HISTORY PIONEERS

HISTORY PIONEERS

BLACK MEN AND WOMEN HAS PARTICIPATED IN THE ARENA OF THE OLYMPICS

FIRST BLACK TO PARTICIPATE IN THE OLYMPICS

CONSTANTIN HENRIQUEZ DE ZUBIERA

He was a Haitian-born French rugby union footballer. He played as number eight, wing and centre.

Henriquez was the first known coloured athlete to compete in the Olympic Games, and by extension, the first to become an Olympic gold medallist, as he was a member of the France squad that won the Olympic title at the first Rugby Olympic Tournament.

He also won the silver in the tug of war at the same Games.

He played at Olympique de Paris and Stade Français. He won as a Stade Français player the titles of French Champion, in 1897, 1898 and 1901.

He introduced football in his country of Haiti in 1904, and scored the first goal in Haiti during a competition. He co-founded with his brother Alphonse the Union Sportive Haïtienne. By 1950 he was a Senator

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MALE United States

JOHN BAXTER TAYLOR

November 3, 1883 – December 2, 1908

EDUCATION: UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

He was the FIRST black athlete to win a gold medal was African-American and was part of the US relay team in athletics in 1908. In the same year less than five months after returning from his win at the Olympic Games in London, John BaxterTaylor died suddenly of typhoid fever on December 2, 1908 at the age of 26.

FEMALE United States

ALICE MARIE COACHMAN

November 9, 1923 – July 14, 2014

EDUCATION: Tuskegee Institute

Albany State College, B.A. Degree

She was the First African American Woman to compete in the Olympics and to win a gold medal. She specialized in high jump. Coachman’s athletic career ended when she was 24. She dedicated the rest of her life to education and to the Job Corps.

Alice Marie Coachman died in Albany, Georgia on July 14, 2014 of cardiac arrest after suffering respiratory problems.

FLORENCE DELOREZ GRIFFITH JOYNER

FLO-JO,

December 21, 1959 – September 21, 1998

EDUCATION: UCLA Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology.

She was as an American track and field athlete. She is considered the fastest woman of all time based on the fact that the world records she set in 1988 for both the 100 m and 200 m still stand and have yet to be seriously challenged. During the late 1980s she became a popular figure in international track and field because of her record-setting performances and flashy personal style. She died in her sleep as the result of an epileptic seizure in 1998 at the age of 38. She attended California State University, Northridge (CSUN) and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA

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A FEW BIOS FROM THE 2016 WOMEN Olympian winners

SHELLY-ANN FRASER-PRYCE, OD

“POCKET ROCKET”

December 27, 1986

THE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, Bachelor of Science degree in Child and Adolescent

THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES MONA, Honorary degree of Doctor of Laws degree.

is a Jamaican track and field sprinter. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Fraser-Pryce ascended to prominence in the 2008 Olympic Games when at 21 years old, the relatively unknown athlete became the first Caribbean woman to win 100 mgold at the Olympics. In 2012, she successfully defended her 100 m title, becoming the third woman to win two consecutive 100 m events at the 2016 Olympics.

CLARESSA SHIELDS

March 17, 1995

She is an American boxer.. She won the gold in Women’s Middleweight Boxing at the 2012 Summer Olympics and the 2016 Summer Olympics which made her the first American boxer, male or female, to win an Olympic title twice in a row.

She was the youngest boxer at the February 2012 U.S. Olympic trials, where she won the 165-pound weight class. In May 2012, Shields qualified to compete at the 2012 Olympics the first year that women’s boxing was an Olympic event. At the London Olympic games in August 2012, she became the first U.S. woman to win a boxing gold medal. She won the 2012 Olympic middleweight title by defeating Russian boxer Nadezda Torlopova and the 2016 title by defeating Dutch boxer

MICHELLE CARTER

October 12, 1985

is an American shot putter, and the current Olympic women’s champion. She is the current American record holder in the event with a distance of 20.63 m (67 ft 8 in) set at the 2016 Olympic Games.

IBTIHAJ MUHAMMAD

December 4, 1985

American sabre fencer, and a member of the United States fencing team. She is best known for being the first Muslim American woman to wear a hijab while competing for the United States in the Olympics. In individual sabre at the 2016 Summer Olympics, she won her first qualifying round bout. She earned the bronze medal as part of Team USA in the Team Sabre, becoming the first female Muslim-American athlete to earn a medal at the Olympics.

BRIANNA ROLLINS

August 18, 1991

is an American track and field athlete, who specializes in the 100 metres hurdles. Her time of 12.26 is tied as the fourth-fastest run in history. She is the 2013 World champion and the 2016 Olympic champion in the 100 meter hurdles.

DALILAH MUHAMMAD

February 7, 1990

Is the first American woman to win gold in the 400-meter hurdles, and three black women — Brianna Rollins, Nia Ali and Kristi Castlin — became the first Olympians from the same nation to finish 1-2-3 in the 100-meter hurdles.

FAITH CHEPNGETICH KIPYEGON

January 10, 1994

Kenyan middle-distance runner and the current Olympic champion in the 1500 m women’s having won the Rio Olympics on 16 August 2016. She is also the Commonwealth champion having won the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland with a time of 4 minutes 08.94 seconds. She won the gold medal at the 2011 World Youth Championships in Athletics, and a gold medal the next year at the 2012 World Junior Championships in Athletic..

VIVIAN JEPKEMOI CHERUIYOT

September 11, 1983

She is Kenyan long-distance runner who specialises in track and cross country running, olympic champion in 5000 metres event. She represented Kenya at the 2000 Summer Olympics, the 2008 Summer Olympics, the 2012 Summer Olympics and the 2016 Summer Olympics, winning a silver medal at the 5000 m and bronze medal at the 10000 m at the 2012 Olympics, silver medal at the 10000 m and gold medal at the 5000 m at the 2016 Olympics, setting the new Olympic record in 5000 m event. Cheruiyot won a silver medal in the 5000 metres at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics and became the world champion in the event at the 2009 edition, repeating this achievement at the 2011 World Championships, where she doubled up by winning the 10000 m.

After taking a silver at the 2010 IAAF World Indoor Championships, she won a number of outdoor titles that year, becoming African champion, Commonwealth Games champion and IAAF Continental Cup champion, as well as winning the 2010 IAAF Diamond League title.

She holds the Kenyan record and Commonwealth record for the 5000 m with her best time of 14:20.89, which was set at the DN Galan in 2011.

RUTH JEBET

November 17, 1996

She is a long-distance runner and steeplechase specialist who competes internationally for Bahrain. She is the current world record holder and reigning Olympic gold medalist in the 3000 metres steeplechase, both achieved before turning 20.

MOKGADI CASTER SEMENYA

January 7, 1991

A South African middle-distance runner and 2016 Olympic gold medallist. Semenya won gold in the women’s 800 metres at the 2009 World Championships with a time of 1:55.45 in the final. Semenya also won silver medals at the 2011 World Championships and the 2012 Summer Olympics, both in the 800 metres. She was the winner of the gold medal in the 800 metre event at the 2016 Summer Olympics

ALMAZ AYANA EBA

A Ethiopian female long-distance runner who competes in the 3000 metres, 5000 metres, and 10,000 metres events. She set a new 10,000 metres world record, breaking the previous one set in 1993, when winning gold in the event at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

SHAUNAE MILLER

April 15, 1994

Bahamian sprinter. In the 2016 Rio Olympics, Miller won a gold medal in the 400 metres event.

ELAINE THOMPSON

June 28, 1992

A Jamaican track and field sprinter. She rose to prominence as part of the gold medal-winning team in the 4×100 metres relay at the 2015 World Championships, where she also won a silver medal in the 200 metres. At the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Thompson completed a rare sprint double when she won gold in the 100m (with a time of 10.71 s) and the 200m (21.78 s), becoming the first female sprinter to do so since Florence Griffith Joyner at the Seoul Olympics in 1988. Thompson currently ranks as the fifth-fastest woman ever in the 200 metres event and tied fourth-fastest in the 100 metres.

ESTELLE MOSSELY

August 19, 1992

is a French boxer. She competed in the women’s lightweight event at the 2016 Summer Olympics, winning gold in the final against the Chinese boxer Yin Junhua.

NICOLA ADAMS ,MBE

October 26, 1982

British boxer. The first woman to win an Olympic boxing title, she is the 2012 and 2016 Olympic gold medallist in the women’s flyweight division. As of 27 May 2016 she is the reigning Olympic, World, Commonwealth Games and European Games champion at flyweight.

To note the United States won the most medals in athletics and at thirteen gold medals and 32 overall they won more than double the next most successful nations. In the absence of Russia, Kenya and Jamaica placed second and third with six gold medals and the only other nations to win more than ten medals in total. In the 2016 Olympic athletics programme, 141 medals were awarded and 43 nations reached the medal table.