30 Female Olympians From History Everyone Should Know About

At the second Olympic Games in 1900, golfer Margaret Abbott became America's first female gold medal winner, according to USA Golf. But Margaret never knew that. She didn't even know she was playing in the Olympics.

The outlet reported that the second Games were pretty chaotic and Margaret thought she was just playing in a golf exhibition — one of the few sports women were allowed to play at that time. Her status as the first female winner wasn't discovered until years after her death. But she holds the achievement nonetheless.

In 1904, Lida "Eliza" Peyton Pollock won gold for archery at 63 years old. Even today, she remains the oldest female gold medal winner the US has ever had, according to National Geographic. Olympic athletes tend to skew on the younger side, so it's unlikely her record will be defeated any time soon.

The youngest female athlete from the US to win gold was Marjorie Gestring, according to USA Today. Marjorie was just 13 when she won for springboard diving at the 1936 Olympics. According to NBC Chicago, the minimum age required to dive at the Olympics is now 14.

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Gretchen Fraser's Olympic dreams were dashed twice when World War II cancelled both the 1940 and 1944 Games, notes Ski magazine. But after taking time off to help as a veterans' nurse, the alpine skier returned to the Olympics in 1948.

Ski reported that she became the first US athlete to medal in skiing, bringing home both a gold and silver medal.

Vicki Draves helped pave the way for countless Asian American athletes to follow when she became the first female Asian American gold medal winner for the United States. Per History.com, she won for diving in 1948 — an impressive feat considering non-white Americans were only allowed to swim one day a week at her local public pool.

Jenny Thompson, an Olympic swimmer, is known for being one of the most decorated female Olympians in US history, according to the United States Olympic and Paralympic Museum. Although she ties with two other women for most medals (12), she has the most gold medals by far. Jenny won eight golds, three silvers, and one bronze from 1992 until 2004, per her Team USA profile.

Dara Torres competed in swimming events in five Olympic Games between 1984 and 2008, per her Team USA profile. She's tied for most medals for a female US Olympic athlete with 12 total — four gold, four silver, and four bronze. According to Bleacher Report, at her final Games in 2008, she became the oldest female swimmer to participate at 41 years old.

Natalie Coughlin competed in three Olympic Games from 2004 until 2012 to get her 12 medals. According to her Team USA profile, throughout her career she got three gold, four silver, and five bronze Olympic medals in swimming. According to Olympics.com, she also medaled in every single Olympic event she ever participated in, which is seriously impressive.

In 1948, Alice Coachman became the first Black woman to win a gold medal, according to the National Women's History Museum. Due to segregation, Alice often wasn't allowed to train with white athletes and instead turned to self-training to hone her skills.

Her hard work paid off in the end. She not only brought home the gold medal but an Olympic high jump record with it.

Wilma Rudolph was able to overcome a childhood polio diagnosis to go on to win four Olympic medals, including three gold, according to ESPN. The outlet reported that the polio left her unable to use one of her legs, and she was given metal leg braces at 6 years old. But her tenacity and hard work in physical therapy eventually allowed her to walk without the braces — and eventually run.

Per her Olympics.com bio, she won her gold medals in 1960 for the 100-meter and 200-meter sprints as well as the 4×100 meter relay.

According to USA Track & Field, sprinter Evelyn Ashford set an Olympic record in 1984 when she ran the 100-meter dash in under 11 seconds. Though her time of 10.97 seconds wouldn't remain a record forever, Evelyn has remained a legend in the sport, earning four gold medals and one silver medal throughout her Olympic career, per her Team USA bio.

Florence "Flo-Jo" Griffith Joyner beat Evelyn Ashford's record just four years later in 1988. Flo-Jo holds two world records in women's sprinting. Per Olympics.com, she ran a 10.49 second 100-meter dash and a 21.34 second 200-meter dash.

Flo-Jo wasn't only known for being the fastest woman in the world, she was also known for being a fashion icon on and off the track. She loved colorful outfits, long nails, and bold makeup.

Per PBS, Flo-Jo's sister-in-law Jackie Joyner-Kersee was also a track star — and Flo-Jo's teammate. The two competed alongside each other in the 1984 and 1988 Olympics, and Jackie went on to also compete at the 1992 and 1996 Games, per the Olympic Museum.

She won three gold medals, one silver medal, and two bronze medals in the heptathlon and long jump events.

Although the men's marathon has been part of the Olympics since its inception, the women's marathon category wasn't added until 1984, per Maine Public Radio. The winner of that first race was Maine native Joan Benoit, who nearly missed the Games entirely.

Just a few weeks before the trials were set to start, she had knee surgery, which could have ended her career. But she persevered through the healing process to go on to win the gold.

According to her Olympics bio, Lauryn Williams is the first female US athlete to medal in sports across both the Summer and Winter Games. She first competed in track and field, earning a gold medal in the 4×100 meter relay and a silver medal in the 100-meter dash. For the 2014 Olympics, she switched to bobsledding and got a silver medal in the two-woman team event.

Bonnie holds the high honor of being the most decorated female US Winter Games athlete, per NBC Olympics. According to her Team USA bio, the speed skater holds five gold medals and one bronze medal for her four Olympic appearances between 1988 and 1994.

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These days, figure skating is one of the most-viewed Olympic events, and we can thank Peggy Fleming for that. She won America's only gold medal in 1968 at just 19 years old, reports ESPN. The outlet credited her with popularizing figure skating to make it the elegant and artistic sport it is today.

Peggy Fleming helped transform figure skating into the gorgeous balletic sport we know today, and Dorothy Hamill popularized it. In the '70s, Dorothy and her signature bob were everywhere — there were even dolls made of her. The Dorothy doll was even a prized possession of future Olympic skater Kristi Yamaguchi, who told USA Today that she used to "perch [the doll] on the edge of the rink to watch me twirl on the ice."

Per her Team USA bio, Dorothy took home a gold medal in 1976 and is credited for inventing numerous skating moves like the Hamill Camel — a type of spin.

At 15 years old, figure skater Tara Lipinski became the youngest individual gold medal winner at the Winter Games for the United States, per Olympics.com. According to Team USA, she was victorious at the 1998 Games due to her program's technical difficulty.

She was the first female skater to land a triple loop, triple loop combination in competition.

Although she came second to Tara Lipinski in 1998, Michelle Kwan is still the most decorated figure skater of all time — male or female, according to the Olympic Museum. And after winning 43 championships and two Olympic medals, she retired from the sport and got a master's degree in diplomacy and law.

The Olympic Museum noted that she then went on to work for the Obama administration and currently serves as the US Ambassador to Belize. Most people don't even do half of that in one lifetime, and Michelle's accomplished so much by age 44.

As figure skating has evolved as a sport, the technical difficulty has continued to improve with more complex moves being incorporated. At the 2018 Olympics, Mirai Nagasu made history by becoming the first female US skater to land the triple axel jump at the Olympics, per The Florida Times-Union.

She ultimately took home a bronze medal from those Games.

Prior to Mary Lou Retton, women's Olympic gymnastics was not really considered an American strength. Per Dame magazine, most of the winners were coming from the Eastern Bloc of the then-Soviet Union and their ally countries.

But USA Today reports, Mary Lou became the first female US winner in the all-around competition in 1984 and helped popularize the sport for many American girls.

After Mary Lou Retton, no US female gymnast won the individual all-around gold medal for 20 years — until Carly Patterson. According to USA Gymnastics, Carly won gold in 2004 for the individual all-around, silver for the team all-around, and silver for the balance beam, which was considered her specialty.

She was such a star on the beam that she even has a move named after her. "The Patterson," according to USA Gymnastics, is a particularly difficult and impressive dismount from the beam.

Kerri Strug was part of the 1996 women's gymnastics team known as the "Magnificent Seven." According to Olympics.com, they were the favorites to beat Russia, but disaster struck when Kerri severely injured her ankle on her first vault.

She had one more chance to help carry the US to victory, and she famously landed her second vault on just one leg to win the gold medal, per Slate.

Teresa Edwards competed in five Olympic Games from 1984 until 2000, winning the most medals by any female basketball player, per her Olympics bio. She started her Olympic career at 20 years old — the youngest in her sport — but went on to get four gold medals and one bronze medal throughout her time competing in the Games.

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Mia Hamm helped put women's soccer on the map in America in the '90s and early 2000s. Together with her teammates, she won back-to-back gold medals at the 1996 and 2000 Olympics and earned silver at the 2004 Games, per the Olympic Museum.

She's also a two-time World Cup winner and widely considered one of the greatest soccer players of all time — having scored 158 goals in her career, according to the Women's Sports Foundation.

Only a handful of Olympians have ever performed at the Games while pregnant, and beach volleyball star Kerri Walsh Jennings was one of them. Kerri and her volleyball partner Misty May-Treanor won gold medals at the 2004, 2008, and 2012 Games, per Olympics.com. While playing at the 2012 Games, Kerri was several weeks pregnant with her daughter Scout, according to Today.

The Williams sisters, Venus and Serena Williams, have the most gold medals in Olympic tennis history, per NBC Olympics. Both have four gold medals from four Olympic Games, and Venus also has a silver medal and played in five Olympic Games.

It's not common to see siblings compete at the Olympics at all, let alone be the gold medal leaders in their sport — but the Williams sisters are just that good.

Firsts are still being made for women all the time at the Olympics. In 2016, fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad became the first US woman to wear a hijab while competing at the Olympics, per the Olympic Museum. And when she helped her saber team get the bronze, she also became the first Muslim American to win an Olympic medal.

"I realize that this moment is bigger than me," she said at the time, according to the museum.

Allyson Felix is the most decorated female track and field athlete in Olympic history, per NBC10 Philadelphia. According to her Olympics bio, she has seven gold medals, three silver medals, and one bronze medal from her five Olympic Games. She primarily competed in the 200-meter and 400-meter races as well as the relays.

Now Allyson is on the Athletes Commission of the International Olympic Committee. According to CBS, she spearheaded the move to get the first-ever nursery put in the Paris Athletes Village for Olympic moms to use.