She also played all-star softball, baseball, roller skated, bowled, boxed, swam, and dove. She broke barriers when, in 1938, she competed against men in the PGA’s Los Angeles Open. Mildred Ella “Babe” Dedrickson Zaharias, a Texas teenager born in 1911 who excelled in sports - basketball, baseball, golf, and track and field - won two gold medals in track and field during the 1932 Olympics and 10 golf championships through the Ladies Professional Golf Association, which formed in 1950. She was 20 when she swam from France to England in 14 hours and 34 minutes - two hours faster than the quickest of the five men who had accomplished the swim before her. Like Gertrude Caroline Ederle, a 1924 Olympic gold medalist from New York who became the first woman to swim across the English Channel in August 1926. Other pioneers forged a role for women in sports. Yet she promoted “a sport for every girl and every girl in a sport.” But, after facing resistance to corporate underwriting, she focused on the enjoyment of sports at play days with singing and socializing rather than setting records or competing before spectators. She continued to compete during the Roaring Twenties and swam as a nonagenarian until her death in 2002.įirst Lady Lou Henry Hoover joined the National Amateur Athletic Federation’s Women’s Division in April 1923 to promote the physical and mental value of athletics for women to build courage, strength, confidence, and character. Olympic Committee headed by Secretary James Sullivan prohibited participation by American women.Įight years later, 14-year-old Aileen Riggin Soule of New York won the gold medal in the springboard diving competition at the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium. Nineteenth century doctors and educators claimed vigorous exercise could harm women’s health and their ability to have children, Jones-Litteer said.Īlthough the 1912 Olympics allowed female divers and swimmers to compete, the U.S. Women fought more than a century for equal rights in sports, and now those rights - and the scholarships, trophies and pay they could earn by excelling in athletics - are jeopardized by allowing biological males to compete in women’s sports.Īmerican women earned the right to vote in 1920, but it took much longer to obtain equal rights in sports. Some say Lia robbed the 500-yard freestyle trophy from Emma Weyant, a female freshman from Virginia and an Olympic silver medalist who finished second in the Atlanta, Georgia, competition. But as a transgender person who now identifies as a female, Lia was allowed to compete against women - and won. While competing on the men’s swim team, Lia placed 412th. Helens Club presentation Wednesday in Chehalis by Corene Jones-Litteer titled “Overcoming Hurdles: Women in Sports.”Īs I listened to the stories of women who fought valiantly for equitable treatment in the world of sports, I couldn’t help thinking about University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas who recently snagged an NCAA women’s swimming championship trophy - despite being born a male. And they probably like to nibble on the all-American treat of caramel popcorn and peanuts - and find the prize inside.īut it took more than a century for them to earn a spot in the world of athletics, a struggle outlined in vivid detail during an excellent St. Girls love sports as much as boys - softball, soccer, basketball, volleyball, wrestling, swimming, tennis, golf, etc. Cracker Jack announced last week the 126-year-old company will be packaging special-edition Cracker Jill snacks to support American female athletes through the Women’s Sports Foundation - and reworked the old song “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” to include lyrics about female athletes.
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