American Olympian high jumper Alice Coachman dies at 90

The first black woman to win Olympic gold – and the only American woman to win gold in track and field at the 1948 London Games has died at the age of 90 on July 14, the same day that Nadine Gordimer, Nobel Prize winning South African author also died at the age of 90. Alice Marie Coachman died of stroke in Albany, Georgia. Both were born in 1923 (Gordimer on November 20 and Coachman on November 9).

Coachman won gold in high jump at the 1948 London Olympics in front of King George VI who awarded the medal. Afterwards she was invited to board the royal yacht. At the height of her international achievement, praised around the world, she returned home to a segregated society. The mayor of Albany, at the time, would not shake her hand when the city celebrated her success (New York Times, July 16, 2014). Similarly, Nadine Gordimer – also internationally acclaimed – lived in the era of South African apartheid (1948-1994).

Coachman achieved her success at a time when she was not allowed to train with white athletes, so her training ground was the nearby grasslands where she ran barefoot. She came from a family of 10 children, and it is said her father was angered by her “unladylike” interest in athletics. When she moved to Tuskegee to attend high school and college, she won the Amateur Athletic Union high jump championship 10 consecutive times. She was also proficient in the 100 meter sprint and the relay.

She won gold at the age of 24, because the 1940 and 1944 Olympics were cancelled due to World War II. She beat Britain's Dorothy Tyler – but only on a countback. They both jumped the same height, but Coachman did it on her first jump, so she took first place. French Micheline Ostermeyer was third. This was Coachman’s first and only time at the Olympics. She is better known as Alice Coachman Davis after her marriage to NF Davis, and also her second marriage to Frank Davis.

Comments

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. That

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass

The Beggars' Strike by Aminata Sow Fall: book review

The Beggar’sStrike (1979 in French and 1981 in English) is set in an unstated country in West Africa in a city known only as The Capital. Undoubtedly, Senegalese author Sow Fall writes of her own experiences. It was also encapsulated in the 2000 film, Battu , directed by Cheick Oumar Sissoko from Mali. Mour Ndiaye is the Director of the Department of Public Health and Hygiene, with the opportunity of a distinguished and coveted promotion to Vice-President of the Republic. Tourism has declined and the government blames the local beggars in The Capital. Ndiaye must rid the streets of beggars, according to a decree from the Minister. Ndiaye instructs his department to carry out weekly raids. One of the raids leads to the death of lame beggar, Madiabel, who ran into an oncoming vehicle as he tried to escape, leaving two wives and eight children. Soon after, another raid resulted in the death of the old well-loved, comic beggar Papa Gorgui Diop. Enough is enou

FEAST OR FAMINE

Search This Blog