Every Wednesday in February, JWS celebrates Black History Month by spotlighting a prominent Black figure in women's sports history.
Lauryn Williams stands out on the Olympic stage, retiring as one of just six athletes in the world — and the first-ever US woman — to medal at both the Summer and the Winter Games.
Born in 1983, the Pennsylvania product started her historic career as a sprinter on the track and field team at the University of Miami, qualifying for her first Olympics within weeks of graduating in 2004 — before going on to take silver in the 100-meter dash in Athens.
After failing to medal at the 2008 Beijing Games, Williams stepped away from competing for a year, returning to the track in 2011 and earning her first Olympic gold medal in 2012 as part of Team USA's 4×100-meter team in London.
The three-time World Champion sprint star then traded one track for another in the fall of 2013, pivoting to bobsledding where her speed took her to the highest echelon of the cold-weather sport.
Less than 18 months after last medaling in the Summer Games, Williams qualified to represent the USA in the two-woman bobsled on the Winter Olympics' stage, traveling to the 2014 Sochi Games where she brought home silver alongside US bobsled icon Elana Meyers Taylor.
Skyrocketing from complete bobsled novice to the Olympic podium in just six months, Williams made history 12 years ago — and to date, the 42-year-old remains the only US woman to eve earn both Summer and Winter Olympic hardware.
"Anytime I step on any track — ice track, regular track, any kind of track — my goal is to win," Williams said after her Sochi victory. "So I'm not surprised at all."
