Name Savatheda Fynes | Role Olympic athlete | |
 | ||
Education Eastern Michigan University, Michigan State University | ||
Savatheda Fynes (born October 17, 1974) is a track and field sprint athlete, competing internationally for Bahamas. She is an Olympic gold medalist in the 4 x 100 meter relay race. Some sources spell her first name "Sevatheda."
Contents
Career
She graduated Physiology and Exercise Science at Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA. She missed the 2001 World Championships due to injury. She had a minor car accident prior to the 2000 Olympic trials, which limited her training. At the World Championships in 1999 she was eliminated in semifinals due to an injured hip flexor. In 1996 a hamstring injury kept her out of the 100m at the Atlanta Games.
She was a member of the Bahamas 4x100m relay team that won gold at the 1999 World Championships. After that performance the team of Fynes, Pauline Davis-Thompson, Debbie Ferguson, Chandra Sturrup and Eldece Clark-Lewis were dubbed the Golden Girls. When they won the relay again at the Sydney Olympics they showed the world why they had earned that name. The girls returned home from Sydney to a six-day fanfare of festivities in their honor, from receptions and parades to monetary awards and land grants. Central Bank has even been commissioned to mint a commemorative gold coin to honour their victory.
She earned an athletic scholarship to Southern University in New Orleans, Louisiana, but later transferred to Eastern Michigan University and then to Michigan State University.
She was forced to sit out the 1996 season because she was a transfer. She attended an indoor meet that year and stayed in a hotel room paid for by Michigan State. That being a violation, she lost her final season of eligibility in 1998, and her coach lost her job.