Alice Coachman

Alice Marie Coachman Davis (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.

Biography

Early life and education Alice Coachman was born on November 9, 1923, in Albany, Georgia. She was the fifth of Fred and Evelyn Coachman's ten children. Coachman was unable to access athletic training facilities or participate in organized sports because of the color of her skin. Added to the list of training barriers was her status as a female athlete during a time of widespread opposition to women in sports. She trained using what was available to her, running shoeless along the dirt roads near her home and using homemade equipment to practice her jumping.

Coachman attended Monroe Street Elementary School where she was encouraged by her 5th grade teacher, Cora Bailey, and by her aunt, Carrie Spry, despite the reservations of her parents. Upon enrolling at Madison High School in 1938, she joined the track team, working with Harry E. Lash to develop her skill as an athlete. Within a year she drew the attention of the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama. The scholarship required her to work while studying and training, which included cleaning and maintaining sports facilities as well as mending uniforms. She became a teacher and track-and-field instructor. thumb

Coachman dominated the AAU outdoor high jump championship from 1939 through 1948, winning ten national championships in a row. In addition to her high jump accomplishments, she won national championships in the 50-meter dash, the 100-meter dash and with the 400-meter relay team as a student at the Tuskegee Institute. She won 26 national championships during her nine years of competition, more than any other woman with the exception of her Polish-American rival Stella Walsh.

Coachman's first opportunity to compete on a global stage was during the 1948 Olympic Games in London. She qualified for the US Olympic team with a high jump of breaking the previous 16-year-old record by .

Upon her return to the United States after the Olympics, Coachman had become a celebrity. Soon after meeting President Harry Truman and former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, she was honored with parades from Atlanta to Albany and was thrown a party by Count Basie.

Media coverage Even with her success, the reporting on Coachman as an athlete varied. The coverage of women compared to men was already stark in contrast, with men typically receiving full spreads with photos, while female athletes got short articles with no pictures. In 1942, she was mentioned in the Chicago Tribune in an article titled "Tuskegee Wins 6th Women's AAU Title in Track", and was reported on by the Boston Globe in an article titled "Tuskegee Girl Eclipses Stella in Title Meet". However, when the New York Times wrapped up reporting for the Olympics where she was the only American woman to win gold in track and field, the first African American to win a gold medal, and became a new Olympic record holder,

Coachman died in Albany, Georgia on July 14, 2014, of cardiac arrest after suffering through respiratory problems. She had a stroke a few months prior for which she received treatment from a nursing home. She had two children during her first marriage to N. F. Davis, which ended in divorce. Her second husband, Frank Davis, preceded her in death.

Legacy

In 1979 Coachman was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame. During the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Coachman was honored as one of the 100 greatest Olympians. In 2002, she was designated a Women's History Month Honoree by the National Women's History Project. Coachman was also inducted to the USA Track and Field Hall of fame in 1975 and the United States Olympic Hall of Fame in 2004.

Coachman has received recognition for opening the door for future African-American track stars such as Evelyn Ashford, Florence Griffith Joyner, and Jackie Joyner-Kersee. In fact, in the years since her display of Olympic prowess, black women have made up a majority of the US women's Olympic track and field team. "I think I opened the gate for all of them," she reflected. "Whether they think that or not, they should be grateful to someone in the black race who was able to do these things."