Jeanette Bolden

Jeanette Bolden won a gold medal in the 4x100 relay at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Bolden also finished fourth in the 100 metres. Bolden ran for UCLA where she was second in the 100 at the 1982 NCAA Meet. In 1980, at the Liberty Bell Games, the meet that was held in Philadelphia in lieu of the US competing in Moskva, Bolden placed second in the 100. She was runner-up in the 100 at the 1981 TAC Meet.

Bolden’s career ended when she ruptured her Achilles’ tendon during the 1988 US Olympic Trials. She then turned to coaching and became an assistant coach at UCLA, becoming the head women’s coach in 1994. She later became head coach at the University of Central Florida. Bolden was also the women’s head coach of the US team at the 2008 Olympics.

After 25 years coaching, Bolden (by then Bolden-Pickens) returned to an early love. She had worked at the 27th Street Bakery Shop as a teenager, when it was run by her parents. In the 1990s it had struggled, but Bolden-Pickens moved back to her hometown of Los Angeles, took over the shop, and helped restore it to its former glory in the Compton neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Personal Best: 100 – 11.08 (1986).