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Vonetta Flowers enters her third season as the assistant coach of the UAB cross country and track teams. Prior to returning to UAB, Flowers spent two years at the University of Alabama as a graduate assistant with the men's track team working with Coach Harvey Glance (1997-1999). There, she coached field events and was the head equipment manager. Flowers brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to her position at UAB. She is a three-time member of the U.S. Olympic Festival Team, capturing the gold in the long jump in 1994 and the 4x100m relay in 1995. She is a nine-time USATF National Championship qualifier and a World University Games qualifier in 1995. She has been ranked in the top 10 three times in the U.S. for the long jump. A four-year letterwinner at UAB, Flowers was a seven-time NCAA All-American and six-time Conference MVP. She earned 35 Conference Championship awards including Great Midwest Conference Newcomer of the Year (1993) and Most Outstanding Athlete at the Great Midwest Conference Outdoor Championship. She has won conference titles in the 100 meters, 200 meters, long jump, and triple jump throughout her brilliant career. Flowers still holds numerous records at UAB, including six individual records, two team records, and three freshman marks. Flowers received her Bachelor of Science degree in Physical Education in 1997. Since returning to Birmingham, Flowers has taken her competitiveness to a new level. Not only is she coaching the track team, she is a member of the USA bobsleding team. Flowers’ path to bobsled is similar to many famous track athletes such as Edwin Moses, Willie Davenport and Dan Steele. She was competing at the 2000 Olympic track and field trials in the long jump event, when she saw a flyer for a USA Bobsled team tryout conducted by Bonny Warner. As a lark she and her husband, Johnny Flowers, also an accomplished track star, decided to tryout. Vonetta quickly mastered the 6-event test that included sprinting, jumping, and throwing a shot, earning her a trial on the Olympic bobsled track. With only two weeks of training on how to push a bobsled, Vonetta (along with her teammate Bonny Warner) broke the world start record in October 2000, at Park City, Utah, site of the 2002 Winter Olympics. Later that season the team won 4 World Cup medals and finished the year ranked third in the world. Not bad for Flowers’ first season as a bobsledder! At the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah, Flowers and her partner Jill Bakken shocked the world by winning the gold medal in the women's bobsled event, ending a 46-year drought for the United States.
Flowers attended Jackson-Olin High School in Birmingham where she was the TAC national champion in the 15-16 age group as well as being an All-State basketball player. She was also a member of the Birmingham Striders Track Club. A native of Birmingham, Flowers is married to Johnny Mack Flowers, who was a member of the UAB football and track teams. She is the daughter of Jimmie and Barbara Jeffery.
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