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The American Physical Education Association
The American Physical Education Association forms the Women's Athletics Committee to develop seperate rules for women's collegiate field hockey, swimming, track and field, and soccer. -
Sybil Bauer
Sybil Bauer broke the world record for the backstroke. This event began to break all the myths against males being superior to women in sports. She was clocked at 6:24.8 for the 440y backstroke, which was four-seconds better than "Stubby" Kruger’s world record for men. Bauer won the 1924 Olympic title and set 23 world records. She also was an activists at her college for getting full competitive programs into women's university sports. -
AAU
The Amateur Athletic Union allowed women athletics, becasue of the pressure from the public. It began with women's track and field. -
Gertrude Ederle
Gertrude Ederle was an Olympic medalist and the first women to cross the English Channel. She crossed the channel two hours faster than any man that ever attempted the swim. As a child she dealt with tackling the measles, which left her slightly deaf. Ederle trained at the Women's Swimming Association facility in Manhattan, where she began setting many records. She entered the Olympics in 1924. -
Mildred Ella “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias
Mildred Ella “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias won three medals in the 1932 Olympics and played many differnt sports, but her primary sport was golf. She was the center of much criticism for her more manly look and the allusions of lesbianism became the face of womens athletics. However, she did not let this criticism default her and believed people were criticising her looks because they could not critize her talent. -
Althea Gibson
Althea GibsonAlthea Gibson was an African American women who excelled in table tennis. She was discovered by some activists who introduced her to the tennis courts of Harlem and trained her. Gibson was restricted from playing for a while, because tennis was a segregated sport. However, after Alice Marble, a former number one tennis player, expressed her disagreements to the law and how great of a tennis player Gibson was, Gibson was allowed intry into the 1950 US Championships. -
Wilma Rudolph
Wilma Rudolph became the first women to win three gold medals at the Rome Olympic games in track and field. The events were the 100-meter dash, the 200-meter dash, and ran the anchor on the 400-meter relay team. She was an African American who was nearly paralyzed as a child becasue of many illnesses and was not able to walk normally till the age of 12. Rudolph receieved a full scholarship to Tennessee State. -
Women's Basketball
Women are finally allowed to play five-player, full-court basketball and the 30-second clock became official under AAU/DGWS rules. Marian E. Washington and Colleen Bowser were the first African Americans to play for the United States in an international competitions. It began to gain its most strength in the late 1970s. -
Title IX
Title IXU.S. Congress passes Title IX to deliver federal financial aid to women's sports programs and governs equality amoung treatment and opportunity in athletics. It protects against discrimination based on sex in programs that receive federal funding. -
Billie Jean King
Billie Jean King was a major activist in Women's rights and took on Bobby Riggs in "The Battle of the Sexes", where she defeated him in a tennis match. She eventually established the Women's Tennis Association, which allowed the US Open to become the first professional tournament to give identical purses to the male and female winners. In 1974 Billie Jean King established the Women's Sports Foundation that offersed scholarships and grants to women athletes. -
Ann Meyers
Anne Meyers became the first women to be drafted for the new Women's Professional Basketball League and was the first women to be excepted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. She was the first high school student to earn a spot on the U.S. national basketball team, which she is most notably known for. She was also the first women to receive a full basketball scholarship to UCLA. -
World Cup Women’s Soccer Team
in 1991, FIFA establishes the Women's World Championship, which they call the World Cup. Many males soccer teams were not happy about this, however. The 1999 World Cup Women’s Soccer Team led a strike in 1996 to demand equal compensation as the male soccer teams, and entered the 1996 Olympics. When the US Women's Soccer team won the 1999 World Cup, it gained much respect from not only the USA, but from all around the world.
