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92n the first bigtrack meet that Tori Bowie ran as asprinter, in Eugene, Oregon, in 2014,she had to plead with race officials togive her a shot. The woman who is to-day heralded as the fastest in the worldwas, at that moment, a down-on-her-luck long jumper, having finished deadlast at the World Championships inPoland. “I just remember being overit, and frustrated, with all of these feel-ings,” says Bowie, now 27. While shemanaged to get in the race, she drewa bad lane, as the others were alreadytaken by the women who were thenthe world’s fastest—people like theAmerican Allyson Felix and Nigeria’sBlessing Okagbare.And yet, as the start neared, Bowiewas suddenly looking for an exit strate-gy. “I was saying, ‘I’m not ready!’ ” sherecalls. “I was a nervous wreck.” Shecalled her sister for encouragement,and then managed to win that firstrace in much the same way she nowtypically wins—when she medaledin the 100 and 200 meters and the4 X 100–meter relays at the Rio Olym-pics, for instance, and when she tookgold in the 100 and the 4 X 100 at theWorld Championships in London lastyear: with a blistering start, her longlegs powering her lean frame strongto the turn, and then, in the stretch,a blur of power that put her so farahead that it appeared as if she werejust warming up. Such is the fierce-ness of her drive that you can never``````count her out: On the rare occasionwhen people have—in, say, the 2017World Championships in London,where she seemed about to finish insecond place—she has managed anupset. In the kind of herculean burstof übercompetitiveness that provesthat she’s not merely jet-fuel fast butalso focused, she willed herself to leanforward in just the right way at just theright time to hit the finish-line tapefirst. “Tori has a second gear that no-body else has,” says her sister Tamarra,who ran track with her in high school.“I have never seen it in anybody—we’dbe running against each other, andthen all of a sudden she would justgo. It’s like a special neutron burner.”Bowie, who like Tamarra was raisedby her grandmother in Sand Hill, Mis-sissippi, in the pine- and oak-coveredcountryside outside Jackson, learnedhow to compete early, starting withbasketball games against boys whoshowed no mercy. By the time highschool came around, she was a forwardon a girls’ team that annually finishedsecond in the Mississippi state tour-nament—something that was hard onBowie. “Imagine every year comingout defeated,” she says now, shakingher head. When her basketball coachmade the team do double duty as atrack team, though, that all changed.“From that very first year, we won threechampionships in a row,” Bowie says.By the time she won a scholarshipto the University of Southern Missis-sippi, she was a long jumper—a recordholder, at that—until she lost her driveto jump and switched gears to sprint-ing. In four years, Bowie has becomea transformative star. These days sheruns with her trademark scarves asheadbands—psychedelic colors in onerace; a splash of red, white, and bluein the next—and changes her hairstyleevery few weeks. (She’s also done some``````modeling work—most prominentlyfor Valentino’s 2018 resort campaignand a Stella McCartney Adidascollaboration.)Next up, the 100 meters at the USATrack and Field Outdoor Champi-onships at the end of June—the100 meters, by the way, being hersecond-favorite race. “The 200 is trag-ic!” Bowie says. “It’s my favorite race,but it takes so much out of the body—and it’s too much time to think.”Though running takes up nearlyall her time, when she has a few sec-onds off she heads to the beach nearher home in Florida and dreams offlying to Mexico for “real tequila andreal Mexican food.” She deals withthe chaos of training and travelingby maintaining a strict game-day fo-cus on the little things—includingher nails, inspiration for which shecites the legendary Florence GriffithJoyner. “Flo-Jo definitely sets thebar high,” says Bowie, who’s learn-ing from the late sprinting legend’sexample on the track as well. “Shewas always relaxed before the race,and even during the race,” Bowie says.“That’s what I’m trying to reach thisyear—I’m trying to relax and letthings go. Being a runner has broughtme a lot of patience, and patience goesa long way in life.”If it seems counterintuitive to hearsomeone whose whole life is focusedon speed and acceleration talk aboutpatience and relaxation, perhaps you’rejust not attuned to the finely calibratedrhythm changes built into Bowie’s life.Back in Oregon, on that fateful daywhen she pleaded her way into a race,she did actually manage to relax beforegetting to the starting blocks. Havingachieved that state of mind, though,she was set for action.“Once we got on that line,” she says,“I knew it was time to go to war.” ``````“Tori has a second gear that nobody else has,”says her sister Tamarra, who ran trackwith her in high school. “I have never seen itin anybody—she would just go” SET DESIGN, MARY HOWARD