During the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles, two African American track and field athletes, Ridye Pickett and Louise Stokes became the first African American women to qualify for the Olympics. It wasn’t until four years later, at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, that they were allowed to represent their country on the track. The first African American gold medal to a woman came at the 1948 London Olympics, when Alice Coachman set records for the high jump on route to her gold medal. Coachman dominates the high jump, and had World War II not gotten in the way of the 1940 and 1944 Olympic games, its likely she would have claimed more medals.Never heard of this before? Get up to speed here.

Mae Faggs, born in 1932, was the first African American female to participate in three Olympic games: 1948, 1952, and 1956. She won gold during the 1952 Helsinki games in the 4 x 100 meter relay and a bronze 4 years later in the same event.

Wilma Rudolph, an African American woman who was stricken with polio as a little girl, went on to win three track and field gold medals during the 1960 Olympics in Rome. Rudolph is well known for being a civil rights and women’s rights pioneer along with being considered the fastest woman on earth after the 1960 Olympic games.

African American woman accounted for many of the stars who created the ‘golden era’ for American women in track and field. Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Florence Griffith-Joyner dominated the 1988 and 1992 games, bringing home 3 medals each.

Over the last twenty years, several other African American women made strides in other sports. Sheryl Swoops and several other African American women won gold for USA basketball between 1996 and 2004. The athleticism of Venus and Serena Williams have dominated both singles and doubles tennis during the Olympic Games, with five gold medal showing between them.