Top 10 Greatest Women Athletes of All Time

Simone Biles has accumulated 37 Olympic and World Championship medals, making her the most decorated gymnast in history across both competitions. Seven gymnastics skills have been formally named after her by the Federation Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), a record no other gymnast approaches, including moves that were deemed too dangerous to reward until she performed them.

Steffi Graf is the only player in tennis history to win the Golden Slam all four Grand Slam titles plus the Olympic gold medal in a single calendar year (1988). She spent 377 weeks ranked world #1 (more than any other tennis player, male or female, except for Novak Djokovic) and won 22 Grand Slam singles titles.

Martina Navratilova won 167 career singles titles more than any professional tennis player in history of either gender and claimed 18 Grand Slam singles titles including a record 9 Wimbledon championships. Her seven consecutive Wimbledon titles (1982-1987) and 74-match winning streak at Wimbledon are records unlikely to be broken.

Mia Hamm scored 158 international goals before retiring in 2004, holding the world record for international goals (later surpassed), and led the United States to two FIFA Womens World Cup victories (1991, 1999) and two Olympic gold medals. ESPN named her the greatest female athlete of the 20th century, and she became the first female player to appear on an EA Sports FIFA video game cover.

Florence Griffith-Joyners 100m world record of 10.49 seconds and 200m record of 21.34 seconds, both set at the 1988 US Olympic Trials and Seoul Olympics, remain unbroken 37 years later the longest-standing sprint records in history. She won three gold medals at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, and her distinctive painted fingernails and one-legged running suits made her the most visually distinctive sprinter of the 20th century.

At the 1976 Montreal Olympics, 14-year-old Nadia Comaneci became the first gymnast in Olympic history to receive a perfect score of 10.0 and the scoreboard, not designed to display 10.0, showed 1.00 instead. She received nine perfect 10s at those Games, won three gold medals, and her image on the uneven bars became the defining photograph of Olympic gymnastics.

Billie Jean King won 39 Grand Slam titles across singles, doubles, and mixed doubles, and her 1973 victory over self-proclaimed male chauvinist Bobby Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes watched by 90 million people worldwide became the most-watched tennis match in history and a landmark moment for womens rights. She founded the Womens Tennis Association in 1973 and the Womens Sports Foundation in 1974.

Babe Didrikson Zaharias was named the greatest female athlete of the 20th century by the Associated Press in 1950, having first won two gold medals at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics in athletics (80m hurdles and javelin) before retraining as a golfer and winning 10 LPGA Major championships. She is the only person to have won Olympic gold medals and Major golf championships in the same lifetime.

Cathy Freeman became the first Aboriginal Australian to win an individual Olympic gold medal when she won the 400m at the 2000 Sydney Olympics having also lit the Olympic flame at the opening ceremony. She won the World Athletics 400m title in 1999 and became a symbol of Australias reconciliation movement, running her victory lap carrying both the Aboriginal and Australian flags.

Simone Biles has accumulated 37 Olympic and World Championship medals, making her the most decorated gymnast in history across both competitions. Seven gymnastics skills have been formally named after her by the Federation Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), a record no other gymnast approaches, including moves that were deemed too dangerous to reward until she performed them.

Steffi Graf is the only player in tennis history to win the Golden Slam all four Grand Slam titles plus the Olympic gold medal in a single calendar year (1988). She spent 377 weeks ranked world #1 (more than any other tennis player, male or female, except for Novak Djokovic) and won 22 Grand Slam singles titles.

Martina Navratilova won 167 career singles titles more than any professional tennis player in history of either gender and claimed 18 Grand Slam singles titles including a record 9 Wimbledon championships. Her seven consecutive Wimbledon titles (1982-1987) and 74-match winning streak at Wimbledon are records unlikely to be broken.

Mia Hamm scored 158 international goals before retiring in 2004, holding the world record for international goals (later surpassed), and led the United States to two FIFA Womens World Cup victories (1991, 1999) and two Olympic gold medals. ESPN named her the greatest female athlete of the 20th century, and she became the first female player to appear on an EA Sports FIFA video game cover.

Florence Griffith-Joyners 100m world record of 10.49 seconds and 200m record of 21.34 seconds, both set at the 1988 US Olympic Trials and Seoul Olympics, remain unbroken 37 years later the longest-standing sprint records in history. She won three gold medals at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, and her distinctive painted fingernails and one-legged running suits made her the most visually distinctive sprinter of the 20th century.

At the 1976 Montreal Olympics, 14-year-old Nadia Comaneci became the first gymnast in Olympic history to receive a perfect score of 10.0 and the scoreboard, not designed to display 10.0, showed 1.00 instead. She received nine perfect 10s at those Games, won three gold medals, and her image on the uneven bars became the defining photograph of Olympic gymnastics.

Billie Jean King won 39 Grand Slam titles across singles, doubles, and mixed doubles, and her 1973 victory over self-proclaimed male chauvinist Bobby Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes watched by 90 million people worldwide became the most-watched tennis match in history and a landmark moment for womens rights. She founded the Womens Tennis Association in 1973 and the Womens Sports Foundation in 1974.

Babe Didrikson Zaharias was named the greatest female athlete of the 20th century by the Associated Press in 1950, having first won two gold medals at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics in athletics (80m hurdles and javelin) before retraining as a golfer and winning 10 LPGA Major championships. She is the only person to have won Olympic gold medals and Major golf championships in the same lifetime.

Cathy Freeman became the first Aboriginal Australian to win an individual Olympic gold medal when she won the 400m at the 2000 Sydney Olympics having also lit the Olympic flame at the opening ceremony. She won the World Athletics 400m title in 1999 and became a symbol of Australias reconciliation movement, running her victory lap carrying both the Aboriginal and Australian flags.