#31: Babe Didrikson Zaharias: A True Renaissance Woman
Babe Didrikson Zaharias was an athlete of the rarest type. She excelled in basically every sport she tried including baseball, swimming, tennis, track, and golf. Didrikson Zaharias knew that she was good, too. Rightfully so – she once stated that there was no other woman athlete who could rival her in competition. So why don’t we really know about her today? Well, she was a woman athlete in the 1930s, when sexism and gender norms were rampantly enforced.
Babe received a lot of pushback and sneering from the press when she began to find success as a professional athlete. Thankfully, she didn’t let that bother her too much. She earned three medals in the 1932 Olympics for track and field, and then went on to become a professional golfer. She was the first woman to compete in a male-only golf tournament and continued to beat out her competition. She won 31 tournaments and opened the door to the world of golf for women in the future. Sports Illustrated rightfully listed her as a “top athlete of the 20th century.”