Some women overcome physical disabilities on the path to greatness. Wilma Rudolph, the 20th of 22 children, suffered polio at age 4. She was told she would never walk. She worked tirelessly to walk and became an outstanding basketball player growing up in Tennessee. But track made her famous. She won three Olympic Gold medals in the 1960 Olympics. She became a teacher and founded the Wilma Rudolph foundation promoting amateur athletics. She appears at 2:09 in the video above.
Some women break gender barriers. Billy Jean King was the queen of women's tennis for five years, won six Wimbledon titles and four U.S. Opens. But she is best known for her defeat of Bobby Riggs in 1973 in three straight sets after Riggs challenged her to a match. The New York Times wrote, "Most important perhaps for women everywhere, she convinced skeptics that a female athlete can survive pressure-filled situations and that men are as susceptible to nerves as women." A Seventeen magazine poll labeled her the 'third most admired woman in the world.' She won almost two million dollars in prize money and founded World Team Tennis.
Women go where few have gone before. Arlene Blum led a 1978 expedition to summit Annapurna, one of fourteen peaks over 8000 meters in Nepal. Blum's all-woman expedition challenged ideas about women's adventurousness and risk-taking, but exposed them to the same elements and risks of high-altitude climbing. Their climb was particularly challenged by an unexpected number of avalanches. Two team members summited and a second pair died during their attempt. She later wrote, Annapurna, a Woman's Place.
Women prove their toughness. Captain Kristen Griest and Lieutenant Shaye Haver were both elite high school runners. Griest played softball in high school and Haver played soccer. Both completed the torturous Army Ranger training, earning the coveted Army Ranger tab. 34 percent of trainees fail in the first four days of training lasting over sixty days. Major Lisa Jaster subsequently became the third woman to finish the training and the first woman reservist to do so.
Women succeed in fields dominated by men. Michele Roberts is the NBA Players Association executive director. A lifelong Knicks fan an accomplished attorney, she added, "I've got thirty teams now." About being a woman in a man's world, she adds, "My past is littered with the bones of men who were foolish enough to think I was someone they could sleep on."
Women break the 'glass ceiling.' Laura Sen competed in gymnastics as an adolescent. She became one of Fortune's 50 most powerful women in business as CEO of Fortune 500 company BJ's Wholesale with over eleven billion dollars in sales. She also focused on community service as Chairman of the Board of the Pine Street Inn, New England's largest homeless shelter and housing transition program.
Sports and success belong to everyone.