Madeline Manning
Madeline Manning Mims is a former American runner. Between 1967 and 1981 she won ten national titles and set a number of American records. She participated in the 1968, 1972, and 1976 Summer Olympics. She likely also would have participated in the 1980 Games in Moscow, had they not been boycotted by the United States. At the 1968 Olympics she won a gold medal in the 800 m, the only American woman to win this event. Until 2008, she was the youngest winner of the event. At the 1972 Games in Munich she won a silver medal in the 4×400 m relay with teammates Mable Fergerson, Kathy Hammond, and Cheryl Toussaint.
Manning is a graduate of Tennessee State University and a famed member of their TigerBelles. In 1984 she was inducted into the United States National Track and Field Hall of Fame.
Manning is founder and president of the United States Council for Sports Chaplaincy and has been a chaplain at the 1988 Seoul, 1992 Barcelona, 1996 Atlanta, 2000 Sydney, 2004 Athens, and 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. She also has a ministry through sports and the arts known as Ambassadorship, Inc. She is also an author, speaker and contemporary gospel recording artist, who was inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame in 2005. She is currently studying for a Master of Divinity degree at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and is one of the chaplains of the Tulsa Shock of the WNBA.
She competed through the mid 1970s under the hyphenated name of Madeline Manning-Jackson. She married John Jackson in 1969 but divorced him by 1970. Her son from that marriage, John Jackson III was the NCAA Triple Jump champion while competing at the University of Oklahoma. After briefly retiring from the sport, she returned running with anger and frustration, to the point that her coach had to train her separate from other athletes on her team and had to ask her to slow down.
