Wilma Glodean Rudolph was an American sprinter who overcame childhood polio and went on to become a world-record-holding Olympic champion and international sports icon in track and field following her successes in the 1956 and 1960 Olympic Games. Rudolph competed in the 200-meter dash and won a bronze medal in the 4 × 100-meter relay at the 1956 Summer Olympics at Melbourne, Australia. She also won three gold medals, in the 100- and 200-meter individual events and the 4 x 100-meter relay at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Italy. Rudolph was acclaimed the fastest woman in the world in the 1960s and became the first American woman to win three gold medals in track and field during a single Olympic Games.
The 1980 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad and officially branded as Moscow 1980, were an international multi-sport event held from 19 July to 3 August 1980 in Moscow, Soviet Union, in present-day Russia. The games were the first to be staged in an Eastern Bloc country, as well as the first Olympic Games and only Summer Olympics to be held in a Slavic language-speaking country. They were also the only Summer Olympic Games to be held in a self-proclaimed communist country until the 2008 Summer Olympics held in China. These were the final Olympic Games under the IOC Presidency of Michael Morris, 3rd Baron Killanin before he was succeeded by Juan Antonio Samaranch, a Spaniard, shortly afterwards.
Billie Jean King, also known as BJK, is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. King won 39 Grand Slam titles: 12 in singles, 16 in women's doubles, and 11 in mixed doubles. King was a member of the victorious United States team in seven Federation Cups and nine Wightman Cups. For three years, she was the U.S. captain in the Federation Cup.
Lynette Woodard is an American basketball player and former head women's basketball coach at Winthrop University.
Jacqueline Joyner-Kersee is a retired American track and field athlete who competed in both the heptathlon and long jump. She won three gold, one silver, and two bronze Olympic medals at four different Olympic Games. Joyner-Kersee was also a four-time gold medalist at the world championships. Since 1988, she has held the world record for heptathlon.
Nancy Ilizabeth Lieberman, nicknamed "Lady Magic", is an American former professional basketball player and coach in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) who is currently a broadcaster for the Oklahoma City Thunder of the National Basketball Association (NBA) as well as the head coach of Power, a team in the BIG3 which she led to its 2018 Championship. Lieberman is regarded as one of the greatest figures in American women's basketball.
Ann Meyers Drysdale is an American retired pro basketball player and a sportscaster. She was a standout player in high school, college, the Olympic Games, international tournaments, and at professional levels.
Chandra Danette Cheeseborough is a retired American sprinter. She won two gold medals and a silver at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Somalia sent a delegation to compete at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia from 15 September to 1 October 2000. This was the African country's fifth appearance at a Summer Olympic Games, following their debut twenty-eight years earlier at the 1972 Summer Olympics. The delegation consisted of two athletics competitors: Ibrahim Mohamed Aden and Safia Abukar Hussein, the latter was Somalia's first female Olympic athlete. Neither of the two participants progressed beyond the first round of their respective competitions.
Ewa Janina Kłobukowska is a Polish former sprinter. She competed at the 1964 Olympics in the 4×100 m relay and 100 m sprint and won a gold and a bronze medal, respectively. She also won two gold and one silver medal at the 1966 European Athletics Championships. Kłobukowska set three world records, one in the 100 m and two in the 4×100 m relay.
Louise Dorothy Ritter is an American former track and field athlete who won the gold medal in the high jump at the 1988 Olympic Games.
Benita Fitzgerald Mosley is a retired American athlete, who mainly competed in the women's 100 metres hurdles event. Currently, Benita is a CEO of the company Multiplying Good with their mission being "to inspire greatness through service to others."
Lusia Mae Harris was an American professional basketball player. Harris is considered to be one of the pioneers of women's basketball. She played for Delta State University and won three consecutive Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) National Championships, the predecessors to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championships, from 1975 to 1977. On the international level, she represented the United States' national team. She was on the team which won the gold medal in the 1975 Pan American Games. In addition, she was a member of the team which won the silver medal in the 1976 Olympic Games, the first women's basketball tournament in the Olympic Games. She played professional basketball with the Houston Angels of the Women's Professional Basketball League (WBL) and was the first and only woman ever to be officially drafted by the National Basketball Association (NBA). For her achievements, Harris was inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.
Marilyn Ramenofsky is an American former competition swimmer, Olympic medalist, and former world record-holder in the 400-meter swim. After 2008, she worked as a researcher at the University of California at Davis, studying the physiology and behavior of bird migration. She previously taught and performed research at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Margaret Ives Abbott was an American amateur golfer. She was the first American woman to win an Olympic event: the women's golf tournament at the 1900 Summer Olympics.
Barbara Ann Scott was a Canadian figure skater. She was the 1948 Olympic champion, a two-time World champion (1947–1948), and a four-time Canadian national champion in ladies' singles. Known as "Canada's Sweetheart", she is the only Canadian to have won the Olympic ladies' singles gold medal, the first North American to have won three major titles in one year and the only Canadian to have won the European Championship (1947–48). During her forties she was rated among the top equestrians in North America. She received many honours and accolades, including being made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1991 and a member of the Order of Ontario in 2008.
Julie Ann Brown is retired distance runner. She won the IAAF World Cross Country Championship in 1975 and represented the United States in the 1984 Summer Olympics in the women's marathon.
Nikki Franke is an American former fencer and fencing coach. She fenced for Brooklyn College, and was an All American. She competed in the women's individual and team foil events at the 1976 Summer Olympics, and fenced at the 1975 and 1979 Pan American Games, earning a silver medal in the individual competition in 1975, and a bronze medal in the team event in both years. As head coach of the Temple University women's fencing team, she was named the USFCA Coach of the Year in 1983, 1987, 1988, and 1991.
Elaine Gayle Cheris is an American Olympic foil and épée fencer.
The rate of participation of women in the Olympic Games has been increasing since their first participation in 1900. Some sports are uniquely for women, others are contested by both sexes, while some older sports remain for men only. Studies of media coverage of the Olympics consistently show differences in the ways in which women and men are described and the ways in which their performances are discussed. The representation of women on the International Olympic Committee has historically run well behind the rate of female participation, and long missed its target of a 20% minimum presence of women on their committee. As of 2023, 41.1% of members are women. The 2024 Paris Olympics were notable for being the first to have the goal of achieving gender parity between men and women.
