Alice Coachman

Alice Coachman grew up in segregated Albany, Georgia, where she was barred from local training facilities and often practised barefoot, jumping over ropes and sticks she and her brothers rigged up themselves. Her raw talent was undeniable enough that Tuskegee Institute recruited her to its athletics programme while she was still in high school.

Coachman dominated American women's track and field for over a decade, winning national championships in the high jump every year from 1939 to 1948. The Second World War cancelled the 1940 and 1944 Olympic Games entirely, denying Coachman what might have been her prime years of Olympic competition.

When the Games finally resumed in London in 1948, Coachman — competing while nursing a back injury — won gold in the high jump with an Olympic record, becoming the first Black woman from any country to win an Olympic gold medal. She was also the only American woman to win gold at those Games.

Upon returning home to Georgia, Coachman was celebrated with a car parade but was still forced to sit in the segregated section during her own honorary ceremony, a jarring illustration of the world she had triumphed within. She went on to become a teacher and coach, later founding a foundation to support young and former athletes.