New Track Named to Honor a Track Town Hero

	1968 American women's 400- meter relay team; Margaret Johnson Bailes is second from right

Eugene’s only Olympic gold medalist, Margaret Johnson Bailes, returned to Eugene for the track dedication event.

Two generations ago, a young athlete from Eugene achieved Olympic gold. Now the Margaret Johnson Bailes Track at the Arts & Technology Academy at Jefferson is ready to welcome and inspire future generations of runners.

Margaret Johnson Bailes joined representatives from the Arts & Technology Academy at Jefferson, Eugene School District 4J, the City of Eugene, and the Oregon Track Club at a track dedication event on September 25 to celebrate the completion of the new track and to recognize Eugene’s only Olympic gold medalist.

Ms. Bailes was a 17-year-old Churchill High School student when she won a gold medal as a member of the 4x100 relay team at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. One of the fastest women sprinters in the world at that time, she tied the 100 meters world record twice in the same day during the 1968 National AAU Women’s Track & Field Championships. She still holds the all-time Oregon state high school records for 100 meters and 200 meters set in 1968. In 1991, she was the first black female athlete inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame.

Before rising to prominence as an athlete, Ms. Bailes attended Lincoln Elementary School, Woodrow Wilson Junior High School in 7th and 8th grades and Jefferson Junior High School in the 9th grade. She left Eugene for California during her senior year of high school, completing high school in Oakland, California. In 1981, she returned to Eugene so that her daughter, Felicia, could also attend Jefferson Junior High School and Churchill High School. During that time, Ms. Bailes coached the Churchill High School track team in sprint and long jump.

The track’s surface, funded in part by a grant from Nike, Inc., is made from a blend of recycled running shoe soles and new rubber, representing state-of-the-art engineering and sustainable principles. It encircles a field that was constructed last year, using bond funds, through a partnership between Eugene School District 4J and the City of Eugene.

The new Margaret Johnson Bailes Track overlays the weedy gravel track on which its namesake ran as a student at Jefferson Junior High School more than 40 years ago.

Were you unable to attend the track dedication event on September 25? 
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