Black Student Athletics: Angela Whyte

The University of Idaho has seen many athletes, even Olympic ones such as Angela Whyte, who ran for the Vandals track and field team. Originally from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, Whyte was born on May 22, 1980, to Evert Whyte and Gail Dick. Initially enrolling at the University of New Mexico in 1999 and 2000, where she set several records that still stand, she would transfer to the University of Idaho after the 2000 season.¹

Attending the University of Idaho from 2001 to 2003, Whyte went about setting several records and leading the Vandals women’s track and field team to the Big West Championships. The track and field team would win the Big West title, and Whyte would be nominated the Big West Women’s Athlete of the Year. That same year, she would also earn All-America honors at the 2001 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field championships with a third place finish in the 100 meter hurdles, a placement that would see the Vandals track and field team place 16th in the NCAA team standings, which stands as the highest all-time NCAA team finish for the Vandals women’s track and field team.

In 2003, Whyte would again lead the Vandals women’s track and field team to the Big West Conference, with her performance again getting her nominated as the Big West Women’s Athlete of the Year. That same year, Whyte would also break the Big West Conference all-time record and the Big West Championship meet record.² She would earn a further three All-America honors in 2003: one at the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships and two more at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

Graduating with her bachelor’s degree in crime and justice studies in 2003, she returned to Canada and pursued a professional career in track and field, participating in the 2003 Pan American Games in Santo Domino, Dominican Republic, and the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. Though she did not win medals at these games, she would earn both a silver and a bronze in the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in 2006 and at the Pan Am Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2007. She would continue to participate in Olympic competitions, representing the Canadian Olympic Team in Beijing (2008) and Rio de Janeiro (2016).³

Outside of her professional career in track and field, Whyte returned to the University of Idaho, where she earned her master’s degree in 2014 and coached for the Vandals track and field team for six years.⁴ In 2015, she would join the Washington State University track and field coaching staff and serve as assistant coach for hurdles, sprints, and jumps. She was inducted into the Vandals Hall of Fame in 2010⁵ and still holds ten of her individual records at the University of Idaho.⁶

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