10 of the most badass women Olympians in history
Coming back from the dead, beating polio, running barefoot—these women could overcome anything
There were no women in the first modern Olympics. International Olympic Committee founder Pierre de Coubertin felt that their inclusion in the Athens games in 1896 would be “impractical, uninteresting, unaesthetic, and incorrect.” Wrong, wrong, wrong and wrong. Take a look at these 10 women—though there are many others—who overcame unbelievable obstacles to break records and make sports (and world) history, because — oh, right, that’s what they do.
THE FIRST FEMALE CHAMPION
Charlotte Cooper: Paris, 1900
Cooper (1870–1966) was the first woman to receive a gold medal (in tennis) as an individual in Paris 1900, and is commonly thought of as the first female Olympic champion. Cooper was a record-setting athlete in several ways — as a wife and mother she became the oldest winner (at nearly 38) of a Wimbledon singles title (in 1908) at a time when the ladies’ game was played in long dresses. That record stands to this day. Take that, short skirts. Her record of almost 11 Wimbledon singles finals between 1895–1908 also stood for almost a hundred years, until it was equalled by Martina Navratilova in 1994.
THE WOMAN WHO’D RATHER GULP POISON THAN BE A MOVIE STAR
Ethel Catherwood: Amsterdam, 1928
Catherwood (1908–1987), a Canadian nicknamed “Saskatoon Lilly” for her beauty, was known as the “prettiest girl athlete” at the 1928 Olympics. But she didn’t rest on the laurels of her looks — far from it. Catherwood was the first woman to be awarded the gold medal for the high jump, and is still today the only Canadian woman to have won an individual gold medal for track and field. Much was made of her beauty; she was even offered a movie contract after she returned from the Olympics. Catherwood allegedly replied, “I’d rather gulp poison than try my hand at motion pictures.”
THE WOMAN WHO WOULDN’T PLAY WITH DOLLS
Mildred Ella Didrikson Zaharias: Los Angeles, 1932
Named the 10th Greatest North American Athlete of the 20th Century by ESPN, Zaharias (1911–1956) was the sixth of seven children, born in Texas to immigrant parents from Norway. She trained by jumping hedges in her neighborhood with her sister — which clearly worked. Known as “Babe,” she qualified for five events in the 1932 Olympics, but women were only able to participate in three. She medaled in them all: a gold and a new world record in the javelin, a gold and new world record in the 80-meter hurdles, and a silver for the high jump.
Zaharias went on to become even more famous for her golfing, winning over 82 tournaments. Over her career, she broke a whole lot of records and norms, including ideas about femininity — she was exceptionally strong, and straightforward about her strength, criticized for “manliness” by her detractors. “It would be much better if she and her ilk stayed at home, got themselves prettied up and waited for the phone to ring,” wrote Joe Williams at the New York World-Telegram. Happily, she didn’t. Didrickson was accomplished at just about every sport she set her hand to, from track to swimming to diving to golf. When asked if there was anything she didn’t play, she supposedly said, “Yeah, dolls.”
THE WOMAN WHO SMASHED
Lottie Dod: 1908, London
Right alongside side Babe Didrikson Zaharias in the Guinness Book of Records is Lottie Dod (1871–1960), described as the most versatile female athlete of all time. Like Babe, Dod was extraordinarily skilled at a slew of sports: archery, tennis, horseback riding, golf. Dod won the silver medal for archery in the 1908 Olympics. She was an advocate of women being allowed to wear the right outfit for the sport, pushing for women to wear shorter skirts that didn’t hamper their game. Nicknamed “The Little Wonder,” Dod was the first woman to volley, or “smash,” with a hard forehand; she also served underhand, which at the time was not considered “a ladylike game.” “As a rule, ladies are too lazy at tennis,” she once said. “They should learn to run and run their hardest, too, not merely stride. They would find, if they tried, that many a ball, seemingly out of reach, could be returned with ease.”
THE WOMAN WHO GAVE BIRTH AND GOT RIGHT BACK TO IT
Fanny Blankers-Koen: London, 1948
Blankers-Koen (1918–2004) was the most successful athlete in the 1948 Summer Olympics, as a 30-year-old mother of two, which earned her the nickname of “The Flying Housewife.” The media had assumed her career would end with the birth of her son in 1941. But Blankers-Koen was back at training within weeks after the birth, and continued to set world record after record. Blankers-Koen went to the 1948 Olympics a Dutch favorite. Despite detractors criticizing her age, the Flying Housewife won four out of nine events, making her the first woman to win four gold medals.
THE WOMAN WHO BEAT POLIO
Wilma Rudolph: Melbourne, 1956; Rome, 1960
There isn’t much greater an obstacle for an Olympic athlete to overcome than polio. Born the 20th of 22 children in the segregated South, Rudolph contracted polio, scarlet fever and double pneumonia, emerging from her illness with a paralysis so severe most doctors thought she would never walk again. But by 12 years old she had re-taught herself to walk, and eight years later she was an Olympic champion. Rudolph—nicknamed “The Black Gazelle”—won three gold medals in track and field (100 meter, 200 meter and 400 meter), instantly becoming a wildly popular international athletic star and the first American woman to win three gold medals at a single Olympic games.
THE WOMAN WHO SMUGGLED GOLD AWAY FROM NAZIS
Halina Konopacka: Amsterdam, 1928
Konopacka (1900–1989) became the first Polish Olympic champion at the 1928 Summer Olympics in the discus throw. Nicknamed “Miss Olympia” for her striking shape, she was known for wearing a trademark red beret during all her competitions.
Later, during World War II, Konopacka and her husband helped to smuggle Polish National Bank gold out of the country to help finance the Polish government in exile. The couple emigrated to France and then to the US, returning to Poland when it joined the Eastern Bloc. In 1989, Konopacka was awarded the “Silver Cross of Merit” for what she had done for her country.
THE WOMAN WHO WON WHILE FOUR MONTHS PREGNANT
Larisa Semyonovna Latynina: Melbourne, 1956; Rome, 1960
Born in the Soviet Ukraine, Semyonovna Latynina (1934- ) was raised by her illiterate mother, Polina, who worked as a cleaner during the day and as a security guard by night. After winning five out of six gymnastics events at the World Championships in 1958—while four months pregnant—Latynina was the popular favorite for the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, where she would become the first woman to win seven (that’s right, seven) gold medals. She remains one of the most decorated Olympic competitors to this day, collecting a record 18 medals between 1956 and 1964.
THE WOMAN WHO CAME BACK FROM THE DEAD
Elizabeth Robinson: Amsterdam, 1928; Berlin, 1936
Robinson (1911–1999) pulled off the ultimate physical feat: coming back from the dead. She began her career when a high school coach saw her running to catch a train in Illinois—which she caught. Robinson won the first gold medal for her sport (the 100m for women) as a 16-year-old high school junior in 1928. Three years later, a plane she was on went into a nosedive. Robinson’s body was pulled from the rubble and taken to to an undertaker in the trunk of a car. It was there discovered that she was alive, but in critical condition. She was in a coma for 11 weeks. Later, silver pins were inserted into her thigh. One leg would remain half an inch shorter than the other for the rest of her life; doctors were unsure she would ever walk again. Robinson was determined to not only walk but to compete again, at the highest level. Unable to kneel for a normal 100m start, she competed on the US relay team at the 1936 Olympics and won her second gold medal.
THE WOMAN WHO TRAINED BAREFOOT
Alice Coachman: London, 1948
Coachman (1923–2014) was born in Albany, Georgia, one of ten children. Living in the segregated south, she was denied access to athletic training facilities and organized sports. Instead, she trained shoeless on dirt roads and made her own equipment to practice the high jump. It worked: Coachman became the first black woman to win an Olympic gold medal, with a record setting 5 feet, 6 and 1/8 inches in the high jump at the 1948 London Olympics. After returning home, Coachman became a Coca Cola spokesperson in 1952, making her also the first African American athlete to secure an endorsement. She later founded the Alice Coachman Track and Field Foundation to support young athletes and Olympic veterans.
