Over time, female athletes have been making noise and creating an impact serving as inspirations to those who have the same aspirations. Here are some of the most popular women in sports.
Serena Williams
Serena Williams, a professional tennis player of the Open Era, is recognized as one of the era’s best female tennis players. The female tennis player has the most number of Grand Slam titles in the singles, doubles, and mixed doubles altogether among those who are still active and third of all-time. She ranked second in the Open Era. She holds the record for the most tournament wins in the Open Era with 23 Grand Slam singles titles.
Williams was the only woman to be part of the Forbes 2019 list of the world’s highest-paid athletes.
Maria Sharapova
Maria Sharapova is a Russian professional tennis player. She’s the only Russian to have a career Grand Slam. Sharapova was the first female from Russia ranked world No. 1 when she was 18 years old.
The Russian tennis player has a total of 36 singles titles and five Grand Slam titles and ranks third behind the Williams sisters- Serena and Venus, out of all active players. Sharapova is considered one of the best tennis players to play the game.
Nadia Comaneci
Nadia Comaneci, now retired, was a gymnast from Romania that has competed in the 1976 and 1980 Summer Olympics. She is credited with bringing the attention of the world to gymnastics. Comaneci became the first to be given a perfect 10 score, and she also achieved five gold medals for individual events.
Comaneci had nine perfect 10s in two Olympics, won four World Artistic Gymnastics Championship medals, and nine Olympic medals.
Saina Nehwal
Saina Nehwal, a professional badminton singles player from India, was a previous holder of the world no. 1 and has won over 24 international titles, including eleven Superseries titles. She got the world no. 1 ranking in 2015 after being world no. 2 in 2009. She was the only female player from India and the second overall to achieve it. Nehwal represented her country thrice in the Olympics and even won bronze in her second appearance.
Caroline Wozniacki
Caroline Wozniacki, Danish, was a professional tennis player and a former singles world No. 1. She first achieved the top ranking on October 11, 2010, and became the 20th player in the Open Era. She was also the first Scandinavian woman to hold the top-ranking position. Wozniacki was the year-end No. 1 in 2010 and 2011, held it for a total of 71 weeks. She won prize money of more than $35 million.
With great defensive abilities and footwork, the danish tennis player won 30 WTA singles titles and two doubles titles. She was also a junior Grand Slam champion.
Alex Morgan
Alex Morgan, the co-captain of the United States Women’s Soccer Team, has won her second consecutive championship for the FIFA World Cup 2019. She and her team won silver in the World Cup in 2011 when she debuted.
Morgan has amassed a total of 169 caps and 107 goals. She was also included in the list of the first women’s soccer players chosen to appear on a FIFA video game cover.
Lindsey Vonn
Lindsey Vonn won four World Cup overall championships and is one of the only two female skiers to do so. She won three of her titles consecutively from 2008-10 and her fourth in 2012. Vonn was also the first American woman to have won the gold medal for the downhill at the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In 2016, she won her 20th World Cup crystal globe title. Also, she is one of the six women to dominate a World Cup race in all five areas of alpine skiing.
Vonn is one of the greatest skiers of all-time with two World Championship gold medals, three Olympic medals, four World Cup titles, and 82 World Cup victories.
Simone Biles
Simone Biles is an American gymnast that won gold medals for the vault, floor, and individual all-around at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Biles is already a four-time World all-around champion at only 22 years old accomplishing three victories for consecutive years (2013-15) and the fourth in 2018. Biles is also a five-time champion for the US National all-around.
The most decorated American gymnast, Biles has 25 Olympic and World Championship medals. She also set the record for the most gold medals winning four of them in the US women’s gymnastics at just a single Olympics.
Simon Biles has dominated nearly all events and is even considered one of the greatest gymnasts of all-time.
Evgenia Medvedeva
Evgenia Armanovna Medvedeva, a Russian figure skater, won silver twice in the Olympics. She was also a two-time European champion, a two-time Grand Prix Final champion, a two-time world champion, and a two-time Russian national champion. The figure skater earned a silver medal at the 2018 European Figure Skating Championships, and a bronze medal at the 2019 World Championships.