Alice Coachman (1923-2014)

Alice Coachman
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Olympic medal record
Women's athletics
Competitor for the United States
Gold 1948 London High jump
Alice Marie Coachman (November 9, 1923 – July 14, 2014) was an American athlete. She specialized in high jump and was the first black woman to win an Olympic gold medal.[1] In 2002 she was designated a Women's History Month Honoree by the National Women's History Project.[2]

Born in Albany, Georgia, Coachman dominated the AAU outdoor high jump championship from 1939 through 1948, but was unable to compete in the Olympic Games as they were cancelled in 1940 and 1944 because of World War II. In the high jump finals of the 1948 Summer Olympics, Coachman leaped 1.68 m (5 ft 6⅛ in) on her first try. Her nearest rival, Great Britain's Dorothy Tyler, matched Coachman's jump, but only on her second try. Coachman was the only American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in athletics in 1948.

Coachman also excelled in the indoor and outdoor 50 m dash and the outdoor 100 m dash. Representing Tuskegee University, Coachman also ran on the national champion 4 x 100-meter relay team in 1941 and 1942. Coachman was an honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, inducted in 1998 during the sorority's international conference. She was inducted to the USA Track and Field Hall of fame in 1975 and the United States Olympic Hall of Fame in 2004.[3] She died in Albany, Georgia on July 14, 2014 of cardiac arrest after respiratory problems. She also had a stroke a few months prior for which she received treatment from a nursing home.[4]

References[edit]
Jump up ^ "Alice Coachman Biography". sports.jrank.org. Archived from the original on 2010-09-27. Retrieved 2010-09-27.
Jump up ^ "Honorees: 2010 National Women’s History Month". Women's History Month. National Women's History Project. 2010. Retrieved 14 November 2011.
Jump up ^ "BBC News - US black female gold Olympian Alice Coachman Davis dies". Bbc.com. 1970-01-01. Retrieved 2014-07-15.
Jump up ^ Goldstein, Richard (July 14, 2104). "Alice Coachman, 90, Dies; First Black Woman to Win Olympic Gold - NYTimes.com". The New York Times (New York: NYTC). ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 15, 2014.
External links[edit]
Alice Coachman's oral history video excerpts at The National Visionary Leadership Project
Alice Coachman (Entry in the New Georgia Encyclopedia)
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Olympic Champions in Women's High Jump
1928: Ethel Catherwood (CAN) 1932: Jean Shiley (USA) 1936: Ibolya Csák (HUN) 1948: Alice Coachman (USA) 1952: Esther Brand (RSA) 1956: Mildred McDaniel (USA) 1960: Iolanda Balaș (ROU) 1964: Iolanda Balaș (ROU) 1968: Miloslava Rezková (TCH) 1972: Ulrike Meyfarth (FRG) 1976: Rosemarie Ackermann (GDR) 1980: Sara Simeoni (ITA) 1984: Ulrike Meyfarth (FRG) 1988: Louise Ritter (USA) 1992: Heike Henkel (GER) 1996: Stefka Kostadinova (BUL) 2000: Yelena Yelesina (RUS) 2004: Yelena Slesarenko (RUS) 2008: Tia Hellebaut (BEL) 2012: Anna Chicherova (RUS)
Authority control
VIAF: 30912768