Olympian Sheila Hudson Shares How Title IX Set the Course for the Rest of Her Life

The former Cal triple jump star was the first in her family to attend a four-year college.

Sheila Hudson turned five years old one week after Title IX became law, so the two kind of grew up together.

What did Title IX mean to Hudson?

Everything.

“It really did sort of pave the way for the rest of my life,” she said.

At Rio Linda High School just north of Sacramento in the mid-1980s, Hudson joined the track and field team as a freshman. She long jumped and dabbled in the sprints and hurdles.

But when the triple jump was introduced as an event available to girls, Hudson was all in. “It just kind of came natural to me,” she said. “I started doing it for the next 20 years.”

*** A brief history of Title IX at Cal

The opportunity that Title IX gave Hudson led her to achievements she could only imagine. The chance to attend Cal, where she earned All-America honors and a degree in architecture. American records in her speciality. A trip to the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.

“It’s been huge — you can’t deny that. It’s opened the doors for so many opportunities for girls and women in sports and education,” she said when asked to reflect on the impact of a law celebrating its 50th anniversary today.

“Providing opportunities in sports leads to scholarships, it leads to a way to pay for education. That was certainly the case for me,” she said. “Coming out of high school, I don’t think my parents could have afforded to send me to college. I don’t know if I would have been able to make it to college without earning that track scholarship to Cal.”

No one in her family had ever attended a four-year college, but Hudson took full advantage of her opportunity. She is now Dr. Sheila Hudson, dean of health sciences at Solano Community College in Fairfield, Calif.

Along the way, Hudson became America’s first great female triple jumper.

She won NCAA championships in the event in 1987, ’88 and ’90, and went on to capture nine U.S. national titles — four outdoors , five indoors. She held the American outdoor record for 17 years until it was broken in 2004, and the indoor national record for 23 years until 2017.

Growing up, her idols — she-roes, she calls them — were American sprint icon Wilma Rudolph and Olympic gymnastics stars Nadia Comaneci and Olga Korbut. “Actually, I wanted to go to the Olympics as a gymnast,” she said.

Sheila Hudson at Cal

Photo courtesy of Cal Athletics

But as her track career blossomed, the equation flipped and it was Hudson who was inspiring others.

“Having the opportunity, showing that we’re strong, capable, powerful, that we can do anything we set our minds to, that’s sort of the power of (Title IX)," she said. "Young girls seeing women doing things ahead of them and paving the way."

After meets, Hudson would greet young girls who said they wanted to do what she was doing. "How far did you jump when you were my age?" they would ask.

"’You realize you’re someone who can foster that dream in that young girl.”

It required a long wait before Hudson fulfilled her ultimate athletic dream, as she discusses in the video above. Because while Title IX provided opportunity at home, its reach did not impact the global sports landscape.

Throughout the peak of her career, the triple jump was not on the schedule for the 1988 Seoul Olympics or the ’92 Barcelona Games. “The men had been triple jumping in the Olympics since 1896. It just didn’t make sense,” she said.

Frustrated, Hudson campaigned on behalf of the event through media interviews after meets. She wrote a letter to members of the International Olympic Committee. Hudson hopes her efforts helped in small ways.

Finally, the event was added in time for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

Sheila Hudson, right, and teammate Diana Wills-Orrange at opening ceremonies.

Photo courtesy of Sheila Hudson

“I was ecstatic. I’d been waiting so long,” Hudson said. “Up to that point I kind of had to say goodbye to all my friends on the track who were going off to World Championships or Olympics and root for them while watching TV.

“It was great to be able to know, gosh, I’m finally going to get that USA uniform.”

In Atlanta, another one of her heroes — Muhammad Ali — lit the torch at the opening ceremonies. Because the Games were on home soil, friends and family were able to attend. Hudson finished 10th, but that wasn’t even the point.

She got to compete.

“That whole month (leading to the Olympics), I was walking on the clouds,” Hudson said. “It was just magical.”

Cover photo of former Cal track and field star Sheila Hudson

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo