Counting down Southwest Georgia’s Top 10 sports stories of 2014; No. 3: Former Olympian Alice Coachman dies

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Herald’s sports staff has chosen Southwest Georgia’s Top 10 sports stories from 2014. Today marks the eighth of the 10 we’ve picked as having a significant influence as we count down to No. 1, which will appear in the Jan. 1 addition. Look for No. 5 in Sunday’s Herald.

ALBANY — She was an inspiration to many, overcoming countless obstacles to make it to the top.

The city of Albany lost one of its most inspirational athletes this past July as former Olympian Alice Coachman passed away at the age of 90.

She was the first African-American woman to win an Olympic gold medal by finishing first in the high jump with a jump of 5’-foot-6, one-eighth inches.

Coachman won her gold medal in the 1948 Olympics in London and was also the only American woman to win an Olympic gold medal as well.

Her impressive athletic career earned her induction into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 1979. Among her feats were winning the indoor and outdoor AAU high jump titles in 1939, ‘41, ‘45 and ’46, the 25 AAU high jump and sprinting contests from 1939-48, and the being named an AAU All-American in four track & field events from 1944-46.

She was also named to the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1935 after excelling in the 50 and 100-meter dash.

She was 25 when she retired after the 1948 Olympics but managed to set Olympic and American high jump records for women at 5-1/8 inches before then. While she was ranked as one of the Best 100 Olympians in 1996 when the Games were conducted in Atlanta and was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Committee’s Hall of Fame in 2004, it’s been speculated that she would have had an even greater Olympic career had it not been for World War II, which forced the cancellation of both the 1940 and ‘44 Games.

“I was at my peak in 1944,” she told The Albany Herald in a 1975 interview. “But the countries were torn apart and there was no Olympics. I had to wait and train four more years to compete. It is really a proud feeling to stand and watch the American flag waving while the national anthem is playing.”

She went on to have a successful career outside of athletics after her retirement. After the ’48 Olympics, Coachman returned to Albany to earn her bachelor’s degree from Albany State College. She went into teaching and started a foundation to help former Olympic athletes who were dealing with issues in various aspects of their lives.

In 2000, Alice Coachman Elementary, one of the three Dougherty County schools that were replaced after the damaging floods of 1994, was dedicated in her honor.