These trailblazing athletes raised the bar for women’s sports

Simply whenever you suppose Caitlin Clark mania can’t get crazier, the faculty basketball phenom units one more report.

The newest got here Monday when she set an NCAA Division I women’s record for many factors scored in a single season (1,113). Already this yr, the College of Iowa guard handed “Pistol” Pete Maravich to become the all-time leading scorer in NCAA Division I basketball — male or feminine.

Clark’s dazzling shows are helping to fuel a boom of interest in the women’s game. TV scores are reaching new heights. Attendance information are being shattered.

“I believe Caitlin is having numerous us have a look at this sport that’s such an American establishment another way,” CNN sports activities analyst Christine Brennan stated.

Clark’s meteoric rise is simply one other instance of how girls’s sports activities have exploded in recognition lately. Media protection of girls’s sports activities has nearly tripled in five years. Extra persons are tuning in than ever earlier than to look at girls play in occasions such because the NCAA Event and the FIFA Girls’s World Cup.

Elite girls’s sports activities will generate revenue of $1.28 billion in 2024, in line with monetary analysts Deloitte — that’s up 300% from three years in the past.

It’s not a shock to basketball legend Sue Fowl, a five-time Olympic gold medalist and one of many best to play the sport.

“We’ve at all times been enjoying, the product has at all times gotten higher, so what has modified is society has caught up,” Bird said recently on an MSG+ “Women of the W” panel.

Girls athletes are lastly getting extra of the due they deserve. And it wouldn’t be doable with out lots of the athletes on this checklist — trailblazers who’ve impressed generations by setting information, breaking obstacles or doing one thing that no girl has ever achieved earlier than.

What couldn’t Zaharias do? The daughter of Norwegian immigrants, she moved to Texas on the age of 4 and quickly excelled at whatever sport she turned to. In monitor and area, she gained three Olympic medals — two golds and a silver — in 1932. To this present day, she continues to be the one track-and-field athlete, male or feminine, to win particular person Olympic medals in operating, throwing and leaping occasions. She later turned an expert golfer, co-founding the LPGA and profitable 10 main tournaments. Oh, and he or she was an all-American basketball participant who may additionally play baseball — she pitched in three Main League spring coaching video games in 1934. The Related Press named her the best feminine athlete of the primary half of the twentieth century. “She is past all perception till you see her carry out,” sportswriter Grantland Rice once wrote. “Then you definitely lastly perceive that you’re trying on the most flawless part of muscle concord, of full psychological and bodily coordination, the world of sport has ever seen.”

Williams dominated women’s tennis for a lot of her profession, profitable 23 grand slam singles titles — essentially the most within the Open period and one behind the all-time report held by Margaret Court docket. Williams additionally gained 4 Olympic gold medals. She and her older sister, Venus, transformed the sport once they turned professionals as teenage phenoms. “I believe that (Serena’s) legacy is admittedly broad to the purpose the place you may’t even describe it in phrases,” stated four-time grand slam champion Naomi Osaka. “She modified the game a lot. She’s launched folks that have by no means heard of tennis into the game. I believe I’m a product of what she’s achieved. I wouldn’t be right here with out Serena, Venus, her entire household.”

Guthrie, a former aerospace engineer, is the primary girl to compete in two of essentially the most well-known races on this planet: the Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500, each in 1977. A yr later, she raced the Indianapolis 500 once more and completed ninth regardless of having a fractured wrist. She secretly wore a solid and drove all 500 miles primarily one-handed. Guthrie wasn’t instantly accepted by all her friends within the male-dominated sport. “There was numerous hostility at first,” she told Motorsport Magazine. “Nonetheless, I figured that after they gained the expertise of driving in opposition to me, attitudes would change, and certainly attitudes did change and that was very gratifying.” Guthrie raced 33 occasions on NASCAR’s prime circuit, ending within the prime 10 5 occasions. She was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame earlier this yr.

Nobody has scored extra targets on the Girls’s World Cup than Marta, a Brazilian icon who many contemplate to be the perfect feminine footballer in historical past. She scored 17 occasions at 5 completely different World Cups, and he or she was named FIFA Participant of the Yr six occasions — no different girl has gained that award greater than 3 times. She can be Brazil’s all-time best goalscorer (117). “My technology, we didn’t have feminine gamers to look as much as,” stated Sissi, a former teammate on the nationwide workforce. “So now to have gamers like her, particularly with what she achieved and who she turned, it’s essential. You already noticed how a lot the sport modified in Brazil. Now, individuals can say: ‘I wish to be like Marta.’ “

King retired in 1990 with 39 grand slam titles, together with 12 in singles play. However maybe her best legacy is her work selling the ladies’s recreation and gender equality. Fifty-one years in the past, she defeated Bobby Riggs in a historic “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match. It was essentially the most watched tennis match of all time, with an estimated 90 million individuals tuning in worldwide, and it turned an essential second within the girls’s rights motion. Riggs, a cocky 55-year-old as soon as ranked No. 1 on this planet, claimed he may nonetheless beat the highest feminine gamers within the recreation regardless that he was a lot older. He defeated Margaret Court docket after which challenged King, who had simply established the ladies’s tour and threatened to boycott the US Open if female and male champions didn’t obtain the identical prize cash. “I believed it might set us again 50 years if I didn’t win that match,” King stated. However she ran Riggs ragged on the Houston Astrodome, profitable in straight units 6-4, 6-3, 6-3.

Many contemplate Biles to be the best the gymnast of all time. The American is the most decorated gymnast — male or feminine — within the historical past of the game, profitable 34 medals throughout the Olympics and the World Championships. She has additionally astounded us with never-before-seen strikes; there at the moment are 5 signature expertise named after her. Biles additionally has develop into an advocate for athletes’ psychological well being in addition to youngsters within the foster care system and victims of sexual assault. In 2022 she turned the youngest individual ever to obtain the Presidential Medal of Freedom. “A trailblazer and a job mannequin, when she stands on the rostrum, we see what she is: absolute braveness to show private ache right into a higher goal, to face and communicate up for many who can’t communicate for themselves,” President Joe Biden stated.

Many contemplate Joyner-Kersee to be the best all-around feminine athlete in historical past. She gained Olympic gold within the hepathlon and the lengthy soar in 1988 after which adopted that up with one other hepathlon gold in 1992. She additionally gained a silver and two bronzes over her profession, and he or she did all of it whereas managing extreme bronchial asthma. “Sports activities let you study a lot about your self,” she said in 2021. “About exhausting work, character, integrity, and the self-discipline it takes to not be the perfect, however the perfect model of your self.”

Stone was the first woman to play in an all-male baseball league when she performed for the Indianapolis Clowns, a workforce within the Negro American League, in 1953. She performed second base, and her roster spot as soon as famously belonged to Hank Aaron, who left the Clowns to signal with Main League Baseball’s Milwaukee Braves. She hit .243 in 50 video games with the Clowns. “She was a pure athlete in something that was handed to her,” Martha Ackmann, who wrote a book about Stone, told ESPN. “She performed soccer. She was a champion in ice skating. What I particularly liked was that she was essentially the most feared child in her neighborhood when it got here to enjoying crimson rover. One in all her Negro League teammates stated, ‘I’ve seen numerous nice girl athletes. Babe Didrikson was a superb participant. However Toni Stone was an actual good participant.’ “

Final yr Shiffrin turned skiing’s all-time winningest athlete, passing Ingemar Stenmark for many World Cup wins in historical past (87). She has since elevated that quantity to 97, and he or she has additionally gained two gold medals on the Olympics and 7 on the World Championships. “(Mikaela) is the perfect skier that has ever lived in my eyes,” said Lindsey Vonn, Shiffrin’s American compatriot who as soon as owned essentially the most World Cup wins for a girl.

Lieberman turned the primary girl to play in a males’s skilled basketball league when she joined the Springfield Fame of the US Basketball League in 1986. The purpose guard additionally was a star within the Girls’s Skilled Basketball League and the Girls’s American Basketball Affiliation within the early Eighties. When the WNBA was shaped in 1997, Lieberman was the league’s oldest participant at 39. She was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999, and he or she would later develop into a coach and TV analyst. Along with teaching the WNBA’s Detroit Shock, Lieberman turned the primary girl to teach an expert males’s workforce when she was hired by the Texas Legends, the Dallas Mavericks’ developmental workforce, in 2009. “I do not wish to be a girl who’s teaching males; I wish to be a coach who’s teaching,” she stated. She later turned an assistant coach with the NBA’s Sacramento Kings.

No gymnast had ever achieved an ideal 10 on the Olympics till Comăneci in 1976. The 14-year-old Romanian really acquired seven excellent scores over the course of the video games, however the first got here within the uneven bars last. “To start with, it was not 10. It was a 1.00 as a result of the computer systems couldn’t cope!” Comăneci told CNN in 2012. “They weren’t ready for the ten, so that they didn’t make sufficient house after the decimal to have the ability to accommodate the ten.” Comăneci would go on to win gold in that occasion, in addition to within the stability beam and the person all-around. She additionally gained silver within the workforce all-around and bronze on the ground train that yr. She added two extra golds in 1980.

Ledecky was one of many largest stars of the 2016 Summer season Olympics, profitable 4 gold medals and setting two world information — one within the 400-meter freestyle and one within the 800-meter freestyle. The American was the primary swimmer since 1968 to win the 200-, 400- and 800-meter freestyles on the identical Olympics. On the Tokyo Video games in 2021, she added one other two extra gold medals to her haul. Final yr, she surpassed Michael Phelps for essentially the most particular person world swimming titles (16). “I believe indubitably she’s the best feminine swimmer in historical past,” said NBC Olympics commentator Rowdy Gaines, who gained three Olympic gold medals himself. “No one’s even in her ballpark.”

Rhéaume, a goaltender, performed exhibition video games with the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning in 1992, making her the primary girl to play in any of North America’s 4 main professional sports activities leagues. She additionally gained a silver medal with Canada on the 1998 Winter Olympics to go together with the 2 golds she gained on the World Championships in 1992 and 1994. “When dad and mom come as much as me and stated, you already know you’re such an inspiration for my daughter, or my son did a venture on you in class, and even an NHL goalie that claims to me, you already know, after I noticed you going to coaching camp, I advised myself if she will be able to do it, I can do it myself, too,” Rhéaume said. “It actually felt wonderful to appreciate that my story impacted individuals in a optimistic approach.”

Rapinoe, an Olympic gold medalist and two-time Girls’s World Cup winner, scored 63 targets over 203 matches for the US. In 2019, she was thought of the perfect participant on this planet by FIFA, and he or she was additionally awarded the Ballon d’Or Feminin. Off the sector, Rapinoe is understood for her work on social points, together with gender and pay fairness, LGBTQ+ rights and racial inequality. Teammate Kelley O’Hara called her “one of a kind,” saying: “There’s by no means been one like her. There most likely isn’t going to be one near her.”

Graf gained 22 grand slam singles titles over her profession — essentially the most within the Open Period earlier than Serena Williams handed her in 2017. The German celebrity, nicknamed “Fraulein Forehand” for her highly effective forehand shot, was the No. 1 participant on this planet from August 1987 to March 1991. That report, 186 consecutive weeks, nonetheless stands at this time. In 1988, Graf turned the primary tennis participant — and thus far, the one participant — to win the Golden Slam: profitable the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, the US Open and an Olympic gold medal all in the identical calendar yr. “Steffi Graf is the perfect all-around participant,” Chris Evert, another all-time great, once said. “Martina (Navratilova) gained extra on quick courts and I gained extra on sluggish courts, however Steffi got here alongside and gained extra titles on each surfaces.”

On the 1988 Summer season Olympics, “Flo-Jo” gained each the 100 and 200 meters — and to this present day she nonetheless holds the world report in each occasions. The American retired after the Olympics to start out a household, she stated. Ten years later, she died throughout an epileptic seizure. She was simply 38 years previous. Her information, and her legacy, dwell on. “Each time you see a girl within the 100 or 200 meters with make-up and nails, that’s Florence,” her husband, Al Joyner, told CNN. “She did it with type and he or she did it with pace. She was in a category by herself particularly for all the ladies she opened the door for. Her star will at all times shine.”

Krone gained greater than 3,700 races throughout her profession as a jockey, and in 1993 she turned the primary girl to win a Triple Crown race when she gained the Belmont with Colonial Affair. A decade later she was the primary girl to win a Breeders’ Cup race. When she was inducted into the Nationwide Racing Corridor of Fame in 2000, she encouraged kids to chase their dreams: “If the steady gate is closed, climb the fence.”

Leslie, one of many best gamers in WNBA historical past, gained two league championships with the Los Angeles Sparks and 4 Olympic gold medals with Staff USA. The three-time league MVP additionally turned the primary to ever dunk in a WNBA recreation, doing so in opposition to the Miami Sol in 2002. “For younger ladies who now are within the league rising up capable of see that after which to see the replays of that and to be impressed by that, I believe that it’s a kind of barrier-breaking moments,” former Miami player Ruth Riley told The Athletic. When Leslie retired in 2009, she was the WNBA’s all-time chief in factors and rebounds. She was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Corridor of Fame in 2015.

Coachman was the first Black woman to win Olympic gold when she gained the excessive soar in 1948. It got here at some point after Audrey Patterson turned the primary Black girl to win an Olympic medal (bronze within the 200 meters). Coachman was additionally the one American girl to win a gold medal that yr. When she received again to the US, she was acquired by President Harry S. Truman on the White Home, and her hometown of Albany, Georgia, held a special occasion in her honor — regardless that town was nonetheless segregated. “If I had gone to the Video games and failed, there wouldn’t be anybody to observe in my footsteps,” she told The New York Times in 1996. “It inspired the remainder of the ladies to work more durable and battle more durable.”

No girl has extra wins on the LPGA Tour than Sörenstam (72), and it’s not even shut. Ten of these wins got here in main tournaments. In 2003, Sörenstam accomplished the profession grand slam and likewise performed with the boys on the Colonial, a PGA Tour occasion. It was the primary time in almost six many years {that a} girl had competed on the boys’s tour, with the final being Babe Didrikson Zaharias. Sörenstam missed the lower by 4 strokes, however her efficiency nonetheless impressed many. “It was simply actually cool for ladies’s empowerment and saying, ’Gender is just not the factor that divides these gamers,’ ” LPGA star Lydia Ko told the Golf Channel last year. “It’s so distinctive, and that second is simply one of many wonderful moments that Annika had.”

Rousey loved a distinguished profession as a judoka, profitable an Olympic bronze medal, earlier than transferring to combined martial arts in 2011. She is credited by UFC boss Dana White as being one of many foremost causes behind the expansion of MMA. She was the promotion’s first women’s bantamweight champion, and he or she efficiently defended her title six occasions. Her fights headlined UFC pay-per-views as followers tuned in to see the “baddest girl on the planet.” In 2018, she was the primary girl inducted into the UFC Corridor of Fame. “Once I famously stated girls would by no means battle within the UFC, I had by no means met Ronda Rousey,” White said during her induction. “I had by no means met the girl who would change all the things. She began by altering my thoughts, and he or she ended up altering the world.”

Switzer made historical past in 1967 when she turned the primary girl to formally enter the Boston Marathon. One other girl, Roberta Bingay Gibb, accomplished the Boston Marathon in 1966 with no bib, however the subsequent yr Switzer signed up together with her initials, Ok.V., and secured an official spot within the race. A few miles into the marathon, race official Jock Semple tried to tear off her quantity, claiming it was a males’s solely race. The encounter was captured in an iconic photograph that turned Switzer right into a hero and launched her profession as an advocate for ladies in sports activities. She went on to complete the race in 4 hours and 20 minutes. “I used to be decided to complete it doesn’t matter what,” she recalled. She was later disqualified, however by 1972 the Boston Marathon had established an official girls’s race.

Throughout the Nineties and early 2000s, Hamm was the face of American soccer and an idol for a lot of younger followers. She scored 158 targets for the US, profitable two Girls’s World Cups and two Olympic gold medals. In 1999, Hamm set the world report for profession targets in worldwide soccer competitors (she’s now third). She was the primary girl to be inducted into the World Soccer Corridor of Fame. “When Mia Hamm is your celebrity and he or she is essentially the most selfless, humble and grounded person who by no means needs to take credit score for something, it’s simple to have an superior group of girls come collectively,” said Julie Foudy, who played with Hamm on the US team.

Their partnership on the sand is the stuff of Olympic legend. On their technique to profitable gold medals in 2004, 2008 and 2012, Might-Treanor and Walsh Jennings by no means misplaced a match. They misplaced solely one in every of 43 units in Olympic play. The duo took an prolonged break in 2009-2010, with Walsh Jennings giving beginning twice and Might-Treanor recovering from a torn Achilles tendon. It was questioned whether or not the 2 would ever play once more. They silenced the doubters with gold medal No. 3 earlier than Might-Treanor retired. “I wished to do that for her and end on this approach for each of us,” Might-Treanor stated. “We’ve lived a lot life collectively.”

Rudolph contracted polio as a baby and her doctor once told her she would never walk again. She went on to develop into one of many world’s best sprinters. On the 1960 Summer season Olympics in Rome, Rudolph turned the primary American girl to win three gold medals in a single Olympics, taking first place within the 100 meters, the 200 meters and the 4×100-meter relay. “She was the Jesse Owens of girls’s monitor and area, and like Jesse, she modified the game forever,” Olympic historian Bud Greenspan stated. “She turned the benchmark for little Black ladies to aspire.”

Navratilova gained 59 grand slam singles and doubles titles over the course of her illustrious profession, and she still holds the WTA Tour’s all-time record for tournament wins (167). After retiring from singles in 1994, she continued enjoying doubles — and profitable titles — into her 40s. She was additionally one of many first overtly homosexual skilled athletes. “Martina was the primary reputable celebrity who actually got here out whereas she was a celebrity.” Donna Lopiano, government director of the Girls’s Sports activities Basis, told ESPN years ago. “She exploded the barrier by placing it on the desk. She principally stated this a part of my life doesn’t have something to do with me as a tennis participant. Choose me for who I’m.”

Patrick turned the primary girl in historical past to win an IndyCar race when she gained the Indy Japan 500 in 2008. She completed a career-high fifth within the 2009 IndyCar standings, and he or she would later transfer on to inventory vehicles and race on NASCAR’s prime circuit. In 2013, Patrick turned the primary girl to win pole place for a NASCAR Cup Sequence race when she certified first for the Daytona 500. She is one in every of solely 14 drivers to have led the Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500, and no girl has completed higher in each. “I really by no means considered being a woman in racing till I used to be about 14,” Patrick said. “That’s when TV exhibits have been eager to do packages on me, and naturally the query got here up. My Mother, my Dad by no means let me use that as some type of benchmark, like ‘You’re the perfect lady on the market.’ It was actually about being the perfect driver.”

Earlier than Serena and Venus Williams, there was Gibson. Tennis was a segregated sport for a few years earlier than Gibson turned the primary African American to compete within the US Nationwide Championships — the precursor to the US Open — in 1950. In 1956 she turned the primary Black participant to win a grand slam match when she gained the French Open. A yr later she turned the primary Black champion in Wimbledon’s 80-year historical past. When she retired, Gibson had gained 11 grand slam titles and was the world’s top-ranked participant. “Althea Gibson paved the way in which for us,” Venus Williams stated after her U.S. Open debut in 1997. “So it is essential that we acknowledge this, that I acknowledge it, and for me to know my historical past.”

In 2013, on the age of 64, Nyad turned the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without a protective cage. It took her almost 53 hours to perform the feat, in what was her fifth strive in 35 years and her fourth since turning 60. Dozens of onlookers — some in kayaks and boats, many others wading within the water or standing on shore — gathered to cheer Nyad on as she completed the greater than 100-mile swim. “I received three messages,” an exhausted and glad Nyad advised reporters afterward. “One is we must always by no means, ever hand over. Two is you by no means are too previous to chase your goals. Three is it seems like a solitary sport, but it surely’s a workforce.” Within the Nineteen Seventies, Nyad gained a number of swimming marathons and was one of the first women to swim around the island of Manhattan. She holds the world’s report for longest ocean swim — 102.5 miles from Bimini within the Bahamas to Jupiter, Florida.