Female athletes have long been excluded from professional competition, underfunded, and underestimated. Before they could start competing for medals and championship titles, female athletes had to fight for opportunities to play.
You may know famous female athletes like Venus and Serena Williams, Mia Hamm, and Simone Biles, but how much do you know about the female athletes who came before them?
Because of the groundbreaking women in sports who showed the world what women are capable of, female athletes today have more support, access, and opportunities.
To celebrate Women’s History Month, we’re taking a look at 5 trailblazing female athletes of the 20th century you may not know about:
Billie Jean King
Billie Jean King is a former professional tennis player and an advocate for equality. From 1959 through 1983, she won 39 Grand Slam titles, including six Wimbledon singles championships and four U.S. Open titles. She was ranked the No. 1 tennis player in the world in five different years.
In 1968, when tennis turned professional, King won the first Wimbledon singles title in the Open era, earning £750 (about $1,800) in prize money. Meanwhile, the men’s champion earned £2,000 (about $4,800). In pursuit of equality, King and eight other female tennis players, now known as the “Original 9,” formed the Women’s Tennis Association, an organization to promote and govern the women’s game.
In 1973, King played a match against Bobby Riggs, a 1939 Wimbledon champion who claimed to be better than any female player. With a $100,000 prize on the line, the “Battle of the Sexes” became a media sensation. About 90 million people worldwide watched King win 6-4, 6-3, 6-3, and her victory became a symbol for women’s equality and empowerment.
In 1977, King was named by Harper’s Bazaar Magazine as one of the “ten most powerful women in America.” She was an Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year selection in 1967 and 1973, and Sports Illustrated called her “probably the most influential athlete of her time.” In 1987, she was elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
Althea Gibson
Althea Gibson was a tennis player and golfer who broke racial barriers. Between 1956 and 1958, she won 11 Grand Slam titles, including five in singles and six in doubles.
After besting a white opponent and winning her first tennis tournament in 1942, Gibson knew she could compete at the highest level. She wrote in her memoir, “It proved to my own satisfaction that I was not only as good as she was, I was better.”
In 1950, Gibson won the Eastern Indoor Championship and finished second in the National Indoor. However, the U.S. National Lawn Tennis Championship refused to invite her to compete because of her race. Alice Marble, four-time winner of the tournament and 1939 singles champion of Wimbledon, called on the USLTC to reverse its decision. Afterward, Gibson became the first Black player, male or female, to compete in a USLTA event.
In 1951, Gibson became the first Black player to compete at Wimbledon. She was a Top 10 player in the U.S. in 1952 and climbed to No. 7 in 1953. In 1956, she became the first Black tennis player to win the French Open. The next year, she was the first Black player to win Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, and in 1958, she won them again.
Gibson later began playing golf, and in 1964, she joined the Ladies Professional Golf Association as the first Black member. She is in the International Tennis Hall of Fame and the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame. By competing in the predominantly white sports of tennis and golf during an era of segregation, Gibson expanded who belonged in these spaces.
Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Jackie Joyner-Kersee is a former professional track and field athlete named by Sports Illustrated as the “Greatest Female Athlete of the 20th Century” and considered by ESPN to be one of the 50 Greatest Athletes of All Time.
Joyner-Kersee competed and excelled in the heptathlon, a two-day, seven-event competition that measures speed, strength, and stamina. She won six Olympic medals, including three gold. She was the first woman to win back-to-back gold medals in the heptathlon, the first African-American woman to win an Olympic medal in the long jump, and the first woman to score 7,000 points in the heptathlon.
At the World Championships in Rome in 1987, Joyner-Kersee won the first of two heptathlon and long jump world titles. She was pictured on the cover of Sports Illustrated with the title, “Super Woman.” Her career spanned four Olympic Games, and she still holds the World Heptathlon Record she set at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea. She retained her heptathlon title at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain.
Not only a great athlete, Joyner-Kersee is also a champion of youth. A former member of the Boys & Girls Club of East St. Louis, she helped create a new Club facility in East St. Louis, IL, to provide local youth with the same Club experiences she enjoyed. She has also helped bring sports and fitness activities to Club kids nationwide.
Babe Didrikson Zaharias
Babe Didrikson Zaharias was an accomplished athlete who achieved success in golf, basketball, baseball, and track and field. The Associated Press voted her the Greatest Female Athlete of the first half of the 20th century and the Female Athlete of the Year six times, once for track and five times for golf.
In 1932, Zaharias qualified for five Olympic events, but women were only allowed to participate in three. At the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, CA, she received a gold medal for the javelin throw and set a new world record. The next day, she set a world record in the 80-meter hurdle and won another gold medal. After a tie for first in the high jump, the judges disqualified her technique and gave her silver.
Zaharias began playing golf in 1933, and in 1946, she won 13 consecutive tournaments. The next year, she became the first American golfer to win the British Amateur. In 1948, she won her first of three U.S. Women’s Opens, along with the World Championship and the All-American Open.
In 1949, Zaharias co-founded the Ladies Professional Golf Association, helping to establish a future for women in professional sports.
Cheryl Miller
Cheryl Miller is a former basketball player who is one of the most decorated high school and collegiate players in the history of women’s basketball. She is often considered one of the greatest in the history of the women’s game.
In her first season playing college basketball at the University of Southern California in 1983, Miller led her team to the NCAA women’s basketball championship and was selected as the Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA tournament.
Miller led the team to another national title in 1984 and was named the Most Outstanding Player for the second year in a row. She also won her first of three consecutive Naismith Awards for outstanding collegiate women’s player.
She ranks 14th among the NCAA’s all-time leading scorers and still holds records for points, rebounds, field goals, free throws, steals, and games played at the University of Southern California. In 1984, she led the U.S. women’s team to its first Olympic gold medal. In 1986, she became the first player whose jersey was retired by the University of Southern California.
Miller elevated women’s basketball to a higher level and made the sport what it is today. She continued to make history even after her retirement, when she became the first female analyst to call a nationally televised NBA game in 1996.
Each of these incredible athletes pushed against the limitations placed on women to achieve greatness. Their accomplishments helped expand the boundaries of who could compete, excel, and be recognized at the highest levels of sports. Women’s History Month is the perfect time to recognize women for their historic successes!
