First black women at the Olympics
7 first women in sport
One of the first women’s track and field teams in the United States debuted at the All-Black Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) in 1929. Three years later, Louise Stokes and Tidye Pickett qualified for the 1932 edition . Olympic Games in track and field but were not allowed to participate in the event (held in Los Angeles) due to their race.
In Berlin in 1936, Stokes and Pickett became the first African-American women to represent their country in the Olympics. Alice Coachman, a star track and field athlete at Tuskegee Institute, became the first black woman to win Olympic gold, setting records with her high jump at the 1948 Olympics in London. Coachman, who dominated his sport, would likely have won more medals if the 1940 and 1944 Olympics had not been canceled due to The Second World War.
Did you know? At the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, Venus and Serena Williams teamed up to win the doubles gold medal. They were the first pair of sisters to achieve this feat, which they repeated in 2008.
Ora Washington and Althea Gibson
Another pioneering black athlete, tennis player Ora Washington, won her first American Tennis Association singles title in 1929. She held the title for the next seven years, until 1936, and then regained it once again in 1937. Washington’s record of seven consecutive ATA titles would stand until 1947, when it was destroyed by the greats Althea Gibsonwho won 10 consecutive titles.
The beginnings of Jackie Robinson as the first African American player on a major league baseball team– the Brooklyn Dodgers – in 1947 was a milestone in the history of African American sports. The barriers continued to fall over the following decades: in 1950, Gibson became the first black player (male or female) to compete in a US Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA) event, the National Championship in Forest Hills, Queens, new York. A year later, she repeated this historic first at Wimbledon.
Gibson won his first Grand Slam singles title at Roland Garros in 1956, then won back-to-back titles at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in 1957 and 1958. The Associated Press named Gibson female athlete of the year in 1957 and 1958; she was the first African American woman to hold this honor. After retiring from amateur tennis in 1958, Gibson launched another pioneering effort in 1964, when she became the first black woman to join the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA).
Wilma Rudolph
If Gibson was a source of inspiration in the world of tennis, Wilma Rudolph also proved it in the field of athletics. Struck by polio as a young girl, Rudolph regained her strength and won three gold medals (in the 100 and 200 meters and the 400 meter relay) at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome. She was the first American woman to accomplish this feat, and in 1961 she became the first black woman to win the James E. Sullivan Award, America’s highest honor in amateur athletics. (She was also the AP Female Athlete of the Year in 1960 and 1961.) Rudolph’s compatriot, Willye White, was the first American woman to compete in five Olympic Games (1956, 1960, 1964, 1968 and 1972); she won silver in the long jump in 1956 and the 4 × 100 meter relay in 1964.
Black Women in Basketball: Lynette Woodard and Cheryl Miller
Another historic first occurred in 1985, when Lynette Woodard became the first woman to join the famous Harlem Globetrotters basketball team. Around the same time, Cheryl Miller became one of the most decorated women’s basketball players in history at the high school and college level, leading Team USA to a gold medal at the Olympic Games in 1984.
Debi Thomas
In 1986, Debi Thomas became the first black woman to win the U.S. singles figure skating championship; she was also a world champion that year, as well as a bronze medalist at the 1988 Winter Olympics, where she was the first black woman to win a medal at the Winter Olympics.
Jackie Joyner-Kersee and “Flo-Jo”
The late 1980s marked a golden age for American women in track and field, as Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Florence Griffth Joyner dominated the Olympics. Joyner-Kersee, who many described at the time as the best female athlete in the entire world, competed in the long jump and the grueling two-day heptathlon, winning two gold medals at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, in Korea. She won the title of Olympic heptathlon champion again in 1992. Joyner, nicknamed “Flo-Jo”, gained the reputation of “the fastest woman in the world”, broke world records at the Seoul Olympics , winning gold in the 100 and 200 meters. racing and anchoring the gold medal-winning U.S. 4×100-meter relay team. Joyner-Kersee and Griffith-Joyner both won AP Female Athlete of the Year and the Sullivan Award.
Sheryl Swoopes
In 1996, former Texas Tech University basketball star Sheryl Swoopes became the first player to sign with the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), debuting the following year. At Texas Tech, Swoopes was named the AP Female Athlete of the Year for basketball as well as the National Player of the Year by nine different organizations, including USA Today and Sports Illustrated.
An Olympic gold medalist in 1996, 2000 and 2004, Swoopes played for the WNBA’s Houston Comets for 11 years and was named league MVP three times. She later played for the Seattle Storm. Other African American women who have played in the WNBA during its history include Woodard (the former Globetrotter signed with the league during its inaugural season and played until 1999, finally realizing her dream of playing in a professional women’s basketball league) Cynthia Cooper, Lisa Leslie. and Tina Thompson.
Mo’ne Davis
In 2014, then aged 13 Mo’ne Davis became the first African-American girl to play in the Little League World Series. She was the first woman to throw a complete game shutout and when she led her team, the Taney Dragons, to victory, it marked the first victory for a female pitcher. She threw fastballs at 70 mph, making “throwing like a girl” something to be envied.
Venus and Serena Williams
The worthy legacy of Althea Gibson has taken on new life in the 21st century with the extraordinary careers of Venus and Serena Williams. Although her younger sister, Serena, was the first Williams to win a Grand Slam singles title (the 1999 US Open), Venus emerged at the top of her game in 2000, winning her first Grand Slam – Wimbledon – and also winning the US Open. like an Olympic gold medal. Over the next decade, the Williams sisters’ extraordinary power and athleticism helped take women’s tennis to a new level, and final-round matches between the two sisters became common at Grand Slam events.
Gabby Douglas and Simone Biles
In 2012, Olympic gymnast Gabby Douglas became the first African American woman in history to win the individual all-around competition. She also won gold medals for the United States in the team competitions at the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics. Also at the 2016 Olympics, Simone Biles, then 19, made her debut . As winner of 30 Olympic and world medals and the only woman to hold seven U.S. all-around championship titles, she is currently the most decorated American gymnast.
