So many to choose from

Kim Pearson — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 20:47:31 -0500

I've got a personal soft spot for Billie Jean King, because, like Arthur Ashe, she built tennis courts in neighborhoods that never had them. She visited our neighborhood rec center and encouraged us to try things girls had never been allowed to do before.

But Megan, you are right about Althea Gibson, who never should have spent her last years in obscurity and poverty the way she did.

Babe Didrickson was my childhood heroine.

I bought my daughter a FloJo doll. And she and I watched Debi Thomas together. Even though she didn't win the gold, she did change the sport.

I have to wonder, though if the greatest athlete is some woman we'll never know, because her accomplishments weren't considered worth recording?

Kim
BlogHer Contributing Editor|Professor Kim|

My Candidate Is...

Megan Smith — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 20:23:49 -0500

Althea Gibson.

Not only was she a magnificent athlete, but she had to deal with all kinds of racism while she tried to be the best tennis player she could possibly be.

She was the first black person to win Wimbledon and the US Open and at a time when there was no professional tennis, she had to find a way to support herself while playing the game she loved.

Megan
BlogHer Contributing Editor, TV/YouTube
Megan's Minute
Video Runway

Who is the Greatest Woman Athlete of All Time?

Sarah — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 08:34:45 -0500

Did you know that March was (well still is) Women's History Month?

Oh right, you are reading the post about sports on BlogHer.com,
so yeah, you probably did. Fine then, smarty pants, so maybe you also
already knew that Denise wanted me to write a piece on famous women
athletes?

When I originally started brainstorming on who to write about for this post I thought I would write about Mia Hamm, Martina Navratilova, Flo-Jo and Mary Lou Retton.

Mary Lou Retton? I guess it isn't to hard to guess which year I watched the Olympic games in their entirety while laid up with the chicken pox.

I am really curious to see who you guys would pick as the greatest women athletes ever, but let me give you a couple first:

Track Evangelist on Jackie Joyner-Kersee:

It is a gritty road to the top, and Jackie Joyner-Kersee
couldn’t compete in a more demanding event than her signature
heptathlon: 100-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200m, long jump,
javelin and 800m. It’s a definitive test of quickness, strength, and
heart.

Her 1988 Olympic appearance
produced the still-standing world record of 7,291 points. Not enough to
let that victory stand alone, JJK showed up five days later to grab the
gold again – this time in long jump, gliding to 24 feet, 3 ½ inches.
JJK had the audacity to stake a claim at being the greatest female athlete ever—and then pulled it off.

On the Women's and Gender Studies Blog Annette Parson wrote a great post about Billie Jean King:

One of the most famous events in tennis was the so
called “Battle of the Sexes”. More a publicity stunt than anything
else, this was a match played in 1973 between King and male tennis pro
Bobby Riggs. Riggs was a tennis star in the 1940’s, at one time seeded
the #1 player for three years. At the time of the match Riggs was 55
years old, and King was 30. In a televised match, King beat Riggs in
straight sets. It was a major sensation, and is considered to have
brought more interest to women’s tennis than any one event or any
female tennis star up to that time. To the general public, especially
many girls and young women, the win by King against a male tennis pro
was an empowering event.

Sonja Hennie has got to be up there and Chris Everet and Wilma Rudolph and Bonnie Blair and Cheryl Miller. What about Steffi Graf? Manon Rheaume was the first woman to play in the NHL, that has got to count for something.

Check out this AMAZING argument for Babe Zaharias:

And I’m not talking about the greatest women athlete. I’m talking the greatest athlete ever - man or woman...

As a little girl, Mildred hit five home runs in a baseball game,
which gave her the nickname she’d be known as for the rest of her life.
It goes without saying, she was named after Babe Ruth.

Babe played in a wide variety of sports (the only sport she didn’t play was football - because the coach wouldn’t let her play). She excelled in basketball, as the Beaumont team never lost a game when she played...While playing for her high school basketball team, Babe once scored 106 in a single game.

Throughout the 1940s, Babe Zaharias dominated women’s golf. In 1947... one of ten majors Babe would win throughout her career.

I hope A.J. from 22rants forgives me for using so much of that post, but it was brilliant and I still cut out most of it. Go read the whole thing when you get a chance.

So - who do you think are the greatest female athletes of today? What about of all time?

Contributing Editor Sarah also blogs at Sarah and the Goon Squad and Draft Day Suit.

BlogHer - Who is the Greatest Woman Athlete of All Time? - Comments

So many to choose from

My Candidate Is...

Who is the Greatest Woman Athlete of All Time?