Athletes
Jennie Finch
When someone says, “You throw like a girl,” consider it a compliment! Thanks to Olympian Jennie Finch, girls now can see that it’s possible to be feminine and athletic at the same time.
Finch, the most famous softball player in history according to Time magazine, redefined the image of the serious female athlete. She co-authored Throw Like a Girl: How to Dream Big and Believe in Yourself and retired from softball to be a mom to three young children.
Kerri Walsh
Kerri Walsh Jennings has three Olympic gold medals! She and her teammate Misty May are considered the greatest beach volleyball players of all time.
Walsh Jennings led her high school team to three state titles and her college team (she graduated from Stanford with a B.A. in American studies) to two national titles. The super-athlete, who has three children, revealed that she was 5 weeks pregnant while competing in the 2012 London Summer Olympics.
Serena Williams
Serena Williams brought a new level of athleticism to tennis. She is widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players in the world and is the only player to have achieved a Career Golden Slam in singles and doubles.
Williams helped to fund the construction of a secondary school in Kenya and was recognized by Big Brothers Big Sisters for her work with at-risk youth. The tennis star has also been a prominent supporter of breast cancer awareness.
Danica Patrick
Danica Patrick has gone where no woman has gone before. The American auto racing driver is the most successful woman in the history of the sport.
As a teen, Patrick was a cheerleader, a babysitter and Indy’s “Rookie of the Year.” She continues to face criticism from many male peers, but pursues her dreams in spite of it. In May 2006, she published her autobiography Danica: Crossing the Line. Patrick is the spokesperson for Drive4COPD, an awareness campaign for obstructive pulmonary disease.
Mia Hamm
Hall of Famer Mia Hamm, the most famous female soccer player in history, was called “the most important athlete of the last 15 years” by the Washington Post. She wrote Go for the Goal: A Champion’s Guide to Winning in Soccer and Lifeand appeared in the HBO documentary Dare to Dream: The Story of the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team.
Hamm, who lost her brother to a rare blood disease, established the Mia Hamm Foundation, which supports patients and their families who benefit from bone marrow transplants. The foundation, headquartered in North Carolina, is also dedicated to the development of more opportunities for young women to participate in sports.
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