The Most Inspirational Female Athletes of All Time

If you’re an avid frequenter of online sportsbooks, you’ll know that you can now access a large selection of female sports and betting markets. Certainly, female sports have grown in popularity in recent years, especially when you consider disciplines like soccer and tennis.

Such sports have also produced some incredible icons down the years, including Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan and Serena Williams. In this guide, we’re going to delve a little deeper into the most inspirational female athletes of all time, while taking a closer look at their immense career achievements.

• The Rise of Female Sport and Motivational Women Athletes
• Inspiring Women in Sport
• Serena Williams
• Edurne Pasaban
• Alex Morgan
• Jackie Joyner-Kersee
• Nadia Comaneci

The Rise of Female Sport and Motivational Women Athletes

On August 31st, 2023, some 92,003 spectators gathered to watch the Huskers compete in an NCAA Division 1 basketball match. This set a record for the highest ever attendance at a live female sports event, beating the 91,648 who gathered to watch the UEFA Women’s Champions League match between Barcelona and Wolfsburg in April 2022.

According to a poll conducted by YouGov last year, the share of respondents who regularly watch female sports increased from 21% to 28% between November 2020 and June 2023. This trend is expected to accelerate further in the future, particularly as the amount invested in marketing women’s sports increases too.

A Look at the Most Inspiring Women in Sport

There are many inspirational sports women who you won’t have heard of, with these individuals often breaking molds and blazing trails for others to follow. Take Katherine Switzer, for example, who fought tirelessly in 1967 to overcome a prohibition that stopped women from competing in the marathon.

The efforts of these often-unheralded women have helped to popularize women’s sports in the modern age, while creating several generations of inspirational female athletes. But which female sports stars truly stand out, and what are the achievements that have encouraged others to follow in their footsteps?

Serena Williams

Serena Williams is widely regarded as the best female tennis player of all time, and one of the greatest women athletes ever to walk the earth. She won a record 23 Grand Slam women’s singles titles in the Open Era, while only Margaret Court has won more in the history of this illustrious sport.

Williams is also the only player (female or male) to accomplish a ‘Career Golden Slam’ in both singles and doubles, while she has won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles in addition to her singles haul. She even has four Olympic gold medals to her name in singles and doubles, with these won in 2000, 2008 and 2012.

Williams inspired young female players all over the world, winning at least two Grand Slams at the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open. She won a total of seven Wimbledon titles between 2002 and 2016, while recording the same number of major triumphs at the Australian Open. She has won six US Open crowns and three times at Roland Garros.

Serena first started playing tennis at the age of four, along with her similarly accomplished sister Venus. Incredibly, Venus went on to win seven Grand Slam singles titles (including five at Wimbledon). Serena also defeated her sister in four consecutive major finals between 2002 and 2003, before leaving a legacy that transcends the sport of tennis.

Edurne Pasaban

Next up is Edurne Pasaban, who established herself as one of the most inspirational female sports stars in history during a stellar career. This is despite plying her trade in the niche sport of mountaineering, which had historically been a male-dominated discipline and one that didn’t always appeal to female competitors.

Spanish mountaineer Pasaban bucked this trend, however, becoming a record-breaking competitor and the first ever female to climb all 14 of the eight-thousander peaks (and just the 21st person in total). Her first 8,000 peak was achieved nine years earlier when she conquered Everest, at the tender age of 28.

Of course, the girl from the historical province of Guipúzcoa had launched her climbing career in earnest 12 years before, when she climbed the imposed Mont Blanc aged just 16. Her most striking achievement came on May 17th, 2010, when she reached the 8,027-meter-high summit of Shisha Pangma and completed her 14th and final 8,000 peak.

Throughout her career, she was spurred on by her friendly rivalry with fellow female mountaineer Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, with the two scaling several of the 8000 peaks together. While both individuals played this rivalry down, it’s thought that they pushed each other to new heights and continued to inspire the next generation of female climbers.

Alex Morgan

The aforementioned American Alex Morgan is a deserved entry on our list of inspirational female athletes, having driven change both on and off the pitch in the realm of women’s soccer. First and foremost, she’s a USA Women’s team legend, having won consecutive FIFA World Cups in 2015 and 2019.

In 2012, Morgan also scored an impressive 28 goals and contributed 20 assists for her country. In doing so, she became only the second American woman to score and assist 20 goals in the same calendar year, after Mia Hamm. This year also saw Morgan become the sixth (and youngest) US player to strike 20 goals in a single calendar year.

As a player, Morgan amassed 200 international caps and scored 120 goals in a truly inspirational career. She also did a great deal to transcend the female game and popularize it across the world, becoming one of the very first women’s soccer player to appear on the cover of a FIFA game. She achieved this in the 2015 iteration of the game, featuring alongside Canada’s Christine Sinclair and Australia’s Steph Catley.

Additionally, Morgan played a prominent and driving role in USWNT’s ultimately successful fight to achieve equal pay for female players. What’s more, she was seminal in forcing the National Women’s Soccer League to confront issues of mental, emotional and sexual abuse within the game. This may be her greatest achievement, especially in terms of welcoming the next generation of female soccer players!

Jackie Joyner-Kersee

Like Morgan, Jackie Joyner-Kersee is one of the world’s most motivational women athletes and is known for her accomplishments both on and off the field. She was certainly one of America’s greatest track-and-field athletes of all time, excelling in the challenging heptathlon and ultimately winning six medals (including three golds) during the course of four Olympic games.

She reached the peak of her powers in the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea. Here, she earned gold medals in both the heptathlon and the long jump, while setting a world record by scoring a staggering 7,291 points in the heptathlon event. This record remains unbroken to this day.

Sports Illustrated for Women also named Joyner-Kersee the ‘Greatest Female Athlete of All-Time’, and there can be no finer accolade for someone who has devoted themselves to one of the most physically challenging sporting disciplines. This alone would qualify her as one of the most inspiring women in sport.

Of the track, she also established the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation after the Olympics in 1988. This nonprofit is dedicated to providing athletic lessons and resources to underprivileged individuals, especially youngsters. She is also one of 11 athletes who founded the ‘Athletes for Hope’ organization, which enables professional competitors to participate in charity events.

As her stellar athletic career came to an end, Joyner-Kersee became an even more prominent activist and campaigner. She has done sterling work in multiple fields too, including racial equality, women’s rights and children’s education. Once again, her legacy is truly inspirational and spreads beyond the disciplines she competed in.

Nadia Comaneci

Last, but not least, we come to gymnast Nadia Comaneci, who can claim a number of achievements that are fitting for one of the world’s most motivational women athletes. She came to global attention when she competed at the 1976 and 1980 Summer Olympics, winning five gold medals in individual events and helping to popularize gymnastics across the globe.

Incredibly, she was just 14 when she debuted at the Montreal Olympics in 1976, where she won the first of her gold medals and became the first ever gymnast to receive a perfect 10 score in the Summer Games. This was awarded for her explosive and pitch-perfect routine on the even bars, which wowed judged and stunned the onlooking crowd.

In her two Olympic appearances, Comaneci had the distinction of earning nine perfect 10s. She also won a staggering nine medals overall (including silver and bronze awards), alongside four World Artistic Gymnastics Championship medals. She is widely considered to be the greatest female gymnast of all time and one who has inspired other young girls to take up the sport.

Comaneci is now retired, of course, but remains a prominent figure in the sport of gymnastics. She has also used her profile to fundraise and spearhead various charities down the years, creating an incredible legacy that you cannot help but admire and aspire to.

The Last Word

Ultimately, we could have written up hundreds of inspiring women in sport for this list, from accomplished and highly decorated athletes to those who flew beneath the radar. Alice Coachman belongs to the latter camp and definitely deserves an honorable mention, having become the first black woman to win a gold medal at the Summer Olympics in 1948. She triumphed in the high jump.

Then there’s Marta Vieira da Silva (commonly referred to as Marta), who is widely considered to be the most flamboyant and naturally talented female soccer player of all time. She was also the first ever soccer player to score at five different World Cups (men’s or women’s) and has inspired thousands of small girls with her carefree and instinctive style of play.

What binds these women is their incredible athletic achievements, as well as their ability to transcend sport and reach a much wider global audience. Many have also affected social change too, helping those who are less fortunate than them to achieve their own sporting and professional goals.