1984 Olympic silver medalist Judith Brown Clarke recalls being one of the first women to compete in the 400-meter hurdle race in Los Angeles.
WSHU's Eda Uzunlar spoke to Clarke about how the games have changed since then.
WSHU: Judi, you ran the 400-meter hurdle race the very first time it was introduced as a track and field event for women, even though men had been running it since 1900. Tell me about that feeling and how the Olympics has changed since.
JBC: So I think it wasn't lost on us that we were the start of something. And it was really a movement of respect and seeing women as athletes doing very competitive and very complex events. That was a point of pride for me and everyone that competed. And I think of now, I mean, at that point in time, we were probably, I think, 32% of women that participated in the Olympics. And now it's 50%. So in this Olympics, 50% of all the participants across countries and across all the events were women. That's beautiful.
WSHU: You're currently the chief diversity officer and vice president for equity and inclusion at Stony Brook University. I want to ask how you navigated an event like the Olympics — that originally was not made for a Black, female athlete — at just 23 years old.
JBC: You know, I was bused. And so, probably since I was 10, I've walked into rooms that weren't my room. It felt like that from 10 to 23. I was in rooms that people didn't want me in, or I found my way in there. What I learned at a very young age is like, you know, what gives you the legitimacy of staying in this room? And then how do you excel? How do I counter the narrative? You know, so I gotta have good grades because I have to counter the narrative of intelligence and so on, and leadership and so on. I was in everything. So, walking into a room where you didn't expect me, it’s just like, “Hello, friend.”
WSHU: You also ran in the Olympics during a high tension time in the Cold War. I want to know more about competing on the global stage during great political strife, which can also apply to this year's games.
JBC: So during that time, you know, we had boycotted in 1980. So ‘84 was kind of a reaction to that. We were prepared. When we would run, like, in world cups and world championships, the KGB was on the track; they were in full black suits. It was very obvious that, that, you know, there was a very strong presence of government there, even on the track when we're warming up and so on. I think what sport taught me is that two things can be right. At the same time, you can look at a cup that has, you know, that's filled halfway. It is half full, it is half empty. Both are correct. I'm three generations from enslaved ancestors.
And I'm often asked, “How can you represent a country that had slavery?” And, and the one thing that I say is like, you know, there is no country without some level of enslavement, cruelty, inhumanity. What I can do to the best of my ability is offset the unfair things. And if we choose to stay on the half-empty part of the glass and say, “I don't understand why you can't stay in the void of the glass,” It's because I choose not to. I clearly understand what slavery is. But I also know I come from an ancestry of resiliency and tenacity. That's where I choose to stand. I stand on those shoulders.
