Women have been dominating - and influencing the game - for as long as they have been competing.
Only 2% of female college students participated 30 years ago before Title IX of the Education Act was implemented in 1988. That's an almost inconceivable truth these days: while male athletes have historically dominated scoreboards and record books, their female colleagues are catching up. These 12 women squared off against patriarchy and leveled the playing field.
As the kicker for the University of New Mexico’s New Mexico Lobos, Katie Hnida made history on August 30, 2003, when she became the first female scorer in an NCAA Division 1-A college football game. Hnida was the second American woman to ever don a collegiate football uniform. Hnida contributed to proving that women can score points with males, even though there are still not many women invited to play in the NCAA today.
Not only is Danica Patrick regarded as the most successful female driver in American auto history, but she is also one of the few female race car racers in history. Having raced stock cars since she was a little girl, Patrick made history by winning the Indy Japan 300, making her the first and only female winner of an IndyCar Series race. Patrick had the best finish for a female driver in the Indianapolis 500 history in 2009, finishing third.
Professional tennis players Bobby Riggs and Billie Jean King competed in a match in 1973 that came to be known as “The Battle of the Sexes.” Witnesses packed the Houston Astrodome to see 29-year-old King take on 55-year-old Riggs, in front of 50 million Americans and 90 million global viewers.
Eri Yoshida, a 16-year-old pitcher, became the first woman picked by a Japanese professional baseball team when she was selected by the Kobe 9 Cruise in 2008. 2010 saw Yoshida make history as the third female player in history and the first Japanese player to play in the male professional baseball leagues in the United States with the Chico Outlaws, a minor league team in the Golden Baseball League.
A boxer became the first female fighter in Madison Square Garden in New York on June 8, 1975. She faced Larry Rodania, and in the second round, she submitted him. Following that, she became known as the "female Muhammad Ali."
Female athletes possess not simply strength but also power. They knock down walls. They battle tooth and nail to achieve equality.
