Chandra Cheeseborough-Guice now coaches women’s track and cross-country at Tennessee State.
By Gene Frenette
Chandra Cheeseborough-Guice
TRACK
Athletic accomplishments: A three-time U.S. Olympic team member, Cheeseborough won a silver medal in the 400-meter dash at the 1984 Olympics and gold medals in the 400-meter relay and 1,600-meter relay. T
he Ribault High graduate tied Valerie Brisco-Hooks for the most medals won in the '84 Summer Games by a female track and field participant.
She captured silver with a time of 49.05, just .22 of a second behind Brisco-Hooks.
She anchored the gold medal-winning 4 x 400-meter relay team in an Olympic record time of 3:18.29.
She made the Olympic team in 1980, but didn’t compete because of a U.S. boycott.
Cheeseborough was inducted into the National High School Sports Hall of Fame in 1987. At Ribault, she won seven individual state titles, including the 100- and 200-yard dash state titles from 1975-77.
She set national records in the 100 (10. 3 seconds) and 200 (23.3 seconds) that were never broken.
She also won the '77 long jump state title with a leap of 19 feet, 11 1/4, leading Ribault to team state titles in 1976-77.
What she’s doing now: Cheeseborough lives in Nashville, Tenn., and has served as head women’s track and cross-country coach at Tennessee State, her alma mater, for the past 16 years.
She has led the Tigerbelles to six Ohio Valley Conference championships.
Cheeseborough also served as an assistant coach on the 2008 U.S. Olympic team and head coach of the 2009 team at the World Championships.
The oldest of Cheeseborough’s two daughters, Martinique, won the long jump title for Tennessee State at the 2010 conference meet.
Cheeseborough often commutes to Jacksonville to see family and her husband, Walter Guice, who still works here as a massage therapist.
On how coaching athletes now is different than when she competed: “Kids have so many different options now.
"It’s a different type of student-athlete, more challenging to coach. Some just don’t bring that hard tenacity to compete.
"You have to push and prod them a lot more. Back in my day, we had that inner desire to win all the time.”