Early black female Olympian dies in Florida

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - Theresa Manuel, the first black woman from Florida to compete in the Olympics, has died in Tampa. She was 90.

The Tampa Bay Times (https://goo.gl/4uKpzp ) reports that Manuel died on Monday. She had been in the hospital last week and was discharged Saturday but stopped eating Sunday and declined quickly.

The Tampa Bay area native attended the 1948 Olympics in London, where she competed in the 80-meter hurdles, threw the javelin and ran the third leg in the 440-yard relay.

The year after the Olympics, Manuel graduated from the Tuskegee Institute (now university) in Alabama. She then returned to Tampa and went on to work as a teacher and coach at Middleton and Hillsborough high schools.

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Information from: Tampa Bay Times (St. Petersburg, Fla.), http://www.tampabay.com.