When talking about the greatest athletes of our time, often it’s male names that dominate such discussions. However, there is a long list of exceptional female athletes who dominate various sports, and they equally deserve recognition for their impact on the field, court, track, pool, ice rink, slopes, or gym.
We are talking about female competitors who set numerous records or have just started their climb to the ranks of sports greatness. Lottie Dod, for instance, was a prolific tennis player in the late ‘80s and she also excelled at hockey, golf, and archery. Many others have followed suit, and this list is dedicated to them.
Ann Meyers Drysdale - Basketball
Ann Meyers Drysdale might be familiar to some people from the broadcast booth where she serves as the Phoenix Suns’ color commentator. Long before that, Drysdale went down in history as the first woman to have attended the University of California L.A. on an athletic scholarship.
Drysdale also became the WBC’s first pick but the league no longer exists. Drysdale was also the first female to have ever taken up a contract with an NBA team. She signed with the New Orleans Jazz in 1977 and In 1980, she made history yet again with a $50K no-cut deal with the Indiana Pacers.
Joan Benoit Samuelson - Marathon Runner
In 1979, Joan Benoit Samuelson caught the world’s attention when she won the Boston Marathon. She followed through by setting a world record in 1983 by winning the same race after going through an Achilles tendon surgery.
Samuelson maintained her position at the top the very next year when she competed at the 1984 Olympics and won a gold medal. In 1985, she set yet another record when she competed at the Chicago Marathon. In her 60s, Samuelson still made it to the tracks and in 2019 she competed at the Boston Marathon.
Annika Sorenstam - Golfer
Annika Sorenstam is arguably one of the best female golfers in the history of the sport. Sorenstam stepped away from playing golf in 2008 with 72 LPGA titles, 89 worldwide wins, and six Vare Trophies.
Sorenstam also topped the LPGA career earnings list having made more than $22 million playing golf. She opened The ANNIKA Academy in 2007, and Henri Reis, her longtime coach, serves as the head instructor. Sorenstam has also worked on several golf course designs including her first, named the Annika Course, at the Mission Hills Golf Club, in Shenzhen, China.
Dara Torres - Swimming
If there’s a female athlete who proves that you can make a comeback at any age it’s Dara Tores. In 2008, at 41, she became the oldest female Olympic swimmer and walked away with three silver medals. Torres initially took part in the ‘84, ‘88, and ‘94 Olympics. She won a silver, bronze, and two gold medals.
Torres also participated in the 2000 Olympics competing in the 100m butterfly, 100m freestyle, and 50m freestyle competitions. During the competitions, Torres added three bronze and two gold medals to her list of awards.
Evgenia Medvedeva - Figure Skating
Evgenia Medvedeva is quickly rising to the ranks of dominating figure skating in Russia and internationally. Medvedeva already has two Olympic silver medals and she has set record scores a total of 13 times.
She started figure skating when she was only three years old and it wasn’t long before she was taking part in junior competitions. She relocated to Canada in 2018 so that she could take advantage of the training facilities at the Toronto Cricket Skating and Curling Club. Medvedeva, unfortunately, suffered from a thigh injury during the 2019 World Championships.
Paige Spiranac - Golf
Paige Spiranac is one of the new faces in the world of golf. Besides her prowess with a golf club, she has also mastered the art of using social media to enrich her career. She boasts of 2.2 million Instagram followers who are keen on following her rise in the sport.
Spiranac kicked off her career playing collegiate golf at the University of Arizona and San Diego State University. During her time playing for the school’s team, they managed to make it to the Mountain West Conference Championship. She’s focussed on her pro golf career since 2016 as well as growing her brand.
Janet Guthrie - NASCAR Racer
Janet Guthrie set the record as the first woman to compete in both Daytona 500 and Indianapolis 500. Guthrie initially worked as an aerospace engineer with Republic Aviation before making a career switch in 1963.
Over a four-year period, Guthrie recorded 33 NASCAR race competitions and she finished 9th at the Indy 500. She held the record as a woman to break that particular record until Danica Patrick came into the scene. Guthrie became an Automotive Hall of Fame inductee in 2019 making her the 5th woman to achieve the honor.
Allison Stokke - Pole Vaulting
While in high school, Allison Stokke had already started breaking records in pole vaulting competitions. In fact, Stokke became a viral sensation when photos of her pole vaulting sessions made it online. She continued competing in the sport nationally and joined The University of California, Berkeley collegiate team.
Stokke became a professional pole vaulter after graduating and she also dabbles in sports modeling. Stokke has appeared in campaigns for brands like Athleta, Nike, and Uniqlo. She also teamed up with GoPro and uploaded a series of her pole vaulting videos on YouTube. Stokker and Rickie Fowler, a professional golfer, have been married since October 2019.
Yani Tseng - Golfer
The LPGA Tour is fortunate enough to have Yani Tseng as part of the organization because of her record-setting streak. Tseng boasts being the youngest player, male or female, in the history of the sport to have won five major championships. Tseng ranked as the top female golf player for 109 weeks consecutively.
Tseng also won back-to-back Rolex Player of the Year awards which made her the youngest player to have achieved such an accomplishment. Since 2012, four points stand between Tseng and a spot in the World Golf Hall of Fame. However, she’s met the requirements needed to win either a Rolex award, Vare Trophy, or an LPGA major.
Nadia Comaneci - Gymnastics
There are athletes who have the honor of going down in the books for setting scoring records, and Nadia Comaneci did just that. Comaneci became the first female gymnast to ever record a perfect 10 score at the Olympics.
At the age of 14, in 1976, Comaneci earned the world’s respect when she earned seven perfect scores crowned with three gold medals. Comaneci also set the record as the youngest gymnast to have won gold medals all-around. She topped it all off with bronze and silver medals for her floor and team competition routines.
Missy Franklin - Swimming
Missy Franklin may no longer swim competitively but when she did, she won five Olympic gold medals. Franklin was formerly the 200-meter backstroke world record holder as well as for the 4 x 100-meter medley relay. Franklin made her Olympic debut at the age of 17 in 2012.
Franklin announced that she had retired at the close of 2018 with more world records including the 200m backstroke. She has done some TV work including guest-starring in Pretty Little Liars and featuring in Touch the Wall, a 2014 documentary. Franklin married former Texas swimmer, Hayes Johnson in 2019.
Aly Raisman - Gymnastics
The list of the most successful gymnasts in American history isn’t complete without McKayla McRooney, Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas, and Alexandra “Aly” Raisman. Aly’s just 25 and retired already but she set noteworthy records including being a two-time Olympian.
She captained the 2012 “Fierce Five” and 2016 “Final Five” Olympic gymnastics teams. With six Olympic medals, Raisman ranks second, after Shannon Miller, as the most decorated gymnast. She is a two-time floor exercise champion and a five-time all-around champion nationally. In 2018, Raisman made a cameo in the Charlie’s Angels film.
Chris Evert - Tennis
Christine Marie Evert is a name just about every other tennis player has heard before. She often goes by the name Chris Evert and she made ripples in the field with 18 Grand Slam singles wins. That places her just behind other champions like Helen Wills Moody, Margaret Court, and Serena Williams.
Evert dominated the top spot recognizing her as the best female athlete in the sport for a total of 262 weeks. She also made history when she was the very first female tennis player to earn $1 million. Evert has banked an estimated $9 million over the course of her career.
Chloe Kim - Snowboarding
2018 is a year Chloe Kim will always remember. Kim became the youngest woman to win a gold medal for snowboarding at the Olympics. She was just 17 at the time and even more impressively, she beat other seasoned snowboarders like Haruna Matsumoto and Liu Jiayu.
Kim grew up in California but she trained in Switzerland at some points in her childhood. In 2013, Kim became a member of the U.S Snowboarding team. Kim has also won four gold medals at the X-Games and two gold medals from the Youth Olympic Games.
Caroline Wozniacki - Tennis
Caroline Wozniacki has made Denmark, and Scandinavia as a whole, proud for years. She boasts being the first female tennis player from the region to reach the top ranks internationally. Wozniacki made a name for herself as a junior player before she had even turned 18.
Wozniacki went pro in 2008 and her career has flourished since. However, she was set to bid farewell to her racket in 2020 after a match scheduled for the 18th of May. She was scheduled to face off with Serena Williams, but given the fact that the world is in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, it isn’t clear if the tournament will happen.
Martina Navratilova - Tennis
List the greatest tennis players of all time and Martina Navratilova easily takes the top spot. Navratilova has 167 singles and 177 doubles tournament wins. Overall, she has over 2,000 match wins to her name.
Navratilova competed until well after her 50th birthday when she became the oldest player to win the US Open doubles. Throughout her career, she won 10 mixed doubles, 31 doubles, and 18 singles Grand Slam titles. In the ‘80s, she granted an interview to the New York Daily News and revealed that she is attracted to both men and women.
Li Na - Tennis
Li Na might have retired from playing tennis in 2014, but her legacy still lives on through her achievements. Li Na ranked second worldwide, earned two Grand Slam titles, and she also boasts being the first Asian-born tennis player to have won a Grand Slam title.
Over 116 million people in China watched Li Na compete at the 2011 Roland Garros where she won the match against Francesca Schiavone. Li Na has endorsed several brands including Nike who supplied her clothing for years. She continues to be an influential figure and the Special Olympics commissioned her as their Global Ambassador in 2016.
Jackie Joyner-Kersee - Track Star
Sports Illustrated’s “Greatest Female Athlete of the 20th Century” is an accolade given to the best of the best, and Jackie Joyner-Kersee holds the title. Jackie dominated the heptathlon and long jump track competitions. Jackie has three gold medals contributing to her six Olympic medals in total.
Jackie holds the record as the first woman to surpass 7,000 points during a heptathlon event. Jackie is also notably a famous athlete who has managed to overcome severe asthma. She tried her hand at acting in 2000 when she featured in an episode of The Jersey as herself.
Michelle Jenneke - Hurdler
Michelle Jenneke couldn’t have imagined that her warm-up dance performance in 2012 would make her famous. Well, that’s how she gained recognition when the video went viral, and she also won fans over with her incredible talent as a hurdler. Jenneke also grabbed attention when she appeared in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in 2013.
Professionally, Jenneke took home silver medals from the Summer Youth Olympics in 2010. Jenneke has also competed in the 2015 and 2017 World Athletics Championships. Jenneke is also busy pursuing a mechatronics degree, which is essentially electric and mechanical engineering combined, at Sydney University.
Darya Klishina - Long Jumper
Darya Klishina started out as a volleyball player before she found even greater success as a long jumper. Klishina’s love affair with volleyball started when she was 13 but she figured that her height made her even better suited to excel at long jumping.
Her father, who is a former athlete, greatly influenced her decision to make the switch and it paid off. She made it to the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, and she was the only Russian who competed after the athletics team was suspended due to an anti-doping breach.
Danica Patrick - Indycar Racing
In 2005, every Indycar Racing fan was talking about Danica Patrick. She made her Indianapolis 500 debut, and she broke history as the first female racer to lead a lap. Patrick finished in fourth place during the occasion, which was also a new record set by a female racer.
Patrick made it on the cover of Sports Illustrated just a week after her momentous debut. It was also a record in itself because she was the first Indycar driver to cover the magazine in two decades. Patrick retired from full-time racing in 2017 and she now focuses on pushing her wine label called Somnium.
Anna Kournikova - Tennis
Anna Kournikova took to the tennis court at the age of five when she got her first racket. She started practicing then and it wasn’t long before she was competing in tournaments. Kournikova caught the attention of talent scouts when she was just nine years old.
After signing a management deal she moved to Florida at the age of ten. Kournikova trained at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy. Kournikova went into retirement at 21 due to severe spinal and back problems. These days Kournikova picks up TV work as she’s also a global ambassador for the Five & Alive project run by the Population Services International.
Lindsey Vonn - Ski Racer
Lindsey Vonn is a former World Cup ski racer and during her career, she won four championships. Vonn learned to ski at a young age with her grandfather as her teacher. Her family moved to Minnesota in the ‘90s and it allowed her to train full-time.
Vonn won several titles and eventually retired in 2019 after winning a bronze medal at the World Championships. It, subsequently, made her the oldest woman to have won a world championship, and the first female racer with six world championship medals. HBO released a documentary titled Lindsey Vonn: The Final Season in 2019 covering her final season.
Maria Sharapova - Tennis
You can’t talk about tennis without mentioning Maria Sharapova because she’s one of the biggest names in the sport. She became the No.1 female tennis player in the world, first in 2005 at 18. Sharapova took back the ranking in 2012 and held it for four weeks.
Sharapova also has five Grand Slam title wins and a total of 36 titles over the course of her career. Beyond tennis, Sharapova has featured in several modeling assignments for publications like the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. After her suspension in 2016 over a doping incident, Sharapova made a comeback to the sport but officially retired in 2020.
Serena Williams - Tennis
There’s a very small number of people who haven’t heard about Serena Williams. She is one of the most talented, successful, and driven female athletes of our time. Williams has won 23 Grand Slam singles and the Women’s Tennis Association ranked her the world’s top singles player a total of eight times.
Williams ranked 63rd on Forbes 2019 list of the World’s Highest-Paid Athletes. Williams memorably won a Grand Slam at the Australian Open in 2017 when she was pregnant. She returned to the field in 2020 from maternity leave at the ABS Classic.