Tori Bowie’s hometown is celebrating her life amid the mystery of her death

BRANDON, Ms. — Before becoming a three-time Olympic medalist and before earning the title of the world’s fastest woman, Frentorish Bowie welcomed a camera crew to her hometown, Sandhill, Miss.

“Here I found my strength” Bowie, nicknamed Tori, said from the small town 30 minutes northeast of Jackson.

It was 2016 and at age 26, Bowie was about to make her Olympic debut as part of the U.S. sprint team at the Rio de Janeiro Games. But first, she stopped by Pisgah High School to visit teachers and staff and found herself wiping away happy tears. She loved being home.

“One day I hope I can get to Sandhill and there’s a huge sign that says, ‘Welcome to Sandhill, home of Tori Bowie,'” she said.

On Saturday, the community so proud of Bowie struggled for answers as she gathered for her funeral and mourned her recent unexplained death. She was 32.

Her body was found May 2 by Orange County, Florida sheriff’s deputies, who conducted a welfare check after she had not been seen or heard from in several days.

Bowie had been pregnant, but it was unclear if she had come to term before she died. A programme presented at the funeral service said on Saturday that Bowie was “preceded in death” by a daughter, Ariana Bowie. An official from the Orange County Medical Examiner’s Office on Saturday, who declined to name her, confirmed a “baby Bowie,” but she declined to provide further details.

No cause of death has been released because toxicology tests are pending, and the office this week said tests could take up to three months.

Bowie’s final years seemed to have been as mysterious as her death. Fellow athletes who once trained or competed with her said she had become aloof in recent years. Many did not know her at all from the track. Al Joyner, the Olympic track and field coach who coached Bowie in her early 20s, said he last spoke to her in the fall of 2019 at the World Championships in Doha, Qatar.

At Saturday’s memorial service at True Vine Baptist Church in Brandon, Miss., a crowd of mourners tried to put aside their questions and focus on Bowie’s athletic achievements, her faith and her bubbly moments.

But a sense of shock still permeated the room as tributes were shared. Even Rev. Sylvester London, who led the service and delivered the eulogy, described his disbelief when he learned through a news report that Bowie had died. “I was shocked, shocked,” London said. “Then I started praying.”

Bowie’s road to track and field fame started in Sandhill almost by accident. She wanted to play basketball at Pisgah High School, but the school required interested students to play track and field games as well, as the school was too small to field separate teams for each sport. Bowie reluctantly agreed, even though she was a lot preferably long basketball shorts to the shorter shorts given to track athletes.

Not having their own track, the Pisgah Dragons practiced by running around a grassy field. They went on to win three state championships, with Bowie competing in the 100-meter, 200-meter, 4×100-meter relay and long jump.

Still, Bowie’s first love was basketball. When she was recruited by the University of Southern Mississippi, she turned the tables. She would do track and field if she could try to walk on to the basketball team, she said. They came to an agreement.

“What struck me was that she was very tall and lanky,” says Sonya Varnell, a longtime athletic administrator at the University of Southern Mississippi. “Most sprinters have a lot of muscle, and she was tall and thin like a basketball player.”

Varnell was attracted to Bowie, whom she described as a hard worker who was humble and unassuming. Varnell was also raised by her grandmother, growing up in the same county as Bowie, and was also a first-generation student-athlete. “She came out of nowhere,” Varnell said, “just like me.” She added: “I don’t think she realized how good she was or how good she could be.”

Her greatest potential initially seemed to be in field events. When Joyner, a 1984 Olympic gold medalist in the triple jump, met Bowie in 2013, she was being groomed as a long jumper. It wasn’t long before he told Bowie she could also be a sprinter on the world stage, he said.

“I told her she’s going to be the next big one,” Joyner said. “And that was in 2014. I will never forget the day she defeated Allyson Felix. She said to me, ‘Al, you were right.’”

At the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, she won a silver medal in the 100 meters, a bronze medal in the 200 meters and a gold medal in the 4×100 meter relay in a team that included Felix.

In 2017, Bowie won a world championship, earning the title of fastest woman in the world after a dramatic 100m race she won by one hundredth of a second by leaning her head forward over the finish line.

Her dreams expanded. She wanted to do modeling and was interested in working with fashion brands, and in 2018 she did both. She was featured in a Valentino campaign and a Stella McCartney-Adidas cooperation. She walked in New York Fashion Week. She was photographed by Annie Leibovitz for Fashion and was featured in the ESPN “Body Issue.”

She wanted to use her fame for good, said her friend Antoine Preudhomme. When she was a toddler, Bowie and her sister, Tamarra, who is 11 months older, were transferred to the foster care system by their biological mother, Bowie told reporters. Their paternal grandmother, Bobbie Louise Smith, was granted legal custody and raised them.

Bowie wanted to show up for foster kids, Preudhomme said. Together, the pair would visit foster homes in Florida and Mississippi three to four times a year to deliver Christmas gifts and occasionally challenge children to foot races.

Tanyeka Anderson, program director at foster care provider Apelah in Mississippi, recalls a visit from Bowie in 2019. She said, “To come and help a person her size? To come back and give to our children? That is something very special.”

She said Bowie threw a party for the kids, including dancing, and stayed for more than four hours. “She was very lively, very happy,” Anderson said.

But then something changed. Bowie was always private, friends and former coaches said. But in recent years, Bowie lost touch with many of the people who had been part of her athletic rise.

Varnell and Joyner found their texts and calls unanswered and unanswered. Varnell hoped she was busy. Joyner hoped she was training for the next big thing, perhaps a comeback after her performance at the 2019 world championships, where she placed fourth in the long jump. Bowie’s Instagram pagewhich was fairly active was last updated in October 2019.

She last competed in a 200-meter event during a sprint series in Montverde, Florida, in July 2022. Bowie attended Full Sail University in Florida in the fall of 2022 until her death, according to her family’s obituary.

During Friday’s visit, many mourners heard Bowie’s voice again for the first time in years, smiling as they watched her races and interviews played on a television above Bowie’s coffin.

Her laughter, always contagious, echoed through the room as some shook their heads in apparent disbelief.

“When I get back to Sandhill,” Bowie said in a 2016 video, “I feel free.”

Saturday’s funeral procession followed Bowie back to Sandhill for her funeral. The cemetery is not far from a sign posted in 2018. It reads, “Welcome to the community of Sandhill, home of Olympic gold medalist Tori Bowie.”