This week the news broke that Abby Wambach, one of the greatest soccer players the world has every seen, has decided to retire. As an all-time great, what a better time to take a look back at some of the best athletes and moments in USA sports history.
Wilma Rudolph's Gold Medal Performance
Rudolph, born only 4.5 pounds, contracted polio at the age of four. During the first ever televised Olympic games, Rudolph became the first American women to win three gold medals in a single Olympic games. She not only overcame illness, and gender equality, but fought for equal rights as an African-American.
Battle of the Sexes
In 1973, one of the most legendary tennis players, Billie Jean King, did the unthinkable...she defeated a man. As a 55-year old women, she took on the 29-year old Bobby Riggs, who was ranked as one of the top tennis players in the world. King's performance showed the world what women athletes were truly capable of.
Jackie Joyner-Kersee strikes gold....again....and again
Still regarded as one of the best athletes in history, Joyner-Kersee was a four-time Olympian, winning gold three times and medaling in all of the games. Joyner-Kersee, still holds the world record in heptathlon along with the top six all tie best results, and is second on the long jump all-time list. Sports Illustrated has voted her the greatest female athlete of the 20th century.
1996 US Olympic Gymnastics Team
In a sport dominated by the Romanians and the Russians, the US women did the unthinkable in Atlanta when they won the gold medal. The team was the first gymnastics team from the United States to ever win gold at a fully attended games and did so in a dramatic fashion after gymnast Kerri Strug severely hurt herself on her first vault, and ran down the runway a second time to complete the vault clinching gold. The 'Magnificent Seven' as they were called, inspired a new generation of gymnasts in the US, a generation that went on to win gold in the 2012 Olympic games.
Serena and Venus Williams
The super star tennis sisters first took the world by storm when they won the French Open in 1999. Serena then won the U.S. Open title in just her second year on the tour and became just the second African-American women to win a Grand Slam singles title. Venus has seven Grand Slam singles titles, which is more than any other active female player except her sister. The pair has faced off numerous times, the most notable coming in the finals of the 2001 US Open.
1999 and 2015 USA Women's Soccer Team
It's impossible to have a list of all-time great moments, without including these two teams. In the '90s women's sports, especially soccer were in turmoil. There were no real big role models for young girls, and women's programs didn't receive anywhere near the amount of respect or funding that the men's programs did.
The U.S. women had won the first ever world cup in 1991 but finished third in 1995. In 1999, the world cup came to the US, and during a finals game in front of a sold-out crowd of over 90,000 the U.S. Women won the game after a dramatic penalty-kick shootout. The team was named Sportspeople of the Year and helped produce an immediate rise of soccer popularity in America. After that, the US women came close time after time, but never quite reached the title. In 2015, many regarded the American women have the favorites, and the 'best team since 1999'- and it surely was. After another dramatic championship, the 2015 women won the World Cup, showing the world what "playing like a girl" really means.
There are so many amazing women, and moments in history that it is impossible to give them all the recognition they deserve. So, hats off ladies, for everything you have done, and for changing the face of sports forever.
