Meet the five female champions who made sports history
Did you hear? Our experts have raided the Guinness World Records archives to bring you 365: Sport, the ultimate MVP on all sporting superlatives.
This pocket-sized (but mighty!) guide offers a new record set on every day of the year and an extra one for Leap Day, for a total of 366 awe-inspiring achievements and almost two centuries of sporting history, podium triumphs and Olympic medals.
While diving into the archive to dig out the most shocking, fun and celebrated achievements of the last 150 years, Guinness World Records sports editor Tom Beckerlegge said he was "struck by some of the recurring themes that appeared in the stories behind the different records."
So we have asked Tom to talk us through his favourite records inside the latest GWR title: the stories that stuck with him, the achievements that shaped the present of athletics, and the champions who left a mark.
"One of these was the additional challenges faced by female athletes in their pursuit of excellence," he says, "the fight that many had to go through for a level playing field."
"I’ve selected five women’s champions who – each in their own different ways – broke new ground in their sport."
Lottie Dod
Charlotte "Lottie" Dod (UK, born 24 September 1871) was aged just 15 years and 285 days when she claimed the Wimbledon Ladies singles title on 6 Jul 1887 – making her the youngest winner of a Grand Slam tennis singles title.
The Victorian schoolgirl, nicknamed the “Little Wonder”, showed no respect for her more senior opponents, winning the second set of her final against Blanche Bingley in just 10 minutes.
“As a rule, ladies are too lazy at tennis,” Dod declared.
Dod was not afraid to cause a stir.
In 1888, she challenged three male top-ranked players to a match, defeating two of them despite playing in a long dress and corset.
She publicly called out the restrictive nature of the clothing female tennis players were compelled to wear.
After retiring from tennis in the 1890s, Dod tried her hand at other sports: the champion played international hockey, became a national golf champion and won an Olympic medal in archery.
Remarkably, she was also the first woman to toboggan down the famous Cresta Run ice track in Switzerland.
Michèle Mouton
Michèle Mouton (FRA) took part in the first-ever World Rally Championship event – the 1973 Monte Carlo Rally – as a co-driver for her friend Jean Taibi, who asked her to practice with him.
She made her debut as a driver the following year, but it soon became clear that she faced a battle to earn respect inside the male-dominated sport.
Her performances were attributed to secret upgrades to her car.
Finnish rally driver Ari Vatanen, a future world champion, even declared that "he would retire if he were ever beaten by a woman."
But Mouton was focused only on racing.
“When you are in the car, nobody can say [whether] it’s a man or a woman driving,” she said.
On 10 October 1981, Mouton made rallying history by triumphing at the Italian Rallye Sanremo (the rally competition held in Sanremo) in an Audi championship title, finishing second in the overall standings.
With her four-round triumphs, she holds the record title for the most World Rally Championship race wins by a woman.
Mouton is also the only female driver to win the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, conquering the 1985 “Race to the Clouds” in a course-record time of 11 min 25.390 sec.
Did you know?
With her triumphs, Mouton also contributed to France's success in circuit racing, making it the country with the most World Rally Championship race wins overall.
As of 2018, the country boasted 190 victories, achieved by 18 French drivers between 26 January 1973 and 28 October 2018.
Vonetta Flowers
When Alabama-born Vonetta Flowers (née Vonetta Jeffery) attended a bobsleigh try-out in 2000, initially it was little more than a joke with her family and friends.
A sprinter and long jumper who had qualified for the US team at the Summer Olympic trials, Flowers had no experience of the winter sport.
However, when she first climbed into the bobsleigh, she was in for a shock: “It felt like I had been placed in a trash can and thrown down a hill,” she said.
“I was scared out of my mind.”
Yet, Flowers proved a natural: within only two months, she began competing internationally.
With her victory at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah, she became the first Black gold medallist at the Winter Olympics, triumphing in the two-woman bobsleigh with Jill Bakken on 19 February.
In December 2010, four years after she retired from competitive sports in 2006, the world-changing athlete became part of the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.
Natalie du Toit
South African swimmer and future gold medallist Natalie Du Toit was 17 when she was hit by a car on her way from swimming training, suffering such severe injuries that her left leg had to be amputated at the knee.
However, just three months after her surgery – before she could even walk again – the swimmer was back in the pool.
The following year, she competed at the 2002 Commonwealth Games.
In 2008, du Toit completed a remarkable double, qualifying for both the Paralympic and the Olympic Games in Beijing, China. There, she also set the record as the first flag-bearer at both the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games.
She finished 16th in the 10 km open water swim at the Olympics before winning five gold medals at the Paralympics.
Her record for the fastest women’s 400 m freestyle (S9) – achieving a whopping 4 min 23.81 sec, set on 12 September 2008 – still stands today.
“I always had a dream to take part in the Olympic Games, and losing my leg didn’t change anything,” she said.
Ronda Rousey
Today, the Los Angeles-based Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) boasts a packed roster of female fighters competing across three divisions (out of 11 total weight classes, eight for men and three for female fighters).
Yet as recently as 2011, President Dana White had declared that a woman would never enter the Octagon.
But that was before “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey (USA).
A former Olympic bronze medallist in judo, Rousey was signed and announced as Women’s Bantamweight Champion in December 2012 and proved a transformational force in MMA.
At UFC 157, taking place on 23 February 2013 at the Honda Centre, the Californian professional wrestler faced off against Liz Carmouche during UFC’s first-ever women’s match, winning via a first-round submission and cementing her world record as the first-ever female champion in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
Rousey wreaked havoc inside the Octagon, dismissing her opponents with brutal speed.
Two years later, on 28 February 2015, Rousey completed the fastest UFC title-fight victory by submission during the UFC 184: Rousey vs. Zingano match in Los Angeles, California.
Locking in an armbar against Cat Zingano, Rousey ended the bout after a mere 14 seconds.