WOMEN'S SPORTS HISTORY:
NOTABLE ATHLETES & CHANGE MAKERS
Born 1937
Lucinda participated in both the 1956 Olympic games and 1960 Olympic games, where she was part of the world record breaking 4x100 team. READ MORE
CHERYL TREWORGY
Born 1947
Within women’s distance running, it can be argued that no other woman has been involved more aspects of the sport than Cheryl Treworgy. READ MORE
DR. JANIS KLECKER
Born 1960
Janis would qualify for five U.S. Marathon Trials, compete in three, and would come in first in Houston to make the U.S. Olympic Team for Barcelona. READ MORE
MARINA BUCKLEY
Born 1950s
Local pioneer in girl's running in Massachusetts. Winner of the inaugural 2-mile event at Massachusetts Girl's State Track Meet. READ MORE
OLGA CONNOLLY
Born 1932
Discus thrower for Czechoslovakia and the United States. She set the American record for the discus four times during her career. READ MORE
EVELYN ASHFORD
Born 1957
Five-time Olympic medalist. First woman to run the 100m in under 11 seconds in an Olympic Games (1984 Los Angeles). READ MORE
TIDYE PICKETT
1914 - 1986
First African-American woman to compete in the Olympic Games (1936 Berlin). READ MORE
WILLYE WHITE
1939 - 2007
First American Track and Field athlete to compete in 5 U.S. Olympic Teams. She was a long jumper and sprinter. READ MORE
JACQUELINE HANSEN
Born 1948
First woman to run a marathon under 2 hrs 40 min. Leader in the movement to get women’s distance running events into the Olympics. READ MORE
BABE DIDRIKSON ZAHARIAS
1911 - 1956
1932 Los Angeles Games medalist in the 80m hurdles, javelin and high jump; Golf Legend; Athletic prodigy. READ MORE
WYOMIA TYUS
Born 1945
First person to retain the Olympic title in the 100m, winning first in 1964 (Tokyo) and again in 1968 (Mexico City). READ MORE
DR. NELL JACKSON
1929 - 1988
First Black woman to head an athletics department at a major U.S. university (Michigan State). READ MORE
JARVIS SCOTT
1947 - 2017
First American to qualify for the Olympics in both the 400 and 800. READ MORE
PAULA GIRVEN
1958 - 2020
First Black woman to receive a full athletic scholarship to the University of Maryland. READ MORE
HALINA KONOPACKA
1900 - 1989
During the same years she was competing and setting world records in throwing events (1926-1930), she was also a published poet. READ MORE
JANELL SMITH
1947 - 2020
Middle America Mid-Distance Phenom. The day she switched from sprints to the 400, she set the America record for the distance with 54.6s. She was 6th fastest in the world at age 17. READ MORE
PATSY MINK
1927 - 2002
Third-generation Japanese American born and raised on Maui, first woman of color elected to Congress, another mother of Title IX. READ MORE
FRANCIE LARRIEU SMITH
Born 1952
Five-time Olympian — youngest American to run the 1500 (1972 Munich), oldest in any track and field event (1992 Barcelona). READ MORE
ALICE MILLIAT
1884 - 1957
French athlete who founded the Fédération Sportive Féminine Internationale (FSFI) which established the Women’s Olympic Games. READ MORE
RENEE RICHARDS
Born 1934
First transgender woman to play in a professional tennis tournament. (1977 U.S. Open). READ MORE
ALICE COACHMAN
1923 - 2014
First Black woman to win a gold medal at the Olympics (high jump, 1948 London). READ MORE
BETTY ROBINSON
1911 - 1999
16 year old American who was the first woman to win T&F gold in the 100m dash at the 1928 Olympics, which was the first time women competed in T&F events. READ MORE
VALERIE BRISCO-HOOKS
Born 1960
The first Olympian to win the 200 and the 400 at the same Games. READ MORE
LISA LARSEN RAINSBERGER
Born 1961
Lisa won Boston in 1985 (the last American to do so until Des Linden in 2018), won back-to-back Chicago Marathons in 1988 and 1989, and 3rd in London and 1st in Hokkaido in 1990. READ MORE
CHI CHENG
Born 1944
Chi was a dominating athlete in 1969-1971, winning 153 out of 154 events she entered. She still holds 5 national records in Taiwan. READ MORE
LILLIAN COPELAND
1904 - 1964
Lillian took silver in the discus at the 1928 Amsterdam Games (the first Olympics where women were allowed to compete). READ MORE
BENITA FITZGERALD MOSLEY
Born 1961
15-time All-American and athlete in multiple Olympics. At the 1984 Los Angeles Games, she became the USA’s first women’s hurdle gold medalist in 52 years. READ MORE
KIM JONES
Born 1958
15-year career as a professional marathoner, with a story of resilience and positive spirit in the face of extreme family adversity and life trauma. READ MORE
DORIS BROWN HERITAGE
Born 1942
National running and coaching legend + Seattle hometown hero. The first ever woman under 5 minutes in the mile, running 4:52 in 1966, and went on to represent the USA at multiple Olympic games. READ MORE
EDITH GREEN
1910 - 1987
Represented Oregon’s 3rd congressional district from 1955-1974, and during her tenure was a strong advocate for equal rights for women. READ MORE
MADELINE MANNING MIMS
Born 1948
Only American woman to win the 800m in the Olympics (1968 Mexico City). Founder and president of the United States Council for Sports Chaplaincy. READ MORE
MIKI GORMAN
1935 - 2015
2-time winner of both the Boston and New York City Marathons, Master of Masters Running. READ MORE
WILMA RUDOLPH
1940 - 1994
First American woman to win three gold medals at a single Olympic Games (1960 Rome). READ MORE
PATTI CATALANO DILLON
Born 1953
First American woman to break 2:30 in the marathon (1980 New York City Marathon). She also came in second in the Boston Marathon…three times in a row (1979-81). READ MORE
DR. SHEILA HUDSON
Born 1967
Trailblazer and leading advocate for inclusion of the women's triple jump in the Olympic Games. READ MORE
ROSIE BONDS KREIDLER
Born 1944
Rosie won the 80m hurdles at the 1964 U.S. Olympic Team Trials and made it to the finals in Tokyo. READ MORE
ELLA WILLIS
Born 1957
Detroit's Queen of the marathon. Youngest person to win the Detroit Free Press Marathon. READ MORE
DR. JOAN ULLYOT
1940 - 2021
U.S. team member for the first International Women's Marathon in Waldniel, Germany in 1974. READ MORE
EDITH MCGUIRE DUVALL
Born 1944
Excelled in the 200m, but also competed in the 1964 Tokyo Games alongside Wyomia Tyus in both the 100m and 4x100m relay. They were both best friends and each other’s biggest competition on the track. READ MORE
AUDREY PATTERSON
1926 - 1996
First Black American woman to win an Olympic medal (bronze, 1948 London Games). READ MORE
LOUISE STOKES
1913 - 1978
One of the first Black women to represent the U.S. in the Olympics. READ MORE
MARILYN BEVANS
Born 1949
First African-American woman to win a marathon (1975, Maryland). First African-American woman to medal at Boston (1977, second with 2:51:12). READ MORE
JEAN DRISCOLL
Born 1966
8-time winner of the Boston Marathon, 12-time Paralympic Games medallist. READ MORE
DANA ZATOPKOVA
1922 - 2020
Javelin thrower for Czechoslovakia in four consecutive Olympic Games (1948-1960). READ MORE
EARLENE BROWN
1935 - 1983
First American woman to medal in shot put (bronze in the 1960 Summer Games in Rome). READ MORE
ELLA CHAFEE
1945 - 2019
Participated in three different Summer Paralympic Games (1964, 1968, and 1996) in a wide variety of events (swimming, fencing, basketball, and track), and went on to spend over 50 years contributing to the sport of wheelchair basketball. READ MORE