Kinue Hitomi
Japanese track and field athlete Kinue Hitomi held world records in several events in the 1920s and ’30s and was the first Japanese woman to win an Olympic medal, as well as the first woman to represent Japan at the Olympics.
Japanese track and field athlete Kinue Hitomi held world records in several events in the 1920s and ’30s and was the first Japanese woman to win an Olympic medal, as well as the first woman to represent Japan at the Olympics.
Tightrope dancer, gymnast, magician
Rosalyn Drexler is an ex-professional wrestler whose experience as ‘Rosa the Mexican Spitfire’ influenced her subsequent work as a visual artist and writer, and who is now becoming recognized as a key feminist voice in the Pop Art movement.
Alice Coachman was the first Black woman from any country to win an Olympic gold medal. Growing up in the segregated South, she overcame discrimination and unequal access to inspire generations of other black athletes to reach for their athletic goals.
Botanist, mycologist, mountaineer, teacher
Amelia Jenks Bloomer was an early suffragist, editor, and social activist. Bloomer was also a fashion advocate who worked to change women’s clothing styles.
Annie Oakley is a famous markswoman known for her sharpshooting. During her lifetime she traveled with her husband across the country and abroad showing off her skills with a rifle. She became a star in a male-dominated sport, and legendary throughout the world.
Despite being told as a child she would never walk again, Wilma Rudolph relentlessly pursued her dreams becoming an international track and field star. At the height of her career, “the fastest woman in the world” used her platform to shed light on social issues.
One of America’s foremost female athletes, Mildred Ella “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias was an Olympic gold medal winner who broke world records in multiple sports and went on to found the Ladies Pro Golf Association.
Nellie Vladimirovna Kim was a Soviet gymnast who won three gold medals and a silver medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, and two gold medals at the 1980 Summer Olympics. She was the second woman in Olympic history to earn a perfect 10 score (after Nadia Comăneci, also at the 1876 Olympics), and the first woman to score it on the vault and on the floor exercise. Kim worked for many years as a coach, training several national teams, and judged many major international competitions. Serving as President of the Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Technical Committee, she coordinates the introduction of new rules in women’s gymnastics. Her athletic performances are remembered for “her strong feminine, temperamental and charismatic appeal”.