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Attention Female Athletes: You must go to this site, http://www.northnet.org/stlawrenceaauw/time17.htm. This is the most amazing site that I have ever visited relating to female athletes. Here you will find the History of Women’s Sports with timelines that date all the way back to the days of ancient Greece. I thoroughly enjoyed reading bits and pieces about all the women that have come before us and the amazing athletic feats they have accomplished. It made me proud to be a female athlete and educator involved in the athletic and fitness industries. Many thanks must go to the St. Lawrence County branch of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) for making this site available to the public.
I believe that it is important for female athletes to know the history of women’s sports. I also feel strongly that it is our duty as women in athletics to continually work to bring to light the accomplishments of female athletes of the past and of the present. Here are quotes from some of those legendary female athletes:
“Bicycling has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. I stand and rejoice every time I see a women ride on a wheel. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance.”
Susan B. Anthony, Suffragist, 1896
“People said women couldn’t swim the Channel but I proved they could.”
Gertrude Ederle
“Loosen your girdle and let her fly.”
Babe Didrikson Zaharias
“All I can say is practice, you never know what you might do.”
Mexico’s Soraya Jimenez, who won her nation’s first Olympic weightlifting medal at Sydney in 2000
“A woman’s place is at home, and at first, second and third……..”
Unknown
“Now any kind of girl is more likely to get involved in sports.”
Michelle Akers, Soccer Champion
“Girls should go on thinking that there is a world out there and it is theirs for the taking.”
Ann Bancroft, first woman to reach the North Pole by dogsled
“Dreams do come true if you keep believing in yourself, anything can happen.”
Jennifer Capriati after winning the 2001 Australian open
“I wouldn’t have thought in a hundred years that I’d be here.”
Kelly Clark of Mt. Snow, VT, on her gold medal win in snow boarding halfpipe at the Salt Lake City Olympics
“I go to work every day and am able to work with young people and am able to make things happen in a positive way, to help them build their self-esteem and build confidence.”
Pat Summitt on winning her 800th game as the Coach of the Tennessee Lady Vols
“The greatest obstacle to that swim, in my opinion, was fear. I was never fearful of anything, you know. I was a daring devil.”
Gertrude Ederle, age 91, on her record breaking swim of the English Channel at age 19 on August 6, 1926. She died Nov. 30, 2003 at age 98.
“We talk about the wins and the trophies, but its all about the people. The players have influenced me more than I have influenced them.”
Tennessee Lady Vol’s coach Pat Summitt on her record breaking 880th win.
“Luck has nothing to do with it, because I have spent many, many hours, countless hours, on the court working for my one moment in time, not knowing when it would come.”
Serena Williams, Tennis Champion
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