Alice Coachman

Alice Marie Coachman (after marriage Davis, born November 9, 1923 in Albany, Georgia) is a former American track and field athlete.

Although Alice Coachman did not have the best training opportunities because of racial segregation in Georgia, they won in 1939 the high jump at the championships of the AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) and remained until 1948 at the AAU championships in this discipline unbeaten. She performed also in the sprint and in the season and won a total of 25 AAU titles.

After the Olympic games were in 1940 and 1944 failed due to the Second World War, Alice Coachman was able to start the first time at the 1948 Olympic Games. She won the high jump with 1.68 meters in front of the same height Briton Dorothy Tyler.

Alice Coachman was not only the only U.S. citizen, in 1948 a gold medal in track and won, but it was also the first black American woman ever, who won an Olympic gold medal.

After the 1948 Olympic Games Alice Coachman ended her career, married and worked as a teacher in Atlanta. 1952 Alice Coachman was the first black American woman who applied for a branded product ( Coca -Cola ) on posters.

Swell

  • Volker Kluge: Summer Olympic Games, the Chronicle II, Berlin 1998 ISBN 3-328-00740-7
  • Ekkehard to Megede: The Modern Olympic Century 1896-1996 Track and Fields Athletics, Berlin 1999, published via German Society for Athletics documentation eV
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