Over the years, numerous black women have emerged as trailblazers in different sports, from figure skating and basketball to track and field and tennis. The struggles of pioneers such as Lynette Woodard, Althea Gibson, and Alice Coachman have inspired a new generation of superstars like Venus and Serena Williams, Sheryl Swoopes, and Laila Ali.
Mentioned below are just a few of those amazing black women athletes that fought against all odds to become immortals in their respective games. If you gamble on sports, you would have certainly lost money betting against them!
Alice Coachman: Alice earned the feat of becoming the first-ever black woman to capture an Olympic high jump medal at the 1948 London Olympic Games. With a winning jump of five feet, six-and-one-eighth inches, she scaled new heights for all black athletes around the world while receiving the medal from King George VI. In 1952, Coca-Cola signed Coachman to make her the first black woman athlete endorsing a consumer product of serious popularity.
Althea Gibson: Althea started playing tennis as a teenager, and caught the limelight by winning a local tournament of the American Tennis Association. She went on to win the ATA’s championship for ten consecutive years, which is still a record. It took her relatively longer to appear in the world championship level due to the segregated nature of the sport at that time. In 1951, she became the first Black tennis player ever to receive an invitation from Wimbledon. Gibson also earned the distinction of being the first Black tennis player to win a Grand Slam, at the French Open in 1956.
Wilma Rudolph: Wilma Rudolph was four years old when she was diagnosed with scarlet fever, double pneumonia, and polio. It was told that she may never walk again. Well, not only did she walk, but also went on to become a champion Olympic runner. At the Rome Olympics in 1960, Rudolph won three gold medals. She is still remembered as the first-ever American woman to achieve this feat in a single Olympics.
Debi Thomas: A figure skater is known for her rebellious nature, Debi Thomas famously appeared in the Olympics wearing a black unitard that the International Skating Union banned for challenging the norms of the game. Thomas became the first black woman to take home the U.S. Figure Skating Championships title in 1986. Two years later, she became the first black woman to win a Winter Olympics medal for the United States.
Sheryl Swoopes: Sheryl was the first player to be signed when the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) was founded in 1996. Representing the Houston Comets, she received three MVP awards and won four WNBA titles. She is also the recipient of three Olympic gold medals in 1996, 2000, and 2004. Sheryl Swoopes is popularly known as the Michael Jordan of the WNBA.
Laila Ali: Daughter of boxing legend Muhammad Ali, Laila became the first woman to top a pay-per-view boxing event when she took on Jacqui Frazier-Lyde in 2001. She retired in 2007 with a win-loss record of 24-0.
Simone Biles: Simone Biles caught the attention of the gymnastics enthusiasts around the world at the 2016 Rio Olympics by winning four gold medals and one bronze. In 2018 world championship, she won gold medals in all four events. She was named the “Most Dominant Athlete” of 2018 by ESPN’s the Magazine.
Serena Williams: With four Olympic gold medals and twenty-three Grand Slam titles, Serena is considered to be one of the greatest players ever in women’s tennis. She is the most recent female player to capture all four Grand Slam singles titles simultaneously and the third player in the history of the game to achieve this twice. She has held the world number one ranking on eight separate occasions between 2002 and 2017, for a total duration of three hundred and nineteen weeks.