September 5, 2024

Women’s Sports Legends of the Past and Present

About Tori Thurmond

Tori Thurmond combines her creative writing background with her marketing experience in her role as the Content Specialist at Brookdale. When she's not writing, she's probably spending time with her two cats or knitting.

Women’s sports are on fire! Between Caitlin Clark becoming the all-time NCAA Division I men’s

and women’s scoring leader, Simone Biles making a comeback in Paris this summer and remaining the most decorated gymnast

of all time and Katie Ledecky becoming the most

decorated U.S. female Olympian, more and more sports fans are starting to take notice of the excitement female athletes and women’s leagues have to offer. As NPR reported, “American women have won so many medals in Paris that if they were their own nation, they would place third in the overall medal count…” Talk about girl power!

Women’s sports are on fire! Between Caitlin Clark becoming the all-time NCAA Division I men’s

and women’s scoring leader, Simone Biles making a comeback in Paris this summer and remaining the most decorated gymnast

of all time and Katie Ledecky becoming the most

Even though popularity for women’s athletics is increasing, their presence on the field isn’t new. Women have participated in athletics for centuries. Records of women in sports exist as far back as Ancient Greece and Sparta and come from all over the world, including tribes in Africa and Native American and indigenous communities. Many women athletes of the past paved the way for today’s sports superstars. Take a look at the women listed below to see how women of the past and present work to advance the sports scene.

Billie Jean King

During her tennis career, King earned 39 grand slam titles in both singles and doubles tennis, and defeated Bobby Riggs in the most watched tennis match of all time, a match which became important to the women’s rights movement and the development of Title IX. King helped pave the way for today’s tennis champions like Serena Williams, one of the greatest tennis players of all time, and Coco Gauff, the then 19-year-old 2023 U.S. Open women’s singles champion, the youngest winner since Williams in 1999.

Nadia Comăneci

The first gymnast to achieve a perfect 10 at the Olympics for her uneven bars routine, Comăneci is one of the most iconic names in gymnastics. She pushed the sport along for future athletes like Simone Biles, who herself is now is lovingly called the GOAT (greatest of all time).

Florence Griffith Joyner

Joyner still holds the 100 and 200 meter world record for the races she ran in 1988. Not only was she an elite athlete but she also set the standard for fashion on the track. Her husband Al Joyner stated, “[e]very time you see a woman in the 100 or 200 meters with makeup and nails, that’s Florence…” Runners like Sha’Carri Richardson keep Joyner’s legacy alive. Richardson is considered one of the fastest women in the world, and she consistently shows up to races with her own signature style.

Nancy Lieberman

In 1986, Nancy Lieberman became the first woman to play in a men’s professional basketball league. In addition to playing in the Women’s Professional Basketball League and the Women’s American Basketball Association, Lieberman joined and became the oldest player in the WNBA when it was founded in 1997. Now, we have athletes like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese who are pushing for constant progress in women’s basketball, attracting new fans and inspiring young girls everywhere.

Diana Nyad

In 2013, Diana Nyad became the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without the protection of a shark cage, at age 64. If you hadn’t heard of Nyad before, a recent biopic of the swimmer titled Nyad was released in 2023 and nominated for two Academy Awards. Although their sports are vastly different, swimmer Katie Ledecky is no stranger to breaking records in the water. When Ledecky won her first Olympic gold medal swimming the 800-meter freestyle, she was only 15 and the youngest swimmer on the U.S. team. These two swimmers are a testament that no matter your age, you’re capable of something great.

There’s no doubt that women faced a bumpy road proving their right to compete in sports in the same capacity as their male counterparts. But once given the opportunity, they have constantly expanded their sports and athletics in general. Every season, we see new female athletes emerge to represent their teams and become role models for little girls everywhere who want to grow up and be the next great record-breaker.