Benita Fitzgerald Mosley

Personal information
Born	July 6, 1961 (1961-07-06) (age 64) Warrenton, Virginia, U.S.
Medal record Women'sathletics Representingthe United States Olympic Games 1984 Los Angeles 100 metres hurdles Pan American Games 1983 Caracas 100 metres hurdles Olympic Boycott Games 1980 Philadelphia 100 m hurdles

Benita Fitzgerald Mosley (formerlyBenita Fitzgerald-Brown; born July 6, 1961) is a retired American athlete, who mainly competed in the women's100 metres hurdles event. Currently, Benita is a CEO of the company Multiplying Good with their mission being "to inspire greatness through service to others."

A native ofWarrenton, Virginia, she grew up in nearbyDale City where at an early age, she began to excel in athletics and academics. After graduating from Gar-Field High School, she attended theUniversity of Tennessee on a full athletic scholarship, where she earned a B.S. in industrial engineering. While at Tennessee, she was a fifteen-time All-American and won 4 NCAA titles, including three 100-meter outdoor hurdles championships.

Benita Fitzgerald qualified for the 1980 U.S. Olympic track and field team but did not compete due to the U.S. Olympic Committee'sboycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics inMoscow, Russia. She was one of 461 athletes to receive aCongressional Gold Medal instead.^[1]

She competed for the United States in the1984 Summer Olympics held inLos Angeles, where she won theOlympic Gold medal in a time of 12.84 seconds, beating favoriteShirley Strong by 0.04 seconds. Fitzgerald is only the second U.S. woman, afterBabe Didrikson, and the first African-American woman, to win a gold medal in the100-meter hurdles. She was also an alternate for the 1988 United States Olympic team.

In 1996, Fitzgerald was honored as one of eightU.S. Olympians to carry theOlympic flag into the stadium during the Opening Ceremony of theCentennial Olympic Games inAtlanta. Fitzgerald has been inducted into numerous halls of fame, including the Virginia High School Hall of Fame, Virginia Sports Hall of Fame, and the University of Tennessee's Lady Volunteers Hall of Fame.

There is a road named after Fitzgerald in her childhood hometown ofDale City, Virginia. The street can be found off Dale Blvd. between I-95 and Minnieville Rd. Fitzgerald Elementary School, named after her mother Fannie, is located on the road.^[2]

Fitzgerald was inducted into theUSTFCCCA Collegiate Athlete Hall of Fame in 2024.^[3]

• Benita Fitzgerald-Brown atWorld Athletics
• Benita Fitzgerald-Brown at databaseOlympics.com (archived)
• Benita Fitzgerald-Brown atOlympics at Sports-Reference.com (archived)

• USA Indoor Track and Field Championships winners
• 1961 births
• Living people
• American women hurdlers
• Olympic gold medalists for the United States in track and field
• Athletes (track and field) at the 1984 Summer Olympics
• Sportspeople from Woodbridge, Virginia
• University of Tennessee alumni
• Medalists at the 1984 Summer Olympics
• Tennessee Volunteers women's track and field athletes
• Track and field athletes from Virginia
• Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States in athletics (track and field)
• Congressional Gold Medal recipients
• Universiade medalists in athletics (track and field)
• Women's Sports Foundation executives
• People from Warrenton, Virginia
• Sportspeople from Fauquier County, Virginia
• People from Dale City, Virginia
• Athletes (track and field) at the 1983 Pan American Games
• FISU World University Games bronze medalists for the United States
• Medalists at the 1981 Summer Universiade
• Medalists at the 1983 Pan American Games
• 20th-century African-American sportswomen
• 20th-century American sportswomen
• 21st-century African-American women
• NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships winners

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
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