Benita Fitzgerald Mosley

Benita Fitzgerald Mosley assumed a the newly created role of USA Track & Field’s chief of sport performance in July of 2009. Under her guidance are USATF’s high performance and athlete development programs, Team USA management, elite athlete services, sport science and medicine, anti-doping, coaching education and certification, and national championship meet management.

Before arriving at USATF, Fitzgerald Mosley served as President and CEO of Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT), which is the oldest and largest organization serving women professionals in the cable industry, from 2001 until 2009. In November 2004, she was named “Cable TV Executive of the Year” by Television Week Magazine.

Fitzgerald Mosley has also served a variety of roles within the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) beginning in 1995. Her services there included director of Olympic training centers from 1997 until 2000, where she managed 175 USOC employees, a $15.5 million budget and all of the athletes, facilities, programs, and operations for all Olympic training centers. She also served as the director of the Olympic training center in San Diego (1995-97), director of all public relations programs (2000-2001) and served as program director for the marketing division of the Atlanta committee for the Olympic Games from 1993-1995.

Additionally she is the current chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Women's Sports Foundation, a former member of the advisory boards of iVillage and WE: Women’s Entertainment, and served on the Project 30 Task Force for USA Track & Field.

A world-class athlete, Fitzgerald Mosley becamethe first African American woman and just the second American woman after “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias to win Olympic gold in the 100-meter hurdles with her win at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. A two-time Olympian, she was also an alternate on the 1988 Olympic squad, a gold medalist at the 1983 Pan American Games, an eight-time national champion and 14-time All-American. She was named Sportswoman of the Century by The Potomac News, and named by Sports Illustrated as the Top Female Sports Figure of the Century from Virginia. She is a member of the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame, the Virginia High School Hall of Fame and the Penn Relays Hall of Fame. A 1984 graduate of the University of Tennessee with a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering, she was a charter member of the Lady Vols Hall of Fame and was honored as one of 75 former student-athletes chosen to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the Southeastern Conference.

One of eight U.S. Olympians to carry the Olympic flag into the stadium during the 1996 Olympic Games opening ceremonies, Fitzgerald Mosley was named "Hurdler of the Decade" for the 1980s by Track and Field News. She was honored with a street named Benita Fitzgerald Drive in her hometown of Dale City, Va., in 1987, and in 2008, a brand new school opened on her street, Fannie W. Fitzgerald Elementary School, which is named in honor of her mother, a civil rights pioneer and leader in education. 

Fitzgerald-Mosley lives in Haymarket, Va., with her husband, Ron, and their two children.