Growing up in the 1930s and ‘40s in Harlem, New York, Althea Gibson wasn’t allowed to compete in tennis tournaments because of her skin color, but that didn’t stop this prodigy from competing. She kept playing and winning. According to an article about her on biography.com, she ultimately became the first African American tennis player to compete in the U.S. National Championships in 1950 and at Wimbledon (the oldest tennis tournament in the world) in 1951.