The heartbreaking death of Olympic gold medallist Tori Bowie

In May 2023, the world of athletics was dealt a crushing blow after Olympic gold medallist Tori Bowie was found dead at her home in Florida. The death was made even more heartbreaking as further details emerged in the following weeks.

According to the Daily Mail, Tori Bowie was eight months pregnant when she was found dead at her home in Winter Garden, Orlando (USA). The autopsy performed on her body proved that she died after going into labor alone at home and suffering complications.

According to TMZ, the 32-year-old athlete laid in bed when she realized she was going to give birth, but suffered eclampsia and ended up dying. Tori Bowie won three medals at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, including a gold in the 4x100m women's relay.

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USA Today reported that in addition to eclampsia, Tori Bowie may have suffered respiratory complications, due to the sudden increase in blood pressure during pregnancy, which can lead to seizures.

Eclampsia affects a tiny percentage of pregnant women with preeclampsia. In this case, it requires urgent medical attention. The consequences, like in Tori Bowie's case, are fatal.

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Though she was found dead on May 2, her obituary, published by the Dean Memorial Funeral Home, stipulated her date of death as April 23, 2023, suggesting the athlete had been dead for over a week prior to being discovered.

The athlete's relatives alerted the police that they had not been able to speak to her for several days, which resulted in the search of her property.

At the time of her death, she weighed just 96 pounds (43kg), 32 pounds (14kg) below her weight in competition. Sources consulted by TMZ Sports suggested, at the time, that the athlete suffered from severe depression.

Bowie had not officially competed since June 4, 2022 when she finished fifth, in a 200-meter race held in Florida.

Surprisingly, she also did not compete in the trials for the Tokyo Olympics.

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Her last major competition took place in 2019, at the Doha World Cup. She finished fourth in the long jump, with a mark of 6.81 (-0.4).

In the 100-meter sprint, where she was defending her title, she failed to pass through the heats, as covered by World Athletics.

Bowie was one of the best-known athletes on the US national team. In addition to her work in sport, she has worked as a model, appearing in a Valentino campaign and in the Body Issue of ESPN The Magazine.

At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Tori Bowie won gold in the 4x100m, silver in the 100m and bronze in the 200m. She also won two World Championship titles in London 2017 in the 100 meters and 4x100 meters.

The athlete had not updated her social media since October 2019, when she still dreamed of competing in Tokyo.

Despite this, there were reports Bowie had not given up on her dream of competing again, with former track athlete Tianna Madison telling the Guardian in August 2023: “I knew she was training with Brooks Johnson [in 2021], who I had trained with before. And I kinda felt like he was taking care of her heart,” Madison said.

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