By The Trailblazing Journey of Alice Coachman
High Jumper, History Maker: The Trailblazing Journey of Alice Coachman
​Alice Coachman secured her place in athletic history at the 1948 Summer Olympic Games in London when she became the first Black woman from any nation to earn an Olympic gold medal. Born on November 9, 1923, in Albany, Georgia, Coachman grew up as the fifth of ten children raised by Evelyn and Fred Coachman. Raised in the deeply segregated American South, she faced severe structural barriers, including explicit bans from standard athletic fields and training gear. Undeterred by these restrictions, she developed her foundational physical strength by running along unpaved dirt roads and constructing homemade hurdles out of gathered materials.
​Although her parents initially discouraged her pursuit of sports, key figures in her community rallied behind her potential. Her fifth grade elementary teacher, Cora Bailey, alongside her aunt, Carrie Spry, offered vital early encouragement. Coachman eventually joined the track team at Madison High School, where her exceptional raw talent attracted national interest. At sixteen years old, she received a full scholarship offer to attend the high school program at the Tuskegee Institute. Throughout this period, she refined her abilities while competing on all-Black athletic teams across a divided nation.
​In 1943, Coachman transitioned into the college division at Tuskegee to study dressmaking. Aside from her academic work, she played on the varsity basketball team and dominated track competitions, securing four separate national championships across sprinting and high jump disciplines. After earning her trade degree in dressmaking in 1946, she enrolled at Albany State College to pursue higher education. She ultimately graduated in 1949 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Home Economics paired with a minor in science, paving the way for a career as a school teacher and track coach.
​The outbreak of World War II led to the cancellation of both the 1940 and 1944 Olympic Games, delaying Coachman’s international debut during her prime athletic years. Her moment finally arrived during the 1948 London Games when she was twenty-four years old. On August 8, 1948, Coachman cleared a high jump height of 5 feet 6 1/8 inches, establishing a new world record and winning the gold medal for the United States.
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