ALICE COACHMAN DAVIS has died.

[MADem]

American who was first black woman ever to win Olympic Gold dies aged 90 after triumph in 1948 high jump
Davis won a gold medal in the high jump in the 1948 Olympic Games in London
She was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 2004
When she returned to Georgia after the Olympics, she was honored with a 175-mile motorcade
The motorcade upon her return was segregated

...Davis attended Tuskegee University and also played basketball on a team that won three straight conference basketball titles. She won 25 national track and field championships - including 10 consecutive high jump titles - between 1939 and 1948, according to USA Track and Field.
Growing up in the deep South during the era of segregation, Davis had to overcome multiple challenges.


The New Georgia Encyclopedia says she was prohibited from using public sports facilities because of her race, so she used whatever equipment she could cobble together to practice her jumping.
'My dad did not want me to travel to Tuskegee and then up north to the Nationals,' Davis told the AP. 'He felt it was too dangerous. Life was very different for African-Americans at that time. But I came back and showed him my medal and talked about all the things I saw. He and my mom were very proud of me.'

Davis won her first national high jump title at age 16 according to USA Track and Field, and worked as a school teacher and track coach after retiring. An elementary school in her home town is named in her honor and opened in August 1999 according to Dougherty County schools officials....

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2692381/Alice-Coachman-Davis-African-American-woman-win-Olympic-gold-medal-dead-age-90.html#ixzz37VrvZ5q4
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[ljm2002]

1. Great story...

...I had not heard of her. Thanks for posting!

[MADem]

5. She did the high jump the OLD way! Head higher than the rest of her body, and she

could FLY!

I wonder how high she would have gotten if she'd ever done the "Fosbury flop?"

[ljm2002]

11. I knew there was something odd about that picture...

...she looks all curled up instead of extended, not like they do the jumps these days.

Amazing to think of the barriers people like her had to face back in those times.

[MADem]

12. Back in the old days, they didn't have all those foam mattresses like they do now.

The poor high jumper had to worry about getting HURT on the way down.

So they'd do the scissor kick or the western roll and do the best they could, landing on hard ground with just a little sawdust or sand or what-have-you in the pit.

Nowadays, they land on a bunch of soft, bouncy mats!

[Cha]

2. Thank you for this beautiful tribute to Alice Coachman Davis, MADem.

May she RIP~

[MADem]

4. She was a beautiful woman.

So graceful--and she was a paradigm-breaker, and you know how I like people who do that kind of thing!

[Cha]

10. What a long exemplary life she lived, MADem. Thank you so much for the two

Vids. I defy anyone to watch "Gold Medal Moments" without a tear or two for what all Alice Coachman accomplished for those who followed her through "the portal" as told by Tommie Smith(sweetheart).

[defacto7]

3. Sad news, important history.

It's important to keep history in mind. Thanks for doing this.

[MADem]

6. She left quite a legacy. She was a supporter of Olympians all through her life.

And she was the only one on the women's track and field team to win ANYTHING, too--they were resigned to failure when she pulled out that victory.

[DeSwiss]

7. One of my heroes growing up.

- RIP Miss Alice.

[Half-Century Man]

8. I had never heard of her, Why?

Yah I know.
We were fucked up then.

If that is so, why is the article about her death (and life)from the United Kingdom?
What is our excuse now?






This is personal observation on the media today. I hope I'm dining on crow later. Please.....anybody.....

[mackerel]

9. I hadn't heard of her either. Runners get all the notice and all the glory.

[MADem]

14. She has literally just passed--and they're awake, and we're not.

Their newsrooms were waking up when this was put out.

NYT has it, but the UK paper (which relies on pictures to make their stories) had better photos:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/15/sports/alice-coachman-90-dies-groundbreaking-medalist.html

At a time when there were few high-profile black athletes beyond Jackie Robinson and Joe Louis, Coachman became a pioneer. She led the way for female African-American Olympic track stars like Wilma Rudolph, Evelyn Ashford, Florence Griffith Joyner and Jackie Joyner-Kersee.

“I made a difference among the blacks, being one of the leaders,” she told The New York Times in 1996. “If I had gone to the Games and failed, there wouldn’t be anyone to follow in my footsteps. It encouraged the rest of the women to work harder and fight harder.”.....Coachman had to wait until 1948 to compete in the Olympics; the 1940 and 1944 Games were canceled because of World War II. On a rainy afternoon at Wembley Stadium in London in August 1948, she vied for gold in the high jump with Dorothy Tyler of Britain. They both cleared 5 feet 6 1/8 inches, but Coachman won because she did it on her first try. Micheline Ostermeyer of France was third.

Coachman, the only American woman to win gold in track and field at the London Games, remembered the moment long afterward.

“I saw it on the board, ‘A. Coachman, U.S.A., Number One,’ ” she told NPR. “I went on, stood up there, and they started playing the national anthem. It was wonderful to hear.”

I expect, absent some huge breaking news story tomorrow, we'll see some coverage on the television as well.

[Hekate]

13. Leap as high as the sky, Ms Davis... KnR

[shenmue]

15. Rest in peace

[niyad]

16. thank you for sharing this

[MADem]

17. My pleasure. She's worth a thread on her remarkable achievements--a role model for young kids

coming up today, not just in terms of sports, but in overcoming obstacles, dealing effectively with hatred and discrimination, and living life to the fullest. A very cool woman.