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The topic of ‘Women in Sports’ is always an interesting one.A number of great female athletes have had the endurance and will to not only achieve the unthinkable in their respective Sport but have also surpassed their male counterparts. While the internet is littered with a number of fantastic write ups about the greatest sportswomen of all time, the criteria against which each of them is judged is always a moot point.While the number of titles and Olympic records is a good yardstick to gauge greatness of sportswomen, it could be limiting. In this article other factors like versatility, longevity and contribution to sports have also been considered.
#10 Billie Jean King
She may be short for a tennis player but she stood tall otherwise.
The legendary Billie Jean King, during a career spanning two decades, won a total of 39 Grand Slam titles that included 12 Singles, 16 Doubles and 11 Mixed Doubles. Apart from a stellar career in tennis, King is also an advocate for sexual equality. At the age of 29, King won the Battle of the Sexes match against the 55-year-old Bobby Riggs.
King’s contribution to women’s tennis has been immense. She founded the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association), World Team Tennis (along with her former husband Larry King) and the Women’s Sports Foundation.
King was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1987 and has been the recipient of various awards like the Fed Cup Award of Excellence, Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year and Presidential Medal of Freedom.
#9 Bonnie Blair
One of the greatest speed skaters of all time, Bonnie Blair won a total of 5 Olympic Gold and 1 Bronze Medal.
In 2004 when she was inducted into the United States Olympic Hall of Fame, Bonnie Blair was the most accomplished US Winter Olympian of all time.
#8 Annika Sorenstam
One of the most successful female golf players in history, Annika Sorenstam earned the most number of wins in an illustrious career that spanned 18 years.
With 72 LPGA tournaments and 18 other international titles to her credit, Sorenstam topped the LPGA’s career earnings list with a whopping USD 22 million.
Fun fact: Sorenstam was not just great at golf. She was a nationally ranked junior tennis player, played for her hometown’s football team and a talented skier too.
#7 Mia Hamm
Mia Hamm was chosen as one of FIFA’s 125 best living players. Mia was just one of the two women to be on this list of elite players chosen by Pele. Though she was born with club foot, this incredible athlete showed early signs of football prowess when she was part of the boy’s team in Junior High School.
At a tender age of 15 Hamm was the youngest player to join the United States Women’s National football team. She retired in 2004 and in an international football career that spanned over a decade, Hamm was elected the US Soccer Female Athlete of the Year for five years in a row and also won 3 ESPY Awards.
#6 Steffi Graf
Armed with supreme athleticism and a fearsome forehand, Steffi Graf shot to limelight with her famed win over Martina Navratilova in the French Open Final of 1987. The following year was much better. In 1988, Steffi Graf accomplished the Golden Slam. She won all four Grand Slams in a calendar year as well as the Olympics Gold.
By 1990, Graf faced very stiff opposition from another young player Monica Seles. Seles took the ball on the rise and played penetrating ground strokes with a doubled fisted grip off both flanks. Seles challenged Graf’s dominance by winning 8 Grand Slams in a short span of 3 years, from 1990 to 1993, before she was stabbed by a deranged Graf supporter in Hamburg.
Steffi Graf dominated women’s tennis from 1993 and went on to win a record 22 Grand Slams. She was also World No. 1 for a total of 377 weeks, the longest period for which any male or female player has held the No.1 Ranking.
Fun fact: Though Steffi Graf was always shy and reticent on and off court, she surprised everyone with this witty answer when she was proposed by a fan during a match.
Here are winning moments from all of her 22 Grand Slam victories:
A documentary on Graf:
#5 Florence Griffith Joyner
Known as Flo-Jo, Florence Griffith Joyner was an American Track & Field athlete who is considered the fastest woman of all time.
The World Records that she set in the 1988 Seoul Olympics in the 100 m and 200 m sprints are still unbeaten. She was the sister-in-law of Jackie Joyner Kersee, one of the greatest heptathlete and long jumper of all time.
Her best performance, by far, was at Seoul where she won 3 Olympic Gold and one Silver Medal in various Track & Field events. Unfortunately, Flo-Jo passed away at a very young age of 38 due to a severe epileptic seizure.
Fun fact: Flo-Jo was known for her flashy grooming and nail art.
#4 Serena Williams
Strong, invincible and indomitable are adjectives that describe her best!
Serena Williams, along with her sister Venus Williams, changed the texture of tennis with the dawn of the 21st century. Coached by their father, Richard Williams, both these sisters injected power and pace into the Women’s game that had been, for a long time, centered around touch and finesse.
Being one of the most feared players on the tour, Serena Williams is on the brink of making history. Having recently won her 21st Grand Slam title at Wimbledon she is one Grand Slam away from tying Steffi Graf and two Grand Slams away from equaling Margaret Court’s all-time record of 24 Grand Slams.
Serena has an undue advantage in her sister Venus Williams. Both of them have paired up to form a formidable doubles team. Having grown up together, they know each other’s game so well that they have under their belt 13 doubles Grand Slam titles and 3 Olympic Gold Medals in doubles.
Serena has shown no signs of slowing down even at the age of 33. While most of her counterparts and former Grand Slam Champions have called it a day before turning 30, Williams has added 6 Grand Slam titles after turning 30. With a career winning record of 86% in singles and still going strong, she is the only active player who is on this list of Greats.
Fun fact: Serena Williams owns her clothing line called Aneres (Serena spelt backwards). She is not just a phenomenal tennis player but also a good dancer and crooner.
#3 Martina Navratilova
Many a generation of tennis players came and left, but Martina Navratilova remained a constant.
A formidable force till the age of 50, Martina Navratilova is arguably the Greatest Of All Time female tennis player. In a career that spanned decades, Navratilova amassed 167 singles titles and 177 doubles titles, an unassailable record in both categories in the history of the sport.
Navratilova is one of just three women who have achieved the Grand Slam “boxed set”. When a player wins a Career Grand Slam (all four Grand Slams) in Singles, Doubles and Mixed Doubles, the player is said have accomplished the “boxed set”. Navratilova shares this venerable distinction with just two other players the Great Margaret Court and Doris Hart.
She was World No.1 in singles for a total of 332 weeks and World No.1 in Doubles for a record 237 weeks making her the only player in tennis history to have held the top spot in both singles and doubles for over 200 weeks.
Amongst a plethora of her tennis achievements what is more noteworthy is that Navratilova had a healthy head-to-head record over two of her arch rivals Chris Evert (43-37 overall) and Steffi Graf (5-4 in Grand Slams).
Navratilova won a total of 344 titles (Singles, Doubles and Mixed Doubles combined) which is three times as much as Graf’s tally of 118 titles.
Navratilova also coached Agnieszka Radwanska for a brief period of five months.
#2 Babe Didrikson Zaharias
This multi-talented athlete found a lot of success in golf, basketball and Track & Field.
Babe won 2 Olympic Gold and 1 Silver medal in the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics. Employed by the Employers’ Casualty Insurance Company of Dallas after high school, Babe played basketball as an amateur for the company’s Industrial team called Golden Cyclones. This competition was then governed by the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU).
She represented her company in the 1932 AAU Championships in which she participated in eight out of ten events. She was an outright winner in five of them and tied for first in the sixth. As a result, she set four world records in the javelin throw, 80-meter hurdles, high jump and baseball throw in a single afternoon of competition.
She also achieved noteworthy feats in competitive pocket billiards and golf. She won a total of 82 golf tournaments.
Certainly, this incredible athlete gave versatility a whole new meaning.
Fun Fact: Born to Norwegian parents, Babe Didrikson was one of seven children. Her talents were not only in the sphere of athletics but also in sewing, singing and playing musical instruments. She made most of her golfing outfits and she recorded several songs on the Mercury Records Label.
#1 Jackie Joyner Kersee
Inspiration begets inspiration.
Jackie Joyner-Kersee was inspired by another sportwoman who is on this list of Top 10 Sportswomen of all time. Jackie was inspired by none other than Babe Didrikson Zaharias.
Track & field and basketball were two events that Jackie started her sporting career in. However, in 1984 she shifted her focus to heptathlon. She was the first Amercian to win a Gold Medal in long jump in the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Jackie was the first woman to earn more than 7000 points in heptathlon.
By the time she took her final bow in the Olympic Trials in 2000, Jackie was the most decorated Sportswoman of all time as she had to her credit 3 Olympic Gold Medals, 1 Silver and 2 Bronze Medals.
Currently on the Board of the USA Track & Field Organization, Jackie Joyner-Kersee joined hands with other renowned athletes like Mia Hamm, Muhammad Ali and Andre Agassi to establish Athletes for Hope, an organization that encourages athletes to contribute to community and charitable causes.
Fun Fact: A movie about Babe in 1975 inspired Jackie to compete in multi-disciplinary track and field events.
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