9 Women Who Changed Sports Forever

Bobbi Gibb applied to run the Boston Marathon and received a rejection letter stating that women were "not physiologically capable" of running 26.2 miles. Apparently, the race officials thought ovaries might spontaneously combust at mile 13. So she did what any determined woman would do…she hid in the bushes near the starting line wearing her brother's hoodie and Bermuda shorts, jumped into the race after it started and finished in 3 hours and 21 minutes, proving that the only thing women weren't physiologically capable of was tolerating that kind of nonsense.

One year after Bobbi Gibb showed everyone up, Kathrine Switzer registered for the Boston Marathon as "K.V. Switzer" and became the first woman to run with an official race number. When race director Jock Semple realized a woman was running, he tried to physically rip her number off mid-race. In steps her then-boyfriend and coach (bet Semple didn't see them coming), and Kathrine finished the race in 4 hours and 20 minutes, cementing her place in history as the first official female finisher.

When 55-year-old Bobby Riggs bragged any man could beat any woman in tennis, Billie Jean King strode onto the court and absolutley schooled him in front of 90 million viewers. The "Battle of the Sexes" was less a match and more a public service announcement of don’t write checks your backhand can’t cash. Off the court, she co-founded the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and fought for equal prize money, pushing the U.S. Open become the first Grand Slam to pay men and women equally in 1973.

For 90 years, women were banned from Olympic ski jumping because officials claimed it was "medically inappropriate" and would damage their reproductive organs (here we go again). Lindsey Van and other female ski jumpers sued the 2010 Vancouver Olympics for gender discrimination, and while they may have lost the battle, they won the war when the worldwide outrage forced the IOC to finally allow women to compete in 2014.

Not only was Althea Gibson the first Black player to compete at the U.S. National Championships and Wimbledon, but she was also the first to win them both. She dominated tennis in the 1950s when country clubs were still debating whether women and Black people should be allowed through the front door. After retiring from tennis, she became the first Black woman to play on the LPGA Tour because apparently one barrier-breaking sport wasn't enough for Althea.

When Junko Tabei announced she wanted to climb mountains, Japanese climbing clubs told her to stick to "feminine" hobbies like flower arranging. So she founded her own all-women climbing club and became the first woman to summit Mount Everest in 1975. She survived an avalanche that buried her tent at 21,000 feet, dug herself out and kept climbing because apparently the possibility of dying in an avalanche was still preferable to flower arranging.

Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim across the English Channel when she was just 19 years old, at a time when society viewed women as "the weaker sex" and genuinely believed female bodies couldn't handle such a feat. She not only proved them wrong by swimming through jellyfish and literal garbage, but she also did it faster than any of the five men who had completed the swim before her, beating the fastest time by nearly two hours.

Ronda Rousey forced the UFC to create a women’s division after Dana White insisted women would never fight in the Octagon. While winning fights, she proved women belonged in a sport dismissed as “too violent” or “not for them.” Her Olympic judo medal and lightning-fast armbar finishes shattered stereotypes and paved the way for every woman who wanted a shot in the cage.

Serena Williams has won 23 Grand Slam singles titles and dominated tennis for over two decades. Few players in tennis history have faced as much scrutiny, fines and double standards, yet she keeps showing up and winning. The tennis world tried to police everything from her outfits to her celebrations, and she responded by building a business empire and cementing her legacy as one of the greatest players the sport has ever seen.