Who in the Caribbean remembers Una Morris, the formidable, great Jamaican three-time Olympian? She was born and raised in Jamaica and moved to California when she was 17 to finish high school and pursue a career in science. Over an eight-year span, she represented her island nation in the Olympic Games (1964, 1968 and 1972), the Pan American Games, and the 1966 Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games, competing in the 200m, 400m, and the 4x1 and 4x4 relays. Her personal best times were 11.4 in the 100m (1968); 23.58, 200m (1964); and 53.9, 400m (1966).
Morris came closest to winning an Olympic medal at her first Olympics: Tokyo, 1964, when she was only 17. The fledgling sprinter clocked 23.58secs (0.8 m/s) for 4th behind Edith McGuire of the US (23.0 Olympic record), Irena Kirszenstein (later Szewinska of Poland, who went on to become one of the greatest female athletes of all time, setting world records and winning gold medals at the highest levels in the 100m, 200m, 400m, sprint hurdles and long jump). Marilyn Black of Australia finished third in the Tokyo 200m finals, credited with 23.1secs, the same time as Kirszenstein. However, the redoubtable Morris went on to register some success of her own by winning the 200m and 4x1 gold medals at the CAC Games.
Medical Doctor and Entrepreneur
On the academic side of the fence, Morris earned a bachelor's degree in zoology from California State Polytechnic University (Cal Poly Pomona) in Pomona, California, in 1970, and a medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco. She went on to further studies and became a diagnostic radiologist.
In addition to her medical forte, Una Morris-Chong, a wife and mother of three, whose own mother died when she was 10, is an entrepreneur and motivational speaker. For years, she has owned and operated a Jamaican restaurant in Pasadena, California, where she practices radiology.
Recently, Dr. Morris-Chong’s Kingston Café was the featured restaurant on Fox TV’s episode of Kitchen Nightmares, an American reality-TV series in which chef Gordon Ramsay visits failing restaurants for a week to observe operations and advise on how to revive business. Watch Gordon battle with the resistant Olympian, doctor and restaurateur – a clash that brought her to tears, which turned into smiles, as brilliant as a warm Jamaican sunshine.
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