Hooks dedicated her 400-meter victory to Robert and the 200-meter win to the rest of her family for their unconditional support.

Brisco-Hooks did not experience the typical leap to stardom that usually accompanies one gold medal, let alone three, but she did have the unique opportunity to appear on the popular Cosby Show and test her speed against Bill Cosby himself in the episode “Off to the Races.” Brisco-Hooks chose to leverage her popularity in the Los Angeles community instead of exploiting it for financial endorsements. She became an advocate for drug-free schools and actively sought out opportunities to interact with students in the classroom to convey her message. She made time in her training and competition schedule because she felt so passionately about making a difference. She continued to have success on the track, setting the world record for the indoor 400-meter race in 1985. She followed up the next year with a world championship title in the 400-meter outdoors. Brisco-Hooks ran on the 4 × 400-meter relay team in the 1988 Olympic Games held in Seoul, Korea. She was in the twilight of her career and looking beyond what track and field had to offer, but her competitive nature was in overdrive. The team was facing their rival, the Soviet Union team, for the first time since the 1976 Olympic Games in Munich. The boycotts of 1980 and 1984 Olympic Games had simply fueled the fire. The U.S. women’s 4 × 400-meter relay team was ready to run, and they ran fast enough for a new American record. But, sadly the Soviets took the gold medal that day. Brisco- Hooks earned her fourth Olympic medal and her first taste of silver. She retired from the sport soon thereafter.

Most people hope to leave a place better than they found it, but Brisco-Hooks revolutionized the sprint world of track and field. She proved that impossible feats are in fact possible with hard work and dedication. Michael Johnson later accomplished the same feat as Brisco-Hooks, winning Olympic Gold in the 200-meter and 400- meter sprints, and he did it with sponsor support and specially designed gold spikes to run those fateful races. She accomplished the feat with grace, class, and pure emotion that encapsulated everything she had given of herself to the sport. She began her athletic career out of tragedy, struggled through the effects of her pregnancy on her career, set Olympic records, won numerous championships, and captured four Olympic medals. She is a woman of strength, passion, and drive and a true champion. Today, Valerie Brisco-Hooks resides in Los Angeles and trains disadvantaged children for the Special Olympics.

The previous excerpt was written by Stacy Martin-Tenney