Sporting Icons Answersheet influential sportswomen

Cathy Freeman

Cathy Freeman was ’s only hope of an athletics gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympic Games and became the icon of national unity. She was cheered to victory by 110,000 spectators at Sydney Olympic Stadium, coming from third place in the last 100 metres to take the Olympic title, the first Australian Aboriginal to win an individual gold medal. Freeman dropped to her knees, overcome with relief and pride. Her victory lap draped in the Australian and Aboriginal flag is an image that made front pages around the world. Freeman’s influence on the Indigenous community, through her successes, touched young and old and especially inspired the next generation of athletes. Since it was established in 2007, the Cathy Freeman Foundation has improved education outcomes for Indigenous children around the country and continues the legacy of excellence that Freeman established.

Tanni Gray-Thompson

Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson is one of Britain’s most iconic Paralympic athletes. She competed in five Paralympic Games, winning 11 Gold Medals, and is acknowledged as one of the most gifted and trail-blazing sportswomen for her dedication to bringing disability sport to a wider audience. Born with spina bifida and a wheelchair user from the age of eight, Welsh-born Grey-Thompson won twenty-two Paralympic and world championship medals, including thirteen golds in the 100, 200, 400 and . She has also won the Marathon six times. Grey-Thompson worked extensively to gain equal rights for disabled people and received an MBE in 1993 and an OBE in 2000 for services to sport. She was an Ambassador for the London 2012 bid team and plays an active part in disability sport and sports administration. Created a Dame in 2005, Grey-Thompson has been a crossbench peer in the House of Lords since 2010.

Billie Jean King

When King won Wimbledon in 1968, she received £750 – the male winner, Rod Laver received £2000. King was not going to put up with this massive inequality: she fought as hard off the court as she did on it to raise the profile and standing of women’s tennis. In 1970 she helped organise a professional women’s tour, while in 1973 her boycott threat forced the US Open to pay equal prize money. Just to underline the point, in that same year she thrashed chauvinistic Bobby Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes match. It was watched by 90 million TV viewers. King was publicly outed as being gay in 1981. While King’s contribution to women’s and gay rights has been substantial and important, it should be remembered that she was always a dominant force on the tennis court. She won 12 Grand Slam singles titles, another 16 doubles and 11 mixed doubles matches, and in 1971 she became the first female athlete to earn over $100,000 in prize money.

Megan Rapinoe

Megan Rapinoe is a co-captain of the USWNT, alongside Alex Morgan and Carli Lloyd. She helped the US to its second consecutive FIFA Women’s World Cup championship in 2019, scoring six goals for the Golden Boot and Golden Ball Awards. She was also on the 2015 team that won the Cup, as well as the 2012 Olympic team, which took home gold. Rapinoe has made noise both on and off the field. She is an advocate for numerous LGBTQ organizations and often uses her platform to speak out against social injustice. She is also an advocate for women in sports and equality.

Wilma Rudolph

African American sprinter Wilma Rudolph was the first American woman to win three gold medals in a single Olympics. She overcame the loss of strength in her left leg and foot, caused by polio at five years old, to become the fastest woman in the world at the 1960 Olympics. She held the record for the 100 meters at 11.2 seconds and 200 meters at 22.9 seconds. Rudolph gained international recognition during the 1960 Olympics because of worldwide television coverage and became an iconic figure for black and female athletes. During the peak of the civil rights movement, Rudolph was a trailblazer for the rights of African Americans and women. She broke the gender barrier of all-male events in , and her legacy lives on today. Sporting Icons Answersheet influential sportswomen

Serena Williams

Serena Williams is highly regarded as one of the best female tennis players of the Open era. Her victories have shaped her into an inspirational figure in the sport, especially to children, but she has also been met with backlash by others. Williams holds the most Grand Slam titles in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles combined among active players and tied for third on the all-time list. She is second in the Open era. Her 23 Grand Slam singles titles is a record for the most tournament wins in the Open era. In 2019, she was the only woman on the list of the world’s highest-paid athletes, according to Forbes. Along with her sister Venus Williams, the two are considered pioneers of a new era for women in tennis that is focused on power.

Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan is the co-captain for the Women’s Soccer Team and won her second consecutive FIFA World Cup championship in 2019. She debuted in the World Cup in 2011, where the team won silver. In 2012, Morgan recorded 28 goals and 21 assists to become the second American woman to score 20 goals and 20 assists in the same calendar year alongside Mia Hamm. She was also the sixth and youngest US player to score 20 goals in a single year. Since being named to the senior US team in 2019, Morgan has accumulated 169 caps and 107 goals. She was also one of the first women’s soccer players to appear on the cover of a FIFA video game. Off the field, Morgan is part of the US soccer women fighting for equal pay.

Irene van Dyk

South Africa-born Irene van Dyk is one of the world’s best netball players. She represented her homeland 72 times before relocating to New Zealand in 2000. Van Dyk was quickly snapped up by the national Silver Ferns team and represented New Zealand internationally for 14 years. With the Silver Ferns she won gold medals, a world title, she played some 145 tests, and has been the world’s best shooter arguably for the best part of 20 years. Van Dyk now retired is an ambassador for the sport, both in New Zealand and in the wider Pacific region, championing children to get active and reduce screen time.

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill

Olympic champion and three-times world champion heptathlete, Jessica Ennis-Hill is one of Great Britain’s most successful athletes. Ennis-Hill’s heptathlon gold was one of the iconic moments of London 2012’s ‘Super Saturday’. She had her first child, Reggie, in 2014 and won a second world title just 13 months later. Headline writers called it “the mother of all comebacks” as she triumphed in the gruelling event which consists of the 100m hurdles, high jump, , 200m, long jump, javelin throw and 800m. The Sheffield-born athlete just missed out on retaining her Olympic title in Rio by 35 points to Belgium’s Nafissatou Thiam. After retirement in 2016, Ennis-Hill was made a dame for services to athletics.

Babe Didrikson Zaharias

Multi-sport American athlete Babe Didrikson Zaharias won two gold medals in track and field at the 1932 Olympics and won 10 LGPA major championships. She won a total of 82 gold tournaments. Zaharias also participated in basketball, baseball, softball, diving, roller-skating, and bowling. Zaharias was known for breaking the boundaries of what it meant to be female in her time. She was physically strong and criticized for it. She was inducted into the LGPA Hall of Fame in 1951 and the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1976. Zaharias was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1953. In her later years, she also became known as an advocate for cancer awareness, using her popularity to raise money for her cancer fund. At the time, many Americans refused to seek treatment for cancer. She died three years later in 1956 at 45. Sporting Icons Answersheet influential sportsmen

Muhammad Ali Ali was a successful black man living during one of the most turbulent periods for race relations in American history. Ali was never afraid to speak up, even when his views were controversial – expressing his strong opinions on race, religion and war. His frank stance on politics and society upset the conservative establishment of the 1960s and 70s America. He was stripped of titles, banned from boxing and threatened with prison. Yet his determination, principles, and fearlessness in speaking out ensured Ali won through eventually – both in and out of the ring. Declaring yourself “the greatest” might seem like a fate-tempting, self-aggrandising statement, but Ali fought to live up to the standards he set himself, taking the sport to another level. His two epic bouts – the Thrilla in Manila against Joe Frazier and the Rumble in the Jungle versus George Foreman – were not just great boxing matches, they became two of 20th century’s great stories. In 1984 Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease but he was determined to carry on making a difference. He made goodwill missions to Afghanistan and North Korea, he brought medical supplies to Cuba and even helped to secure the release of 15 American hostages from Iraq before the 1990 Gulf War: all despite his suffering.

PELE Pelé managed to achieve footballing greatness despite enduring the poverty that blighted large swathes of Brazil’s population. Pelé was so poor that his family could not afford a football: he had to use a stuffed sock. Nonetheless, the striker’s natural talent shone through and he was signed by Brazilian team Santos aged 15. A year later he was picked for the national side. A team medical subsequently revealed the squad – Pelé included – was beset by a catalogue of diseases and long-term malnutrition. The footballer burst onto the world stage in 1958 when Brazil qualified for the World Cup. Just 17, he ran rings around seasoned veterans. The quality of his play and goal tally took him to the first of three World Cup wins with the team in yellow. His success at the highest levels helped coin the term ‘the beautiful game.’ But his legacy is bigger than the cups and medals he won. Pelé proved that anyone, no matter what their background could make it in sport if they had the talent and determination to succeed.

Roger Federer

Swiss-born Roger Federer has transcended the sport of tennis for nearly twenty years, 103 tour titles, winning 1242 of 1513 matches, with twenty grand slam wins, including eight Wimbledon finals. Federer has shown that he is possibly the greatest to ever play the sport. Whether he is on the grass, clay or hard court, Federer always seems to accomplish the impossible and further implement his cause as the best ever. His records may soon be broken by Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic, but Federer is iconic for ushering a new era of tennis superstars, becoming known as the leader of the pack. A cultural icon as well as a sporting icon, Federer is famed for his gentlemanly conduct on and off the court. His philanthropic work, promoting education and sports in Africa, as well as donating to families affected by the 2011 Queensland floods, underlines another reason why he is so immensely popular worldwide.

Usain Bolt

Dubbed the ‘fastest man on Earth’, Bolt mixed slick, joyous showmanship with incredible speed to break a string of world records, becoming the face of the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games. He briefly held the incredible ‘triple triple’ achievement — winning and retaining the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay Olympic gold medals, his sprint to win the 100m gold medal in Beijing will live forever in the memory, showboating his way across the finish line with arms outstretched, and still breaking the world record metres in front of the competition. Bolt set his staggering 100m and 200m world records, which still stand today, on the way to winning world titles in 2009. A superstar of his generation, Bolt retired from athletics in 2018 and joined an Australian soccer team, the Central Coast Mariners.

Michael Jordan

A six-time NBA champion and NBA finals MVP, five-time most valuable player and a two-time Olympic gold medallist to boot, remains one of the most famous faces in world sport long after his (third) retirement from basketball in 2003. During his 13 seasons as a basketball player for the Chicago Bulls, Jordan won the NBA title six times, and the league’s Most Valuable Player award five times. A financial juggernaut off the court worth over £1billion, Forbes magazine ranked Jordan as the world’s 20th-most powerful celebrity in 2010 and was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama in 2016. Sporting Icons Answersheet influential sportsmen

Michael Phelps

For pure sporting achievement, takes some beating. Phelps is the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time. He won an unprecedented eight gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and has a total of 23 Olympic golds, the most ever. Phelps’s greatness was signified early on when he qualified for the USA team in 2000 aged just 15, finishing fifth in the 200m butterfly final. His Olympic dynasty stretched from 2000 to 2016, with 2004 sparking four gold- laden Summer Games campaigns, across a multitude of disciplines. Butterfly, backstroke and freestyle were all perfected by Phelps, and he was a tireless machine in the individual medley.

TIGER WOODS Woods is an American professional golfer. He is tied for first in PGA Tour wins and ranks second in men’s major championships and also holds numerous golf records. Woods is widely regarded as one of the greatest golfers, and one of the most famous athletes of all time. He will be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2021. The most decorated golfer of his era, Tiger’s intensity and motivation on the course has been the key to his successes. His 14 major championships (including four Masters) are good for the second-most ever, only behind . Tiger has made golf relevant among African Americans, a sport that previously had hardly any history of diversity. Woods has held numerous golf records. He has been the number one player in the world for the most consecutive weeks and the greatest total number of weeks of any golfer in history. He has been awarded PGA Player of the Year a record 11 times. Since his record- breaking win at the 1997 Masters, Woods has been the biggest name in golf and his presence in tournaments has drawn a huge fan following. Some sources have credited him for dramatically increasing prize money in golf, generating interest in new PGA tournament audiences, and for drawing the largest TV ratings in golf history.

Roger Bannister Sir Roger Bannister is one of the 20th century’s great sporting icons after becoming the first man to run a mile in under four minutes. Bannister’s feat was a defining moment in sport. It made front-page headlines across the world and inspired a nation still gripped by post-war austerity. He was a prodigious talent, but turned down a place on Great Britain’s 1948 Olympic team, claiming he was not ready to compete at that level. He missed out on a medal in the 1500m final at the 1952 Olympics in , finishing fourth, and after that disappointment set his heart on becoming the first man to run a mile in under four minutes. On May 6, 1954, Bannister (25) spent the morning working his usual shift at St Mary’s Hospital in London, then travelled to race in the mile event for an amateur team against University. Bannister’s time was 3:59.4. A record he held for only 46 days. Bannister completed a stellar year by winning the 1500m at the European Championships in Switzerland and promptly announced his retirement from athletics to focus on his work as a junior doctor and pursue a career in . He later became the first chairman of the Sports Council (Sport ) and was knighted in 1975.

Jesse Owens Jesse Owens, the son of a sharecropper and grandson of a slave, achieved what no Olympian before him had accomplished. His stunning achievement of four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic games in Berlin has made him one of the best-remembered athlete in Olympic history. The king of athletics before the breakout of World War II, Jesse Owens personally tore Adolf Hitler’s ideology of the supremacy of the Aryan race to shreds, winning gold in the 100m and 200m sprints, 4x100m relay as well as the long jump at the 1936 Games in Berlin. Jesse Owens proved in Berlin and thereafter that he was a dreamer who could make the dreams of others come true, a speaker who could make the world listen and a man who held out hope to millions of young people. Throughout his life, he worked with youths, sharing of himself and the little material wealth that he had. In this way, Jesse Owens was equally the champion on the playground of the poorest neighbourhoods as he was on the oval of the Olympic games. In 1976, Jesse was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest award bestowed upon a civilian, by Gerald R. Ford.

Cristiano Ronaldo Ronaldo is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a forward for Serie A club Juventus and captains the Portugal national team. Often considered the best player in the world and widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, Ronaldo has won five Ballons d’Or and four European Golden Shoes, both of which are records for a European player. He has won 29 major trophies in his career, including six league titles, five UEFA Champions Leagues, one UEFA European Championship, and one UEFA Nations League. A prolific goalscorer, Ronaldo holds the records for the most goals scored in the UEFA Champions League (128) and the joint-most goals scored in the UEFA European Championship (9). He is one of the few recorded players to have made over 1,000 professional career appearances and has scored over 700 senior career goals for club and country. He has 148 million followers on social media and is ranked as the highest-paid athlete of the decade.