Rhonda Anderson sits on the edge of her couch, her eyes locked on the television. The 2024 Paris Olympics are in full swing, and Anderson, a former Olympic hurdler, watches with nostalgia and excitement. As the screen flickers, she beams with pride while recalling her journey to the 1976 Montreal Games — memories that feel as vivid today as they did nearly five decades ago. Each hurdle, each race, each victory and defeat, replay in her mind with every stride taken by today’s athletes.
“I must confess when I watch some of these races, and if the winner chokes up, I get choked up, too!” she said. “I can relate to some of the mental and physical stresses that the athletes go through and some events that I watch. My heart’s beating fast, but I love it. I’m so excited for the athletes.”
This year’s Paris Olympics has been a testament to the diversity of America’s greatest athletes. According to the International Olympic Committee, this year’s Olympics were the most gender-balanced in history, with equal participation of male and female athletes.
For Anderson, now 65, the Olympics are more than just a global spectacle — they’re a reminder of a time when she was among the world’s elite athletes. As she watches the current generation of track stars like Noah Lyles and Sha’Carri Richardson, she’s struck by their physical prowess and the mental fortitude to compete on the world stage. This year, the Gary native is particularly excited about the increasing diversity among competitors and the growing presence of Black athletes from the U.S. and worldwide.
“All we need is access,” she said.
Her historic journey from the streets of Gary to becoming the youngest U.S. track athlete in the 1976 Olympics was anything but easy. It was shaped by grit, determination, and barrier-breaking talent.
Road to the Olympics
At 13, as Rhonda Brady, she ran her first race not for a medal, but to make a statement.
“So when I was in middle school, they didn’t have the same opportunities for girls as they did for boys,” she said. “We just were not happy that we didn’t have the opportunities that the boys at our middle school had, so we thought we would make some noise about it.”
To balance the gender scales, her friend convinced her to try out for the boys’ track team, where she won again, again, and again. To her surprise, Anderson went undefeated against all the boys on the team. When a family friend introduced her to Mayor Richard Hatcher’s Youth Foundation track team, which was open to girls, she was ready to sign up for the life-changing opportunity.
As a young teen from Gary, Anderson went on to compete and win medals in international races, including the Junior National Championships and Junior National Olympics. At the Pan American Games, she placed third in a photo finish, just a tenth of a second behind first place. It was then that Anderson and her coach, Emanuel Coley, realized she could compete in the Olympics.
Anderson, however, had other plans. She didn’t want to go to the Olympic trials. She preferred to go to Europe with the junior national team.
“I told my coach, ‘I’m just going to Europe with the junior team. I’ll try out for the Olympics next time,’” she recalled. “He said, ‘No, you’re not!’” she added, laughing.
Fortunately, Anderson reconsidered.
“I said, ‘OK, well, maybe you’re right. I think I can get third.’ He said, ‘No, you’re not going to this meet trying to get third. You’re going to win.’”
With the Olympic trials approaching, Anderson returned to Gary two weeks beforehand to train with her coach and local track legends. She trained with Willie Williams, the former world record holder and “World’s Fastest Human” in the 100-meter dash, who was then a coach at West Side High School, as well as Jimmy Williams, the top male hurdler in Indiana.
As Coley foretold, Anderson left it all on the track. She became the 1976 U.S. Olympic Trial champion in the 100-meter hurdles.
“It was really close,” she said. “I only won by two-hundredths of a second. So when I hit the line, I didn’t know what place I got because it was that close. I didn’t know if I was in the top three. And then they gave roses to the winners, and when they started walking toward me with the rose, I just started crying,” she said.
“I didn’t just get third to make the team. I won the trials, and it was amazing.”
Going for gold
Anderson arrived at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal dressed in an all-American uniform, red shirt and blue shorts.
The 16-year-old Anderson was the youngest athlete on the U.S. track team.
Unfortunately, she did not earn a medal during the Games, but she said the experience was still rewarding.
“It was almost anticlimactic because my focus was so much on making the team, and then it was intimidating. And I was overwhelmed, and I didn’t run well there,” she said. “I was overwhelmed by it all, but it was an amazing experience.”
While Anderson didn’t reach the podium at the Olympic Games, her post-athletic achievements went far beyond the track.
After she retired from running due to injuries to her foot and Achilles tendon, she earned a master’s degree in biology and became a highly decorated track coach at Gary’s Lew Wallace High School.
She said her near-decade-long coaching career was one of the most rewarding experiences of her life. The seven-time Northwestern Conference Girls Track and Field Coach of the Year awardee led her girls’ track team to record-breaking feats, including being the first girls’ team in Indiana history to win three consecutive state championships. Despite this, her proudest achievement was positively influencing generations of young women in Gary and teaching them to believe in themselves.
“When I got on the [Youth Foundation] team, there were two girls who had a lot of success,” she said. “I looked up to them because it was like, oh my gosh, I want to be like them. … It was very impactful because if you look at somebody that looks like you, and they’re from the same city, you’re from the same circle, it gives you the feeling that if they can do it, maybe I can do it.”
Anderson said many of her high school athletes became first-generation college students and earned track scholarships. She herself broke another gender barrier by becoming the first woman inducted into the Gary Sports Hall of Fame.
Back home, the retired mother of two appears to have passed down the family’s athletic talent.
Her daughter, Taylor, followed in her mother’s speedy footsteps, competing as a hurdler on her high school track team, placing fourth in the state her senior year, and earning a track scholarship to Indiana State.
Growing up in a single-parent home in Gary, Anderson believes her journey has paved the way for future generations of her family.
“For the generations before me, I think the focus was on survival. You know, I was the first in my family to go to college, so it was a different time. Now, there’s so many college graduates in our family, and it’s just a blessing that now we have those opportunities that our parents and grandparents didn’t have.”
While the Olympics have changed in many ways since Anderson competed, some traditions remain. Today’s athletes trade specialized pins with their international competitors, just as Anderson and her peers did in 1976 — though back then, they exchanged gear.
“I still have a track bag I got from a Russian athlete after trading one of my USA bags,” she recalled.
Reflecting on the Olympics, Anderson added, “With all the turmoil in the world, the Olympics are incredible — a time when countries come together in peace to compete. It’s one of the most amazing things that ever happened.”
