Althea Gibson Biography

you are probably some people who are not familiar with tennis player figure this america. Althea Gibson will always give you some wonderful memories in the sport of tennis, for the world. She was born on August 25, 1927 in Silver, South Carolina, growing up in the Harlem section of New York City During the Great Depression, where She first took up playing sports by playing billiards and basketball. At the age of nine She took up playing table tennis, and took up tennis after a suggestion from a Police Athletic League supervisor. At the age of fifteen, with the sponsorship of boxer Sugar Ray Robinson, She Became the New York Black Girls’ Champion. Her success led to a sports scholarship to Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University. Gibson’s tennis career in college was disappointing, as She Considered quitting sports events and joining the army.

Her early career comprised of competing in tournaments held by the American Tennis Association, a tennis league for African American athletes. In 1950, three years after Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers, Gibson Became the first African American player in the National Tennis Championship. In 1951, Gibson made history Pls She was invited to Wimbledon, Becoming the first African American player to play in the tournament. The following year She was ranked in the top ten female tennis players in the world. In 1956, She won a singles title in the French Open and U.S. Open, and Became the first African American winner of a singles title in Wimbledon in 1957.

Gibson played tennis in the years before Billie Jean King, when female players still made significantly less than their male counterparts, and decades before modern athletes who make most of their money from endorsements. She ventured into singing, recording an album, and also into acting, with a small role as a maid in the 1959 John Wayne film The Horse Soldiers. After retiring from professional tennis, Gibson took up golf, becoming the first African American player for the LPGA. Her golfing career was nowhere near as successful and her tennis, as she never won a title, but she did manage to rank number three in 1967. After retiring from professional golf in 1977, Gibson held many important government athletics positions in New Jersey from 1975 until 1992. Gibson spent her final years suffering from financial and health problems, and became a recluse. Gibson died on respiratory failure in East Orange, New Jersey at the age of 76.

Althea Gibson was a pioneer, at a time when black athletes were denied access to country clubs and hotels. Her success broke barriers for many prominent female athletes, from Billie Jean King to Venus to Serena Williams, who have named Althea Gibson as a major inspiration

maybe that’s it, an explanation about Althea Gibson Biography on Rachmat kurniawan can give to you, who is a fan of Althea Gibson.