5 world-class women with Dayton-area ties who have won Olympic medals

Lucinda Williams Adams 

A desire to race her older brothers as a young child propelled Lucinda Williams Adams toward an Olympic medal.

As a freshman at Tennessee State University, she earned a spot on the 1956 Olympic team. Four years later she competed in the XVII Olympiad. She was the third leg of the 400-meter relay and passed the baton to anchor Wilma Rudolph. She and her teammates brought home the gold.

After the Olympics Adams and her husband moved to Dayton, where she worked in the Dayton Public Schools system for 36 years.

Hyleas Fountain

A former Kettering resident Fountain won silver in the heptathlon at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She also competed in the heptathlon at the 2012 London Olympics.

Fountain tied the American record in the women’s pentathlon at the 2010 World Indoor Championship according to USA Track & Field website and is the only American woman, other than Jackie Joyner-Kersee, to win an Olympic medal in the heptathlon.

Tonja Buford Bailey 

Bailey was a four-time state hurdling champion at Meadowdale High School and then went to the University of Illinois, where she won 25 Big Ten titles as a sprinter, hurdler and relay runner. Four times she was named Big Ten athlete of the year and was the 1992 NCAA 400-meter hurdles champ.

Bailey won bronze in 400-meter hurdles at 1996 Games. Also competed in 1992 and 2000 Games.

“You’re always and forever an Olympian,” she said in 2016. “That’s something I’m really proud of.”

» READ MORE: Tom Archdeacon: Special honor for Buford-Bailey, a Dayton track legend

Deon Hemmings 

Central State product Deon Hemmings won Olympic gold in the 400-meter hurdles in 1996 in Atlanta and became the first Jamaican to win Olympic gold. She also took silver in the 2000 Sydney Games.

Hemmings went on to win a silver medal in the 2000 Olympic games in Sydney.

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Kayla Harrison

» PHOTOS: Kayla Harrison wins second gold medal at 2016 Rio Olympics

Harrison, a Middletown High School graduate, captured a judo gold medal in the 172-pound weight class at the Rio Olympics over the summer, repeating her gold medal from the 2012 London Olympics. She is the first American to win back-to-back judo medals.

Harrison was sexually abused by her childhood coach. She launched the Fearless Foundation aimed at helping victims of abuse.

“I’m mentally tougher than all the girls I’ll fight,” she said in 2012. I know there is nothing I’m going to face that is going to be harder than what I’ve faced in the past.”

» RELATED: Rio Olympics: Middletown’s Kayla Harrison golden again