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Brisco won the 1979 AIAW 200-meter championship as a student at California State-Northridge and she was on the 4 by 100-meter relay team that won a gold medal at the Pan-American Games. She married former college track teammate Alvin Hooks, then a wide receiver with the Philadelphia Eagles, in 1981 and they had a son the following year.

She was forty pounds overweight and didn't plan to return to running, but her husband talked her into it and she went through a rigorous training period to get back into shape. Brisco-Hooks was rewarded for her effort with three gold medals at the 1984 Olympics, in the 200-meter, 400-meter, and 4 x 100-meter relay. She was the first athlete of either sex to win both the 200 and the 400 at a single Olympics. Brisco-Hooks also won the national indoor 200 and outdoor 400 titles in 1984. She ran the 400 in 49.83 seconds, becoming the first American woman to break 50 seconds in the event. In 1985, she set a world indoor record of 52.99 seconds in the 400-yard run, and she was the national champion in the outdoor 400-meter again in 1986.