The Female GOATs in Sports

Women’s sports have always been overlooked for many misogynistic and sexist reasons. Despite that, women have continued to ignore the chatter and give their all to the sports they love. Today, we know so many great female athletes, but it took the blazing of trails from many powerful women that preceded them. Here are some great female GOATs from then and now. 

Then:

Jackie Joyner-Kersee

Jackie Joyner-Kersee is a retired American track and field athlete. She specialized in the heptathlon and long jump events, and she won several medals in those events as well. Her medals come from the Olympic Games, the World Championships, the Goodwill Games and the Pan American Games; twelve of them gold, one silver and two bronze. Joyner-Kersee was also voted by Sports Illustrated for Women as the Greatest Female Athlete of All-Time. 

Now:

Allyson Felix

Allyson Felix is an American track and field sprinter. She specializes in 100, 200 and 400-meter events. She is the most decorated female track and field athlete in the world with a total of thirty-eight medals; twenty-six of them gold, eight of them silver and four of them bronze. Those medals come from the Olympic Games, the World Championships, the World Indoor Championships, the World Youth Championships, the World Relay Championships, the Pan American Games and the World Athletics Final. She was also awarded the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Award. 

Then: 

Billie Jean King

Billie Jean King is a former professional American tennis player. She has won 39 Grand Slam titles; 12 of them in singles, 16 in women’s doubles and 11 in mixed doubles. She represented the United States and helped them win seven Federation Cups and nine Wightman Cups. King was the first female athlete to be named Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year and she was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1987. 

Now:

Serena Williams 

Serena Williams is a professional American tennis player. She has won 39 Grand Slam titles; 23 in singles, 14 in doubles and two in mixed doubles. She also has won four Olympic medals; three of them in doubles and one in singles. Williams is considered to be one of the best female tennis players of the Open Era, which is when professionals were allowed to compete with amateurs in Grand Slam tournaments. One of Williams’ iconic wins was her 2017 Australian Open win while being two months pregnant.

Then:

Nadia Comăneci

Nadia Comaneci is a retired professional Romanian gymnast. Between the Olympic Games, the World Championships, the European Championships, the World Cup and the Summer Universiade, she has won a total of 33 medals; 23 of them gold, eight of them silver and two bronze. At 14 years old, Comaneci was the first gymnast to be awarded a perfect score of 10.0 at the Olympic Games. She was inducted into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1990 and the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 1993. 

Now:

Simone Biles

Simone Biles is a professional American artistic gymnast. She is the most decorated American gymnast and has a total of 35 medals; 27 gold, four silver and four bronze. The medals were won in the Olympic Games, the World Championships, the Pacific Rim Championships and the FIG All-Around World Cup. Biles has won the most World Medals (25) and is widely considered to be the greatest gymnast of all time.

Then:

Sheryl Swoopes

Sheryl Swoops is a former professional American basketball player. Swoopes was the first player to be signed to the WNBA, and she was dubbed the female Michael Jordan. She is a three-time WNBA MVP and has eight medals representing USA Women’s Basketball; six gold and two bronze. Those medals came from the Olympic Games, the World Cup and the Goodwill Games. She is also a four-time WNBA champion, six-time WNBA All-Star, a two-time WNBA scoring champion and a two-time WNBA steals leader. She was also named to the All-WNBA First Team five times, All-NBA Second Team twice and Defensive Player of the Year three times. She was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016 and the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017.

Now:

Sue Bird

Sue Bird is a professional Israeli-American basketball player for the Seattle Storm. She was selected first overall by the Storm in the 2002 WNBA draft. Bird is a four-time WNBA champion, an eleven-time WNBA All-Star, a three-time WNBA assists leader, a two-time WNBA Peak Performer, the WNBA all-time assists leader and a two-time NCAA champion. She was also named to the All-WNBA First Team five times, the All-NBA Second Team three times and named to the 2010s WNBA All-Decade Team. She has won nine medals with USA Women’s Basketball in the Olympic Games and the World Championships; eight of the gold and one bronze. She also is a five-time Russian National League champion, a five-time Euroleague champion and a two-time Europe Supercup winner.

Then:

Mia Hamm

Mia Hamm is a retired professional soccer player. She has won four NCAA National Championships with the North Carolina Tar Heels, two FIFA World Cup Championships, placed third in the FIFA World Cup twice, two gold Olympic medals and one silver Olympic gold medal with the USA’s Women’s Soccer team. Hamm was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 2006 and the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 2008. Her silhouette was also used as the logo of the Women’s Professional Soccer League in 2008. In 2013, she became the first woman inducted into the World Football Hall of Fame and she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2021. 

Now:

Marta Vieira da Silva

Marta Vieira da Silva is a professional Brazilian soccer player who plays for the Orlando Pride in the NWSL. She is widely considered to be the greatest female soccer player of all time and holds the record for most goals in Brazilian International Football (109), male or female. She also holds the record for most goals scored at FIFA’s Women’s World Cup tournaments (17). She has won nine medals representing Brazil in the FIFA Women’s World Cup, the Olympic Games, the Copa América Femenina; five gold and four silver. She was named the IFFHS World’s Best Woman Player of the Decade and named to the IFFHS World’s Woman Team of the Decade.

Then:

Janet Guthrie

Janet Guthrie is a retired professional race car driver, and she was the first woman to qualify and compete in the Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500. She was also the first woman to lead a lap in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series. Guthrie participated in 33 races and her best finish was 23rd. She was inducted into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1980, the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2006, and the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2019.

Now:

Danica Patrick

Danica Patrick is a former professional race car driver. She is the most successful woman in the history of American open-wheel racing and her 2008 Indy Japan 300 victory is the only win by a woman in an IndyCar Series race. She participated in 116 races and her best finish was in fifth. In 2015, Patrick topped Guthrie’s record for the most top-ten finishes by a woman in the Sprint Cup Series. Her career consisted of one win, 14 top-tens, seven podiums and five pole positions.