48 Fun Facts About Women in Sports

The 1973 Battle of the Sexes match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs was played in which arena?

At the Houston Astrodome, Riggs handed King a giant Sugar Daddy lollipop, she gave him a squealing piglet, and he played the first three games in a Sugar Daddy jacket.

Which reigning champion did 55-year-old Bobby Riggs rout 6-2, 6-1 in 1973's 'Mother's Day Massacre'?

Margaret Court's loss persuaded Billie Jean King, who had repeatedly turned Riggs down, to accept his challenge.

Which Grand Slam tournament became the first to pay men and women equal prize money, in 1973?

The US Open made the change after Billie Jean King lobbied for it, while Wimbledon did not pay equally in every round until 2007.

Title IX, the law barring sex discrimination in federally funded education, was signed by which president?

Richard Nixon's signing statement dwelt on school busing and never mentioned the new ban on sex discrimination.

In 2002 Congress renamed Title IX in honor of which congresswoman, a leading champion of the law?

Patsy Mink died that September, and because her name was still on the ballot, Hawaii voters re-elected her to Congress weeks later.

In April 2017, Serena Williams revealed her pregnancy with a '20 weeks' photo on which app?

Snapchat: she said she posted it by accident, and the timing meant she had won that January's Australian Open while about eight weeks pregnant.

Serena's 23rd major broke whose Open Era record of 22 singles titles?

Steffi Graf won her 22nd and last major at the 1999 French Open by beating favourite Martina Hingis, then retired that August at 30.

When Wimbledon paid equal prize money in 2007, Venus Williams matched which men's champion's cheque?

Roger Federer and Venus took home the same winner's prize; she had pushed for it in a 2006 essay in The Times saying unequal pay branded women inferior.

At Paris 2024, Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles bowed on the podium to which floor exercise champion?

Rebeca Andrade won after Biles stepped out of bounds twice, and the gold made Andrade Brazil's most decorated Olympian.

Simone Biles withdrew at Tokyo 2020 with 'the twisties', a sudden loss of what?

Losing air awareness mid-twist left Simone Biles unable to 'tell up from down', yet she came back days later to win bronze on the beam.

The vault named the Biles II is a Yurchenko entry into what, a skill no woman had completed before her?

Simone Biles first landed the Yurchenko double pike in May 2021, and at Paris 2024 she used it on her way to Olympic vault gold.

Megan Rapinoe knelt during the anthem before a 2016 NWSL match in solidarity with which athlete?

Megan Rapinoe called it 'a little nod' to Colin Kaepernick, saying that as a gay American she knew what it meant when the flag did not protect all your liberties.

Which coach finished her Chelsea season in 2024 and then led the USWNT to Olympic gold?

Emma Hayes had coached in the U.S. before: the Chicago Red Stars fired her in 2010, and 14 years later she returned to win Olympic gold.

In the 1999 final shootout, which U.S. goalkeeper saved China's third kick, from Liu Ying?

Briana Scurry later admitted she came off her line early, which should have meant a retake, and Brandi Chastain then scored the winning kick.

On which day in 2019 did 28 USWNT players sue their own federation, U.S. Soccer?

International Women's Day: the suit ended in a 2022 deal under which U.S. Soccer pays its men's and women's teams equally, World Cups included.

Whose 159th goal in 2013 broke Mia Hamm's international scoring record?

Abby Wambach had already saved the U.S. at the 2011 World Cup, heading a 122nd-minute equalizer against Brazil before a shootout win.

The first WNBA game, in June 1997, saw the Los Angeles Sparks host which team?

The New York Liberty won 67–57 even though the Sparks' Penny Toler scored the first points in WNBA history.

Which franchise won the first four WNBA championships, every title from 1997 to 2000?

The Houston Comets won all four behind Cynthia Cooper, then folded in 2008 when the league could not find a new owner.

Who became the first player to dunk in a WNBA game, in 2002?

Lisa Leslie once scored 101 points in one half of a high school game, and the other team refused to come back out for the second half.

In March 2024 Caitlin Clark became NCAA Division I's all-time leading scorer, passing which LSU legend?

Pete Maravich scored his 3,667 points in only three varsity seasons, at a time when freshmen could not play varsity and there was no three-point line.

In 2025, which team became the first WNBA expansion team since 2008?

The Golden State Valkyries were built largely from other teams' bench and role players, yet they became the first WNBA expansion team to reach the playoffs in its debut season.

Before her golf career, Babe Didrikson won two golds and a silver at the 1932 Olympics in which sport?

Track and field: earlier that summer she won the AAU national team championship single-handedly, as the only member of her team.

At which men's PGA Tour event did Babe Didrikson Zaharias make a cut in January 1945?

Los Angeles Open: she first had to shoot 76-76 just to qualify, then made the two-day cut before missing the three-day cut.

George Zaharias, whom Babe Didrikson married in 1938, was a professional what?

Wrestler: billed as 'The Crying Greek from Cripple Creek', George quit the ring after the wedding to manage his wife's career.

Who holds the record for most LPGA Tour wins, with 88?

Kathy Whitworth turned pro in 1958 and waited until 1962 for her first win, yet no golfer on the LPGA or PGA Tour has won more events.

Which childhood disease left Wilma Rudolph, triple Olympic champion in 1960, needing a leg brace?

Polio weakened her left leg, so her family took off the brace and massaged the leg several times a day until she could walk without support.

At the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Jackie Joyner-Kersee set a world record in which event?

Heptathlon: she set that world record despite severe asthma, a condition she battled throughout her career.

Florence Griffith Joyner died in her sleep in 1998 at 38 from what?

Epileptic seizure: a congenital blood-vessel abnormality in her brain triggered it, and she suffocated while it happened.

Nadia Comăneci's first perfect 10 at the 1976 Montreal Olympics came on which apparatus?

Uneven bars: yet for all her perfect scores in Montreal, Romania still had to settle for silver in the team event.

Which timing company's Montreal scoreboard showed Nadia Comăneci's perfect 10 as 1.00?

Omega had been told that a 10.00 was not possible, so its Montreal gymnastics boards had room for only three digits.

Katie Ledecky won her first Olympic gold at age 15 in which event?

800 m freestyle: roared on by a home crowd, defending champion Rebecca Adlington of Britain could only take bronze behind her.

Which swimmer was first to win the same individual Olympic event four times, a feat Katie Ledecky matched in 2024?

Michael Phelps won his fourth 200 m individual medley in Rio in 2016, after he had retired from swimming and then made a comeback.

In January 2023, which skier passed the women's record of 82 World Cup wins that Lindsey Vonn set before retiring?

Mikaela Shiffrin passed it; Vonn, who had retired in 2019 with knee problems, came back after a knee replacement and won again in December 2025.

At Vancouver 2010, Lindsey Vonn became the first American woman to win Olympic gold in which alpine event?

Downhill: she won it despite a bruised right shin, hurt in training, that made even wearing a ski boot painful.

Danica Patrick's only IndyCar win, the first by a woman, came in 2008 in which country?

Japan: at Motegi she stretched her fuel while the leaders had to pit late, then passed Helio Castroneves for the lead with three laps left.

In 2013, Danica Patrick became the first woman to win the pole position for which race?

Daytona 500: she was running third as the last lap began, but got caught in the final scramble and slipped to eighth.

Which runner's nonprofit, 261 Fearless, carries the bib number she wore in the 1967 Boston Marathon?

Kathrine Switzer ran Boston again in 2017, at 70, wearing 261 and leading a team of runners from her nonprofit.

Which baseball owner founded the women's league later dramatized in the film A League of Their Own?

Philip K. Wrigley started it in 1943 as a wartime stopgap, fearing major league baseball could shut down while the men were away at war.

In 1926 Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim across what?

English Channel: a year after a failed first attempt, she swam it faster than any man had before her.

After Althea Gibson became the first Black Wimbledon singles champion in 1957, who presented her with the trophy?

Queen Elizabeth II presented it, yet as an amateur Gibson won no prize money, and in 1958 she quit amateur play because she needed an income.

Charlotte Cooper became the first individual female Olympic champion in 1900 in which sport?

Tennis: she married the next year, and in 1908, seven years after her previous Wimbledon title, she won it again at 37.

Women's boxing made its Olympic debut at which Games?

London 2012: Britain's Nicola Adams took the first gold by beating China's Ren Cancan, who had beaten her in two world championship finals.

Who won the first women's WrestleMania main event in 2019 over Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair?

Becky Lynch: months earlier a real punch from Nia Jax had broken her nose, but she stayed in character, bloodied and defiant, and her popularity soared.

Which musher won the Iditarod four times between 1986 and 1990?

Susan Butcher: in 1985 a moose attacked her team, killing two dogs and forcing her out, and Libby Riddles became the first woman to win instead.

Before MMA, Ronda Rousey won a 2008 Olympic bronze, the first medal by an American woman in which sport?

Judo: she then went unbeaten in MMA until 2015, when Holly Holm knocked her out with a kick to the neck in a major upset.

Naomi Osaka, the first Asian player to top the women's singles rankings, has a father from which country?

Haiti: her first major title came in 2018, when she beat her childhood idol, Serena Williams, in the final.

Coco Gauff won her second major singles title at the 2025 French Open by beating which world number one?

Aryna Sabalenka: three years after losing the Paris final as a teenager, Gauff came from a set down to beat her.

Who won the first Olympic women's marathon, at the 1984 Summer Olympics?

Joan Benoit had arthroscopic knee surgery just 17 days before the US Olympic trials, yet she still made the team.