Last month, retired Jamaican sprinter Peta-Gaye Dowdie was inducted into the Athletics Hall of Fame at Louisiana State University (LSU) where she studied and competed from 1997 to 2000. The soft-spoken Dowdie said advice from an uncle spurred her on to a fine career at LSU, two Jamaican Olympic teams and important relay medals for the country.

Dowdie, now 44, left Jamaica for LSU after a fine time at St Jago High School, crowned by an elegant class 1 sprint double at Boys and Girls Championships in 1996. She won NCAA titles for LSU over 200m, indoors and out. Fittingly, she won gold over the distance in her last individual race for the Baton Rouge school at the 2000 NCAA Outdoors in 22.51 seconds, her lifetime best.

“My entire career, I always came up short in that event due to injury, and I finally won”, she remembered.

Described as ‘an integral leader’ of 3 NCAA champion teams, Dowdie was the first LSU freshman to win the South Eastern Conference (SEC) 100m title, a feat that has since only been achieved twice in LSU history.

Overall, Dowdie won 12 SEC titles, establishing herself in LSU history as the school’s most individually decorated athlete.

Uncle Harry

In an interview leading up to her November 12 induction to the Hall of Fame, Peta-Gaye recalled an important nugget of advice she received. “My Uncle Harry sat me down and told me I could travel the world, see different places and experience new things if I dedicated myself to the sport,” she recounted.

Uncle Harry was right. She won a 4×100 silver with Jamaica at the 1996 World Under 20 Championships in Australia and as a senior athlete, placed third in the 100m at the 1999 Pan-American Games in Winnipeg, Canada where she anchored Jamaica in the sprint relay. The winning quartet – Kerry-Ann Richards, Aleen Bailey, Beverly Grant and Dowdie – set a Games record time of 42.62 seconds.

A month later, she famously held off the great American Gail Devers to secure the bronze medals for Jamaica at the World Championships in Seville, Spain.

Twice national champion in the 100m and a member of both the 2000 and 2004 Olympic teams, Peta-Gaye competed at the 2006 Commonwealth Games where she reached the 100m semis before helping Jamaica to win the 4×100.

Her last international honour came at the 2007 Pan-American Games in Brazil where Sheri-Ann Brooks, Tracy-Ann Rowe, and Bailey delivered the baton for her to seal the win.