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Rest In Peace. Alice Coachman Davis, First African-American Woman To Win An Olympic Gold Medal Passes Away At 90.

Alice Coachman Davis
(Alice Coachman. 1948 Olympic Games. London, England. Women’s High Jump. Getty Images/Popperfoto)


AP Sports reports that former Olympian Alice Coachman Davis has passed away in Albany, Georgia. Her daughter confirmed her death to media.

In 1948 Davis became the first African-American woman to earn Olympic gold. She was also the only American woman to win gold that year.

Davis won Olympic gold in the high jump at the 1948 games in London with an American and Olympic record of 1.68 meters (5.51 feet), according to USA Track and Field, the American governing body of the sport. Davis was inducted to the USA Track and Field Hall of fame in 1975, and was inducted to the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 2004.

”Going into the USOC Hall of Fame is as good as it gets,” she told The Associated Press in a 2004 interview. ”It’s like Cooperstown, Springfield and Canton,” she said, referring to the sites of other prominent Halls of Fame.

Davis was the only American woman to win a gold medal at the 1948 games. According to Olympic historian David Wallechinsky, Coachman was honored with a 175-mile motorcade in Georgia when she returned from London. However, the black and white audiences were segregated at her official ceremony in Albany.

Alice Coachman Davis earned a degree at Tuskegee University and worked as a teacher and track coach after retiring from athletic competition. In 1999 an elementary school was named after her, in her hometown of Albany Georgia.

While plans are not finalized, a memorial service will be held in her hometown.

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