Tonique Williams-Darling

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| sport = Track and field

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| club = South Carolina Gamecocks

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| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1976|1|17}}

| birth_place = Nassau, Bahamas

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{{MedalCompetition|Central American and Caribbean Championships in Athletics}}

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Tonique Williams-Darling ({{nee}} Williams; born January 17, 1976) is a Bahamian sprint athlete. She won the gold medal in the 400 meters at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.

College

She attended the University of South Carolina, graduating with a bachelor's degree from the Moore School of Business in 1999.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}

Professional

Williams-Darling had a breakout year in 2004. She started with a bronze medal at the 2004 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Budapest, Hungary, running a personal best behind Russia's Natalya Nazarova and Olesya Krasnomovets. Then in July, at the Rome meeting of the IAAF Golden League, Tonique broke Mexican world champion Ana Guevara's 23 race winning streak in the 400 meter race.

At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece Williams-Darling beat Guevara again. In a head-to-head final straight, she proved to be more powerful than the Mexican runner who had been hampered with injuries and trained only on a limited basis prior to the Games. Winning the race, she became the Bahamas' first individual Olympic gold medalist.

After the Olympics she secured the win in the overall Golden League-jackpot, cashing in US $500,000 after splitting the US $1M pot with Christian Olsson.

She also won the gold medal in the 400 meters at 2005 World Championships in Athletics, in a head-to-head race with American 400-meter specialist Sanya Richards. At the 2006 Commonwealth Games, despite being the favourite, she was beaten unexpectedly both in her semi-final and the final by Christine Ohuruogu of England, claiming silver instead.

Williams-Darling took the 2007 season off to nurse a hamstring injury{{cite web |url=http://www.thenassauguardian.com/sports/289350007898259.php |title=Tonique takes the year off |access-date=2007-08-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070810095521/http://www.thenassauguardian.com/sports/289350007898259.php |archive-date=2007-08-10 }} and did not compete during the 2008 season.

In November 2012, she was elected as Public Relations Director of the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations (BAAA) for the period 2012-2015.

{{ Citation

|last = Williams

|first = Tonique

|date = December 13, 2012

|title = BAAA Introduces New Executives and Council Members

|url = http://www.thebahamasweekly.com/publish/sport/BAAA_BAAA_Executives_and_Council_Members_printer.shtml

|publisher = Bahamas Weekly

|access-date = January 2, 2013

}}{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

In 2015 Williams-Darling served as senior director of event media services for the BTC/IAAF World Relays in the Bahamas.{{Cite web |title=Media houses, journalists pour in for IAAF World Relays |url=http://www.tribune242.com/news/2015/apr/28/media-houses-journalists-pour-iaaf-world-relays/ |access-date=2022-12-25 |website=www.tribune242.com |language=en}}

Personal life

She graduated from St. John's College, Bahamas. She is married to fellow Bahamian Track and Field athlete Dennis Darling and is the sister-in-law of former NFL wide receiver Devard Darling.

Commemorations

In 2009 Williams-Darling was inducted into the University of South Carolina's Athletic Hall of Fame.{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2009-09-22 |title=Williams-Darling in USC Hall of Fame |url=https://www.stabroeknews.com/2009/09/22/sports/williams-darling-in-usc-hall-of-fame/ |access-date=2022-12-25 |website=Stabroek News |language=en-us}}

For her achievements to date, the Bahamas Government honoured her by naming a major highway the Tonique Williams-Darling Highway.{{Cite web |last=Darling |first=Crystal |date=2022-12-09 |title=Major roadworks underway in 2023 |url=https://ewnews.com/major-roadworks-underway-in-2023 |access-date=2022-12-25 |website=Eye Witness News |language=en-US}}