In July and August 1996, the world sent its finest athletes to Atlanta. Some athletes came as familiar names from familiar nations. Others had toiled in obscurity. Each came proudly to Atlanta, and Atlanta received them in the same manner. To commemorate the 20th anniversary of those Summer Games, the AJC offers 20 memorable athletes and performances.
The sixth in the series: Gwen Torrence, from East Lake Meadows to Olympic gold.
When Gwen Torrence was a child growing up in the East Lake Meadows public-housing project not far from downtown Atlanta, she held dreams that had nothing to do with the Olympics. And even when she was competing internationally, including three Olympics, she had a vision beyond the track.
“I always said when I grow up, I’m going to be a hair stylist,” Torrence said.
Twenty years after earning bronze in the 100-meter dash and gold in the 4x100 relay in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Torrence, 51, has fully lived out her ambition. She owns her own boutique, Bangz & Tanglez Hair Salon, in a small shopping center in Lithonia, just off I-20.
“Six years and rolling,” she said. “So I’m holding on.”
In 1996, Torrence was one of the marquee athletes of the Atlanta Games, a hometown girl who graduated from Columbia High and ran track at the University of Georgia and had a chance at multiple gold medals and the title of world’s fastest woman. It didn’t quite play out as hoped. She overtrained, got a cramp in the first round of the 100 and claimed bronze. She anchored the victorious 4x100 relay.
Her Olympic ledger is the stuff of legend — three golds (the 4x100 in Barcelona and Atlanta and the 200 in 1992), a silver in the 4x400 in 1992 and the bronze in the 1996 Games in the 100. Her memories of Atlanta are fond.
“Just being at home, having people being able to see me run that hadn’t see me run in years,” she said.
Even then, she was preparing for her next career. She did her fellow runners’ hair and has the distinct memory of styling Carol Lewis (sister of Carl Lewis) at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul as she got ready to go out.
“They just knew she (Torrence) is serious about this hair because I talked about it all the time,” Torrence said. “So nobody in track and field was surprised.”
Torrence said she loves the beauty and creativity of it, helping women look and feel their best.
“If your hair’s not done, you don’t look as prepared,” she said in her salon, as she styled the hair of a client. “I don’t care how sharp you are, how nice you look in your clothes. If your hair doesn’t look good …”
The customer, Shannon Kendrick, picked up from there.
“They’ll be like, ‘But her hair was busted.’”
Torrence began styling professionally in 2000 after her daughter E’mon was born. She knew better than to try to play up her Olympian past.
“Women didn’t care about me running track,” she said.
When the salon where she worked moved to Buckhead, Torrence decided to stay in DeKalb County for the sake of her clients. After moving to another salon, she decided to open her own place. She called the move scary, but said she is happy that she made the jump and has no regrets. Her 24-station boutique is clean, heavy on blacks and browns and has a mellow air. It is a tone set and enforced by Torrence, who said her stylists call her “Drill sergeant.”
“There’s not a whole lot of talking and clutter and gossiping and loud music,” Kendrick said. “This atmosphere is her attitude all the time. Just calm and peaceful, even keeled.”
Kendrick has been coming to Torrence on a weekly basis since 2004. She said she didn’t know of Torrence’s track heroics for several years until she did a Google search on her. Torrence said she doesn’t tell customers about her past.
“But I like it like that,” Torrence said. “Because they get to know me.”
Likewise, her home, not far from the salon, offers no hints of Torrence’s track endeavors.
“I just don’t look at sport being that significant in my life,” she said. “It was good, it was a very good career, but I didn’t, like, lose sleep over it.”
Kendrick said Torrence is all about the hair, not the money. She turns down clients who want color or a relaxer if their hair isn’t ready for it.
Torrence has two children, 26-year-old Manley, from her first marriage to Manley Waller (also her coach), and E’mon, 16, who is in the band at M.L. King Jr. High. Her husband, Jody Smith, is a personal trainer.
In the 20 years since her turn in the Atlanta Games, Torrence has managed the often difficult step almost all Olympians have to take after the speed and strength wane.
“That’s the hard part — just finding what’s next,” she said.
Torrence was fortunate. She knew all along.
