Ronald "Ronnie" Ray Smith (born March 28, 1949) is a former American athlete, winner of the gold medal in the 4×100 m relay at the 1968 Summer Olympics. He attended San Jose State College during the "Speed City" era, coached by Lloyd (Bud) Winter.
At the 1968 AAU Championships, Ronnie Ray Smith equaled the 100 m world record in the semifinal, repeating the same time of 9.9 which was run by Jim Hines in the same race and Charles Greene in the other semifinal of the same competition. That evening of June 20, 1968 at Hughes Stadium in Sacramento, California has been dubbed by track and field historians as the "Night of Speed." Since Green was still 19 years old at the time, that mark also became the World Junior Record, which lasted for exactly 8 years.
At the Mexico Olympics, Smith ran the third leg in the American 4x100 m relay team that won the gold medal and set a new world record of 38.24 seconds.
Famous quotes containing the words ronnie, ray and/or smith:
“Could Ronnie really have become a sahib?”
—David Lean (19081991)
“These facts have always suggested to man the sublime creed that the world is not the product of manifold power, but of one will, of one mind; and that one mind is everywhere active, in each ray of the star, in each wavelet of the pool; and whatever opposes that will is everywhere balked and baffled, because things are made so, and not otherwise.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)
“Our Bog is dood, our Bog is dood,
They lisped in accents mild,
But when I asked them to explain
They grew a little wild.”
—Stevie Smith (19021971)