# @iwlca on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/C3aTPfurjbZ
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/19509696-iwlca-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/thumbnails/8d8505355a.jpg
- **Posted:** 2024-02-16T14:00:33.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** IWLCA (@iwlca) — https://gondola.cc/iwlca

## Caption

🌟 Continuing our #BlackHistoryMonth spotlights, we recognize and honor Alice Coachman! Coachman was an American athlete who was the first Black woman to win an Olympic gold medal!🥇 

Coachman first attracted attention in 1939 by breaking Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) high school and college women’s high-jump records while barefoot. She won the AAU outdoor high-jump championship for the next nine years, also winning three indoor high-jump championships. She also excelled in sprints and basketball, competing at Tuskegee Institute (1940–46). She won national T&F championships in the 50 and 100-meter dashes, the 4 × 100-meter relay, and the running high jump. As a guard, she led the Tuskegee basketball team to three consecutive conference championships.

At the 1948 Olympics in London, her teammate Audrey Patterson earned a bronze medal in the 200m sprint to become the first Black woman to win a medal. In the high-jump finals, Coachman leaped 5 feet 6 1/8 inches (1.68 m) on her first try to solidify her gold medal in that year’s Games, making her the only American woman to win a gold medal in that year's games. Altogether she won 25 AAU indoor and outdoor titles before retiring in 1948.

#ifshecanseehershecanbeher 
#bhm2024❤️🖤💚

## Stats

- **Views:** 0
- **Likes:** 78
- **Shares:** 0
- **Comments:** 0

## Tags

ifshecanseehershecanbeher, blackhistorymonth, bhm2024

---
Copyright (c) Gondola