Tori Bowie’s Preventable Death: Why the “Fastest Woman in the World” Died at Only 32

November 22nd, 2025

In 2016, Tori Bowie stood on the Olympic podium in Rio as a gold medal was draped over her neck. Seven years later, she was found alone in her Florida home, 8 months pregnant, emaciated, dead.  

Foster Care and Early Athletics

Born on August 27, 1990, Bowie grew up in the tiny town of Sand Hill, Mississippi. When Bowie was only 2 years old, her mother gave her and her sister, Tamara, who is 11 months older, over to the foster-care system. Even as an adult, Bowie wasn’t sure why. “I never asked her about it,” said Bowie, “but she was going through her own issues.” 

What “issues” Bowie’s mother suffered are not clear, but Bowie herself would later be diagnosed with bipolar disorder, a disorder with a high genetic component. In her crucial early childhood years with her mother, Bowie could only recall an overwhelming unhappiness. Foster care only added to Bowie’s early struggles. 

When her grandmother was awarded legal guardianship of the sisters nine months after they entered foster care, “life changed in a major way,” she reflected. Bowie’s grandmother provided stability, accountability, and safety. Once in the care of her grandmother, Bowie blossomed into a playful kid with an athletic streak. 

Growing up in a “really country” town characteristic of deeply rural Mississippi, Bowie and her cousins turned to one resource they had in spades: the great outdoors. “We were always trying to create some type of competition, whether it was racing between trees or stacking tires and hurdling over them,” Bowie recalled in an interview.

As she entered Pisgah High School, Bowie’s aptitude for organized, competitive athletics was undeniable. Originally trying her hand at basketball, Bowie soon joined her high school’s track team as well. 

In a moment characteristic of both her fierceness and institutional control, Bowie asked her track coach if she could wear her longer, looser basketball shorts instead of the skimpier track shorts Bowie found both impractical and unnecessarily revealing. Her coach responded by kicking her off the team, and Bowie was only allowed to return once she promised to drop the issue and wear the original girl’s track uniform. This pattern of glimmering attempts at self determination quickly stamped out by authoritative institutions would repeat itself again and again in Bowie’s adulthood.   

College Athletic Career

Nevertheless, her long jump, sprints, and drive garnered Bowie a reputation as one of Mississippi’s best young athletes. She earned a scholarship to the University of Southern Mississippi, where she became the first athlete from the university to achieve an indoor and outdoor NCAA long jump title double in a single season, winning indoor gold in March 2011 and adding the outdoor crown in June of that year. In her senior season, Bowie strengthened her triple jump, achieving a personal best of 13.09 meters in the triple jump in 2012. 

In the spring of 2012, Bowie received her diploma in Interdisciplinary Studies. Seeing a clear path as a professional athlete, Bowie set aside her other interests such as fashion design and nonprofit work to chase her Olympic dreams. She was on track to become the fastest woman in the world. 

Going Pro

After graduating in 2012, Bowie saved up enough money to buy a $500 one-way plane ticket to San Diego, home of the Olympic Training Center. She set a personal goal to go pro in 2013and she hoped that the Olympic Training Center would get her there. 

But it wasn’t an easy transition. Bowie was broke, isolated, and facing an intensely competitive field. As she put it, “I had nothing and had left my entire family behind.”

Enter Al Joyner, the 1984 Olympic gold medalist in the triple jump and an OTC coach, who quickly became an integral part of Bowie’s career. Not only did he become her coach, Joyner also became a source of emotional support. “He’s always told me I have what it takes,” she reflected. “He believed in me before I believed in myself.”

After a strong start to the 2014 season, a disappointing long jump performance at the World Indoor Championships in Poland changed the course of Bowie’s life. “I went into that world championship ranked top in the world [in the long jump] and thought I was so prepared, but I didn’t even make the finals,” Bowie said in an interview. “I think I got last place and left the meet feeling so heartbroken. I called my manager/agent, who had been encouraging me for a year to focus on sprinting, and told her I needed to do something different. She said, ‘How about we find you a sprint coach?’”

That “manager/agent” was Kimberly Holland of Icon Management. Holland represented— and continues to represent—some of the most prominent track and field stars. At the time, Holland seemed like a source of support for Bowie. 

Pursuing Sprinting 

As Bowie shifted focus to sprinting, she quickly rose up the ranks. By the end of 2014, she ranked No.1 in the women’s 100m after a 10.80-second win at the Monaco Diamond League. Between 2015 and 2017, Bowie consistently ranked among the top five in the 100m globally, setting personal bests of 10.78 in the 100m and 21.77 in the 200m. She won her first global medal at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing, finishing behind Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Dafne Schippers.

The 2016 Rio Olympics were a natural next step. “Making the 2016 Olympic Team has meant the most to me,” said Bowie in a 2018 interview. “I remember sitting at home watching the 2012 Olympics on TV and feeling so hyped about the idea of one day being there. So to actually make the team and live it, it feels like my greatest accomplishment.”

Bowie went on to win gold in the 4×100 relay, silver in the 100 meters and bronze in the 200 meters. 

She had another record-breaking year in 2017 at the World Athletics Championship in London. Bowie snapped up the individual 100m gold medal, out-leaning her second place competitor by 0.01 seconds and earning the title of “The Fastest Woman in the World.”

“It’s a wonderful feeling … I’m so happy. I feel like the hard work has finally paid off. I couldn’t be any more happy, tonight is perfect,” she told the BBC following her win.

But this peak was also the beginning of the end.

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Dispute with Joyner, Holland

By 2019, cracks were beginning to show. Bowie had torn her quad and moved to a center in California to train, rest, and recover. Bowie, her coach Joyner, and Icon Management had a public falling out over her living arrangements, though the exact details are not clear. 

In an interview with FloTrack, Bowie recounted her memory of the event: She returned to the Elite Athlete Training Center in Chula Vista, California, only to be told she owed $6,000 — a sum she claimed she had never been informed about. “We didn’t even discuss money when I previously moved in,” Bowie insisted. 

When she refused to pay, Bowie was expelled under humiliating circumstances. Security escorted her to her room: “they basically sat there … and watched me pack … and made me leave the premises right away.” 

“Like a criminal,” Bowie added. 

Publicly, she expressed frustration via Twitter: “Soooo supposedly I cant train at the Olympic Training Center anymore because I haven’t paid $6000 that I didn’t even know I owed??‍♀️?” 

Bowie’s residency at the training center was initially supposed to last three months. But she told FloTrach that her coach, Al Joyner, told her he set up another program that would extend her stay for a year.

After being removed from the premises, Bowie assumed that Joyner’s plans for her fell through at some point, though she never heard that from him directly. She only became aware of a problem when interacting with Elite Athlete Training Center staff. 

Bowie agreed to move out of her residence but was assured that she would still have full access to the training facilities going forward. However, Bowie said that Elite Athlete Training Center did not honor their verbal offer.

Forced to move into a hotel, Bowie’s relationship with Joyner and Icon Management was understandably strained.  While Bowie told FloTrack that Joyner had been a good coach for her and she believed in him fully, she also said her frustrations regarding the recent developments at the training center were likely to result in her looking for a new coach.

Similarly, Bowie expressed displeasure with her management team at Icon Management, which she said failed to support her after her eviction.

“I’m not sure how [Icon Management] even allowed me to get treated this way. So, I’m very disappointed,” Bowie told FloTrack. “I never speak up for myself. I usually just let things go and I bite my tongue, and I’m like, ‘OK, it will work out.’”

At least part of Bowie’s frustrations with her management team stemmed from an altercation that Bowie said occurred in February 2018 while she was a member of the Pure Athletics team in Clermont, Florida. Bowie maintained that she and former teammate and Olympic champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo were involved in a physical altercation that developed from a disagreement the two sprinters had during a training session, resulting in Bowie bleeding from a head wound. 

Despite the serious nature of her injury, Bowie said she did not feel adequately supported by her management team afterwards. Frustrated with Icon’s response to that incident and to the one on Wednesday in Chula Vista, Bowie told FloTrack that she was in the process of obtaining new management, a change that did not come to pass.  

Bowie also told FloTrack that both she and Miller-Uibo were ordered to separately see psychologists after the physical altercation. According to Bowie, the group members in Clermont were advised not to tell anyone about the altercation, or else they would be asked to leave the team.

Joyner conceded the rift between himself and the sprinter splintered their relationship in an interview with AP News.

“At that time, me and Tori, we had a great relationship and it cost us that,” Joyner said. “She thought I was somewhere [sic] involved. … It took her into a tailspin to the point where everybody was the enemy. I became the enemy. It was never the same. I was just heartbroken.”

Isolation and Withdrawal

Right around this 2019 housing incident, Bowie begins to slowly fade away from press releases, interviews, articles. 

After finishing fourth in the long jump at world championships in 2019, Bowie posted on social media that she was looking forward to the Tokyo Olympics. The COVID-19 pandemic delayed the games by a year and Bowie did not try to qualify for the U.S. team in 2021 for unknown reasons.

World Athletics lists her as having run only one race in 2022  on June 4 in Florida. She clocked a 23.60 in the 200 meters, nearly 2 seconds off her personal best.

It’s probable that Bowie’s bipolar disorder contributed to her increasing isolation and withdrawal. Her main support system, Joyner, was now “the enemy,” and she further lost trust in Holland, her manager. 

Bipolar disorder, a mental-health condition that causes extreme mood swings, can be treatable with medication and counseling. Though, the disorder remains stigmatized and difficult to successfully treat in the long-term. The National Institute of Mental Health cites studies that say that of the 2.6% of U.S. adults who experience the disorder, 82.9% encounter “serious impairment.”

Bipolar disorder is characterized by mood swings that, according to the Mayo Clinic, “can affect sleep, energy, activity, judgment, behavior and the ability to think clearly.” It’s possible that Bowie’s mental health condition affected her ability to maintain positive social relationships as well as her ability to care for herself. 

Though Bowie had access to mental-health services through both the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and USA Track and Field, officials at both organizations said she did not avail herself of those in the months and weeks before her April 23 death.

Mental Health Neglect, Pregnancy

The same officials told AP News that they believe Bowie’s mental health played a role in how she handled what became an increasingly difficult pregnancy, one she dealt with without much assistance from friends, family or medical professionals. Bowie’s longest relationships, her relationships with Joyner and Holland, were still deeply fractured from the housing incident. 

Bowie was so isolated that it is unclear whether her loved ones were aware that she was expecting a child, The Guardian reported at the time of her death. She did not have a partner, and the circumstances of her pregnancy are not clear. 

What is clear is that Bowie needed help. Badly.

AP News reviewed autopsy and police records, including a 911 call from a family acquaintance who had been asked to check on Bowie at her house after no one heard from her in days.

“Last time I spoke to this girl, it was over three weeks ago. I saw her here at her home and she was living without power,” said the acquaintance, whose name is redacted from the 911 recording. “I reported to her family that I was concerned about her mental health.”

Neighbors reported seeing Bowie sleeping on the floor at a local recreation center sleeping on a bench with groceries near her feet at a park near her house. She was also disturbingly  thin; her autopsy reported that she weighed 96 pounds before her death. Dangerously low for a non-pregnant 5’9” adult, this low weight is even more alarming when her 8-month pregnancy is taken into account. It seemed to those around her that Bowie was not able to keep herself safe. 

One neighbor called the U.S. Olympic committee with their concerns, and the committee in turn notified USA Track and Field. Track officials reached out to Bowie’s agent, Holland, but Holland said Bowie was not in need of help.

Despite Bowie experiencing some sort of crisis, Holland did not seem concerned about her pregnant client’s stability. Even after Track officials shared their information with Holland, it seems as though she took no action. “I didn’t have any red flags,” she told The Washington Post in June.

After Bowie’s death, Icon Management (of which Holland is the founder and president) tweeted: “We’ve lost a client, dear friend, daughter and sister. Tori was a champion … a beacon of light that shined so bright! We’re truly heartbroken and our prayers are with the family and friends.” 

Several months later, Holland spoke with AP News. Holland told the AP that Bowie had access to health care and that Bowie was insistent on not delivering her baby in a hospital.

Body Discovery and Autopsy Results

Police performed a welfare check at Bowie’s house on May 2, 2023, after receiving several calls. One of these calls was the previously cited 911 call from the acquaintance concerned that Bowie had no power and hadn’t been seen in days. This acquaintance told the dispatcher she didn’t feel safe entering because of the smell emanating from the residence.

When the police entered Bowie’s home, it was clear something was very wrong. 

The Orange County Medical Examiner’s Office conducted an autopsy, which indicated that Bowie was eight months pregnant and alone at home, undergoing labor at the time of her death. The report cited “possible complications,” including respiratory distress and eclampsia, a high blood pressure that can cause seizures. Her unborn child did not survive.

Preeclampsia and eclampsia are conditions in which high blood pressure during pregnancy can lead to seizures, coma, or death. Black Americans face an elevated risk of preeclampsia and eclampsia, the NIH says, contributing to a higher death rate before and after childbirth.

Bowie’s death underscores a broader U.S. problem: maternal mortality rates are rising, and Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related issues than white women. The U.S. also has the highest maternal mortality rates of any developed nation.

In another interview after Bowie’s death, Holland asserted that, “Bowie didn’t trust hospitals.” And, as a Black pregnant person, Bowie’s apprehension is understandable. 

“There are systemic barriers that we face in regard to racism…that show up in our healthcare system,” summarizes Dr. Regina Davis Moss, president and CEO of In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda. 

Both preeclampsia and eclampsia need to be closely monitored by an obstetrician during a person’s pregnancy. In most cases, preeclampsia can be managed by an obstetrician before it progresses to eclampsia. Obstetricians will monitor anyone with preeclampsia closely throughout their pregnancy to try and prevent eclampsia-related complications, which include death. 

As a Black woman tasked with navigating the U.S. healthcare system, Bowie’s reluctance to seek obstetric care points to larger systemic issues of race and childbirth. Compounded with bipolar disorder, which can impair judgement and decision-making, Bowie’s choice to manage her pregnancy on her own is even more understandable.  

A Preventable Death

Though Bowie’s death was from natural causes, that doesn’t mean it was inevitable.

People with bipolar disorder have markedly elevated risks of premature mortality, and also have higher rates of cardiovascular deaths. They are also more likely to self isolate, which is especially dangerous during pregnancy, when regular medical care is necessary to protect both mother and fetus. 

Bowie’s mental state was clearly unstable: she was living with no power, sleeping outside, and rapidly losing weight. When a neighbor reported her concerns, those concerns were passed from person to person, with Bowie’s manager ultimately not seeing “any red flags.”

If Bowie had been treated for her bipolar disorder, had access to a stable support system, and felt safe enough to seek obstetric care, she would almost certainly be alive. 

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As a toddler, Bowie was removed from her mother’s home. She bounced around in foster care. 

As a high schooler, Bowie tried to advocate for more appropriate clothing. She was kicked off the team. 

As an athlete, Bowie suffered a head wound from another athlete. She did not feel supported by her management. 

As a recovering athlete, Bowie was evicted and barred from her training center. She did not feel supported by her coach or manager. 

As a pregnant woman living with a debilitating and stigmatized mental illness, Bowie tried to manage her health on her own. Despite neighbors and acquaintances begging athletic and public safety institutions for help, Bowie still died alone in her home with her baby girl, who also passed away.

Tori Bowie was a remarkable athlete. She suffered greatly at the end of her life, and with a social and healthcare safety net, her death would have almost certainly been preventable. Her death often overshadows her life and athletic career, and reports about both her death and life seem to gloss over Bowie as a person. 

Reduced to an unwell woman who died in childbirth or elevated to gold medal athlete, Bowie existed where all of us do: somewhere in between our vicissitudes.