There are still significant differences in exposure, facilities, and compensation for female athletes even though Title IX guarantees them the same chances as their male counterparts. In addition, sexist expressions like “play like a girl” and the knowledge that most sports fans have lower expectations of them can demoralize young female players. Therefore, when female athletes emerge who not only defy but also shatter assumptions about what women are capable of, the world takes notice. Here is a list of those exceptional females.
It’s common to refer to Jackie Joyner-Kersee as the First Lady of American sports. From 1984 to 1996, she represented the United States in four Olympic Games and took home medals in the women’s long jump and women’s heptathlon. Joyner-Kersee finished with an incredible three gold, one silver, and two bronze medals.
In the Seoul Olympic women’s long jump final on September 19, 1988, she makes a new Olympic record of 7.40 meters to win her second gold medal.
Many people believe that Serena Williams is the greatest tennis player of all time. She debuted at No. 1 in the Women’s Tennis Association rankings on July 8, 2002, and has subsequently held this position six times. She broke through as the oldest No. 1 player in WTA history on February 18, 2013. At 34 years old, she still holds the top place as of July 2016.
Williams has an amazing 94 career WTA titles to her name. She is the only tennis player of any gender to have won at least six Grand Slam singles championships in three of the four Grand Slam competitions, with a total of 22 Grand Slam victories. With those 22 Grand Slam victories in 2016, she is tied for second place in the all-time Grand Slam titles with Steffi Graff.
With her 308th triumph at the U.S. Open on September 5, 2016, the tennis diva added another amazing accomplishment to her already impressive list of accomplishments. She now has more Grand Slam victories than any other player in the Open era. Her 308th victory over Roger Federer put her ahead of him.
The rise in popularity of women’s soccer in the United States throughout the 1990s can be attributed, in large part, to the legendary American attacker Mia Hamm. She was named the Women’s FIFA World Player of the Year for the first two years the award was given, and she led Team USA to their historic victory at the 1999 Women’s World Cup.
With 159 goals, Hamm held the record for the most goals scored by a male or female international player in soccer history until 2013. The National Soccer Hall of Fame has inducted her.
“Perhaps the most important athlete of the last 15 years,” as ESPN analyst and former Washington Post reporter Michael Wilbon put her.
American alpine skier Lindsey Vonn has won two gold and one bronze medal while competing for the United States in three Olympic Games (2002, 2006, and 2010). With 67 World Cup racing victories, she is already the most successful ski racer in American history.
There are just two female skiers who have won four World Cup titles, including Vonn. Furthermore, she is just one of six female competitors who have won World Cup events in each of the five alpine skiing disciplines: super combined, giant slalom, slalom, downhill, and super-G.
Mildred One of the most adaptable female athletes in sports history was Babe Didrikson Zaharias. At the 1932 Olympic Games, Didrikson became well-known across the country by winning the 80-meter hurdles and javelin events and placing second in the high jump competition.
Didrikson was an All-American basketball player as well, but her golf career brought her greater and longer-lasting acclaim. She won the US Open three times, including a third time in 1953 following her battle with illness, which ultimately claimed her life in 1956.
At the 1932 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles, Didrikson throws the javelin to win a gold medal in women’s track and field.
The most successful female racer in Indy Car racing history is American Danica Patrick. She is actually regarded as something of a pioneer among female athletes.
She was the first female leader of the Indianapolis 500 and the fourth woman to compete in the race in 2005. She is also one of just two female racers who have ever finished both the Daytona 500 and the Indianapolis 500. She became the first female IndyCar Series race winner ever when she won the 2008 Indy Japan 300. She achieved a first in 2013 when she became the first female driver in the history of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
For her first IndyCar Series race in 2005, she was chosen as Rookie of the Year.
Billie Jean King, an American tennis player, participated in professional matches from 1959 to 1983. She achieved 39 Grand Slam victories in that span (12 singles, 16 women’s doubles, and 11 mixed doubles). King held the top spot as the world’s best female tennis player for several years in the 1970s. In 1987, she was admitted to the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
King, a well-known supporter of women’s and homosexual rights, has already won the Presidential Medal of Freedom and been named Time magazine’s Person of the Year. She was even included in Life magazine’s 1990 list of the “100 Most Important Americans of the 20th Century.” She was the only female athlete on the list and one of only four athletes overall.
But King’s most well-known achievement may have been his September 20, 1973, “Battle of the Sexes” victory over Bobby Riggs. She not only won the match, but also 6-4, 6-3, and 6-3 in the decisive sets; as a result, the London Sunday Times referred to her victory as “the drop shot and volley heard around the world.” King dispelled the myths that women are less capable of handling pressure and are not as athletic as males in front of an estimated 50 million viewers globally.
For many years, Lisa Leslie, who was six feet five inches tall, was the most dominant player in the Women’s National Basketball Association. The ambidextrous center, a three-time league MVP, helped the US win four gold medals in the Olympics in 1996, 2001, 2004, and 2008.
Leslie is the all-time leader in rebounds in the WNBA. She played professional basketball with the Los Angeles Sparks and college basketball at USC. She was also chosen a record eight times for the first team of the league.
By her sophomore year of high school, Lisa Leslie had mastered the art of the dunk and had once scored 101 points in a single game. In 2015, she received her induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
She records the first-ever slam dunk in this instance.
From 1985 to 2000, Michelle Akers was a member of the U.S. Women’s National Team, helping the squad win its first two Women’s World Cups in 1991 and 1999. In addition, she scored an incredible ten goals at the 1991 Women’s World Cup, earning her the Golden Boot.
Throughout her legendary career, Akers played as a forward as well as a midfielder. She has now won FIFA Female Player of the Century and been admitted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame.
Bonnie Blair, an American speedskater, participated in four Olympics and took home six medals, five of which were gold. She is therefore among the greatest female skaters of all time and among the most accomplished Olympians in history.
In this photo from February 19, 1994, Blair wins the 500-meter speedskating event at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway.
Nancy Lopez, an American professional golfer who played from 1977 to 2003, is recognized for having been the sole person responsible for rescuing the Ladies Professional Golf Association from its late 1970s identity crisis. At the age of 21, she made her debut and won five straight competitions. The star was picked up by other players, the media, fans, and sponsors who were able to identify her through their mist.
Lopez won an incredible 48 LPGA Tour events during her illustrious career, including three Women’s PGA Championships. She won two Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year awards, four LPGA Tour Player of the Year awards, and the 1978 LPGA Tour Rookie of the Year award.
In 1987, Lopez received his induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame. In addition, she was the youngest woman to ever be eligible for the LPGA Hall of Fame. It took her six months to complete the formal induction process in order to fulfill the requirement of having played professionally for ten years.
Born in Norway in 1912, Sonja Henie is widely considered the greatest female figure skater of all time. She won three Olympic titles in Ladies’ Singles (1928, 1932, 1936), 10 consecutive world championships (1927-1936), and was a six-time European Champion (1931-1936). In fact, she has more titles to her name than any other female figure skater in history.
After turning professional, Henie starred in 10 movies, became a U.S. citizen, and divorced twice before marrying her childhood sweetheart, Norwegian shipowner Niels Onstad. She died of leukemia at the age of 57, while flying from Paris to Oslo for treatment.
Tracy Caulkins, an American, is regarded by many as one of the greatest competition swimmers of all time.
In addition to winning 48 national titles and setting American records in the four main competition swimming strokes (freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly), Caulkins is a three-time Olympic gold medalist and five-time world champion. More than any other American swimmer of either gender, Caulkins established 63 American records during her career in addition to five world records.
In the 1970s and 1980s, American Chris Evert was one of the most dominant ladies in tennis. In addition to winning three doubles titles and eighteen Grand Slam singles titles, she was ranked as the world’s top female singles player at the end of 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1980, and 1981.
Evert continues to hold some remarkable world records. More than any other professional tennis player, male or female, she has reached 34 Grand Slam singles finals. Evert has an 89.96 percent career winning percentage in singles matches. Even more astounding is her career winning percentage of 94.55 percent in clay-court singles matches. In the annals of professional tennis, these two percentages represent the greatest ever achieved by any player, male or female.
Joan Benoit Samuelson, like many other celebrities on the list, came upon her sport of domination by accident. She never looked back after taking up long-distance running to treat a leg injury she had sustained skiing.
In 1984, the year the women’s marathon event was added to the Summer Olympics, Samuelson took home the gold medal. She is the first woman to do so in history as a result. In addition, Samuelson owns the marks for the fastest times ever set by an American woman in both the Olympic and Chicago marathons. For 28 years, she also held the record for the quickest time ever set by an American woman in the Boston Marathon. She received the James E. Sullivan Award for outstanding
Abby Wambach, an American striker, leads all U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team goal scorers ever. She really holds the record for the most international goals scored by a man or female soccer player in history, with 184 goals.
From 2001 until 2015, Wambach was a member of Team USA. She helped the country win the Women’s World Cup in 2015 and two gold medals in the Olympics in 2004 and 2012.
Wambach became the first American woman to win FIFA World Player of the Year since Mia Hamm ten years prior in 2012. She was then recognized in May 2015 when Time magazine listed her among the world’s 100 most important people.
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