Ritter, Louise
Track and Field
b. Feb. 18, 1958, Dallas, TX
As a student at Texas Women's College, Ritter won three consecutive AIAW high jump championships, from 1977 through 1979. She left school for a year to concentrate on preparing for the 1980 Olympics and finished first in the trials, but the U. S. boycotted the Moscow Games that year.
In 1981, Ritter won her fourth AIAW title. After missing the better part of two years with various injuries, she set an American record of 6 feet, 7 inches in September of 1983 and she won the Olympic trials again in 1984, but she was injured and could finish only eighth at the Olympic Games.
Ritter finally won a gold medal at the 1988 Olympics, when she set an Olympic record with a jump of 6-8. That tied her own American record, which she'd set at the trials.
The national outdoor champion in 1978, 1982, 1985, and 1986, Ritter also won a gold at the 1979 Pan-American Games.