TSU Director of Track and Field Chandra Cheeseborough-Guice receives lifetime achievement award

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (TSU News Service) – Tennessee State University Director of Track and Field Chandra Cheeseborough-Guice is the recipient of the Jimmy Carnes Lifetime Achievement Award.

She received the award from the Florida Track and Field Hall of Fame at a ceremony on Jan.  8 in Daytona Beach, Fla.

“Jimmy Carnes has done a lot for the sport of track and field, and I’m honored that my name is in a conversation with his name,” Cheeseborough-Guice said.

Carnes served as the head coach of the track and field team at the University of Florida before being named head coach of the United States Olympic Team.

Cheeseborough-Guice emerged on the scene in 1975 at age 16, where she won a gold medal in the 200-meter dash in the Pan American Games with a world junior record of 22.77 seconds. She also won the TAC 100-meter championship in a time of 11.13.

The Jacksonville, Fla. native went on to be named to three United States Olympic teams. She placed sixth as a 17-year old in the 100-meter dash in Montreal  in 1976. She qualified for the ill-fated 1980 Olympic team that did not compete because of a boycott. In 1984, at the Los Angeles games, she made Olympic history by running a leg on two gold-medal relay teams and was the silver medalist in the 400-meters.

As a coach, Cheeseborough-Guice has guided TSU to eight Ohio Valley Conference Championships and is an eight-time OVC Coach of the Year honoree.

In 2008, Cheeseborough-Guice was named the sprinter's coach for the USA Team that competed in the Beijing, China Olympics. USA captured 23 medals that included 10 gold, eight silver and five bronze medals.

In 2009, she served as the women's head coach for Team USA at the IAAF World Outdoor Championships in Berlin, Germany. Under Cheeseborough-Guice, the team collected 22 medals overall, winning more than any other country to dominate the placing table with 231 points. Team USA registered 10 gold, six silver and six bronze medals, along with several outstanding performances.

During the summer of 2015, the TSU graduate helped guide Team USA as an assistant coach at the Pan American Games in Toronto, Canada. Cheeseborough-Guice worked directly with the women’s sprinters and hurdlers, who took home 10 of the team’s 41 medals at the games.