Mildred McDaniel

Mildred McDaniel ( Mildred Louise " Millie " McDaniel; married Singleton, born November 3, 1933, Atlanta, Georgia; † 5 October 2004 in Pasadena, California ) was an American high jumper and Olympic gold medalist.

Mildred McDaniel was born as the youngest of three children of the couple Victoria and Claude McDaniel. For sports they came when her sports teacher at the David T. Howard High School in Atlanta every girl in school promised a new pair of shoes that could turn ten free throws with the basketball. When she managed it and was then added to the basketball team at school, their enthusiasm grew for the sport, and it developed into one of the pillars of the team. There she received her nickname Tex.

At the urging of coach high school athletics Marian Armstrong - Perkins, meanwhile, already training three athletes were matured to become Olympic athletes, McDaniel also appeared on a track and field training. When she commented so the leap of another girl, the girl can not jump, her coach challenged them to do better. For high jump yet, later joined the long jump, hurdles and relay race. While still a student at the High School won two league titles McDaniel of the State of Georgia in basketball and several titles in the 80 - yard hurdles, high jump and long jump.

After graduating from high school, joined McDaniel 1952 at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Under the training of Cleve Abbott they became the best high jumper in the U.S.. 1953, 1955 and 1956 it was U.S. champion. In addition, she won in 1955 and 1956 two more national titles in the hall.

Also on the international stage McDaniel was successful. At the Pan American Games in 1955 in Mexico City McDaniel won with a height of 1.68 meters, the high jump competition before the Brazilian Deyse de Castro.

However, they celebrated their biggest success in the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne. In the Olympic final on December 1, 1956, she sat down against the favored Iolanda Balas of Romania and Thelma Hopkins from the UK, both of which had jumped ahead of the Olympic Games World Record, by and became Olympic champion. When her victory had already been decided, McDaniel had the bar put on the new world record height of 1.76 meters. In the second experiment they mastered this level.

After completing her training as a physical education teacher McDaniel ended their active career in 1957. In 1958 she married Louis Singleton and moved to California, where she pursued her profession for 32 years with him. In 1983, she was inducted into the U.S. Hall of Fame athletes. Mildred Singleton died on 5 October 2004 at the age of 70 years in a convalescent home from cancer.