Alice Coachman was the first African-American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in track and field. Her love for sports began early in her life. When she was a school girl, she and her friends would tie strings together and see how high they could jump.
When she reached high school, she easily made the track team. Tuskegee Institute recruiters began to notice her, and her coaches encouraged her to enroll there, thinking it would be an excellent opportunity for her.
By the time she graduated from Tuskegee Institute, she had a trade degree in dressmaking, and had captured four national track and field championship titles in the fifty and hundred-meter dashes, the four-humdred-meter relay, and the running high jump.
In 1948 Coachman joined the American team for the London Olympics. Even after becoming injured during a high jump event, Coachman went on to jump five feet six and one-eighth inches. This was a new record and allowed her to win the only gold medal for the American women's team.
When she arrived home after the Olympics, most of the major American newspapers didn't even mention her, but in her hometown they did! She was escorted home and received a warm welcome from friends, family, and the chief of police, who was standing in for the mayor at the time.
Coachman went on to teach physical education for a high school in Albany, Georgia. She had two children and coached their sports teams as they grew up. She was inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1975.
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