Angel McCoughtry: Double Olympic basketball champion and multi-talented businessperson
Away from the glitz and glamour of the Olympic Games, dozens of athletes subsidise their sports career by having other jobs. From farming to banking, Tokyo 2020 looks at several hopefuls aiming to make an impact next summer and what roles they have outside of competition. This week, we introduce a back-to-back Olympic gold medallist, who founded an ice cream shop and an entertainment company.
Basketball
The deets
- Name: Angel McCoughtry
- Age: 34
- Country: United States
- Sport: Basketball
Her athlete life
Angel McCoughtry wanted to follow in the footsteps of her basketball-playing dad. And that’s exactly what she did.
Having been a stand-out player in the lower leagues, she was drafted by the Atlanta Dream in 2009. In her very first season she won the Rookie of the Year award.
Since then, she hasn’t stopped winning. Three years after her debut, she won her first Olympic gold medal with Team USA at the London 2012 Games.
“Growing up, did I ever imagine I would be an Olympian? Never! Standing on the podium… was the best moment of my life," she told Olympic.org.
Four years later she was back on top of the podium, winning her second gold at Rio 2016. She had achieved one of the most difficult things possible for an Olympian: two golds at two consecutive Games.
But she also excelled from an individual standpoint. And according to Team USA, McCoughtry set U.S. Olympic single-game records for field goal percentage after going a perfect 8-of-8 against Republic of China, and for most field goals made (10) versus Turkey in 2012.
Away from the Olympics, McCoughtry won two World Cup gold medals (2010 and 2014) and a Pan American Games gold (2007).
Last February, two years after suffering a serious knee injury, she returned to the court.
“It goes to show you that just because you are at a low moment, it's not over. It's hard, because you might have doubters that might not think, 'Oh, she's not going to be like she used to be'. Sometimes it's about believing in yourself and you keep working hard, and now you're out here with the best players in the world... it's just a good feeling,” she explained in an interview with USA Basketball.
Once again she is competing with the very best in the world and aiming to represent Team USA at Tokyo 2020.
Her professional life
While injury may have given her a different perspective on life, McCoughtry was already an entrepreneur by the time of her two-year break from the sport. She had ambitions beyond being a basketball star. And now she does play many different roles away from the court.
In 2010, she created the Angel McCoughtry Dream Foundation.
"As you know, sports have always been an extremely important part of my life growing up. But, when I was little, we couldn’t always afford new equipment, new shoes, new cleats, etc," she explained on her Linkedin page.
"I established in 2010, the Angel McCoughtry Dream Foundation. Our mission is to teach and empower the youth to recognise their dreams by possessing good character, self-confidence and valuable life skills through training based on the fundamentals of sportsmanship, competition, and respect. Which will facilitate their physical, mental, and spiritual maturity. Also, I am currently launching McCoughtry's Mission which will help renovate & revamp basketball courts all around the world."
In January 2017 she launched “McCoughtry’s Ice Cream”, her own brand that was sold at a shop in Atlanta.
“I feel like a lot of people play ball and that’s the only thing they know how to do. And so after they retire, they’re lost. But not Angel McCoughtry. I got an ice cream shop," she explained in an interview with the New York Times.
Since then she has shown the world that her talent knows no bounds.
Later in 2017, she founded McCoughtry Entertainment.
The company’s website lays out the ambitious scope of their work: "We are an American independent entertainment company founded by Angel McCoughtry and based in New York City. We specialize in film distribution, and film and television production.".
The basketball star is not only the CEO of McCoughtry Entertainment, she has also written a script for a TV show and she was the executive producer of the short film "Moms works", which was released this year.
And that’s not the limit of her creative endeavours. In 2017 she released the song “Vanity”., which was followed up in 2019 by another track “Never Let Go”.
What’s next for the multi-talented Angel McCoughtry? Mechanic? Magician?
In fact, many would say that she is already a magician, casting spells with a basketball. And Tokyo 2020 may well be the scene of her latest trick.