Greatest Women in Athletics
The finest female athletics players and champions in history.
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Women's Athletics Legends
Browse 14 of the greatest female athletics athletes of all time.
American
Florence Griffith-Joyner
Sprinter
Flo-Jo — the fastest woman in history whose world records of 10.49s (100m) and 21.34s (200m) have stood for ov…
American
Allyson Felix
Sprinter (200m, 400m)
The most decorated US track and field Olympic athlete in history with eleven medals across five Games.…
Ethiopian
Tirunesh Dibaba
Distance Runner (5000m, 10000m)
Track and field rewards incremental improvements in technique and conditioning pursued through years of struct…
Jamaican
Elaine Thompson-Herah
Sprinter (100m, 200m)
Jamaica's double sprint champion who became the fastest woman in 33 years when she ran 10.…
Australian
Cathy Freeman
Sprinter
Carried the Australian flag at the 2000 Sydney Olympics opening ceremony — then won 400m gold.…
Dutch
Sifan Hassan
Distance/Marathon
The most versatile distance runner in Olympic history — golds across 1500m, 5000m and 10000m.…
British
Paula Radcliffe
Marathon Runner
The women's marathon world record holder — Paula Radcliffe's 2:15:25 in London 2003 stood for 16 years.…
British
Dame Kelly Holmes
Middle Distance Runner
The Athens double — 800m and 1500m gold at Athens 2004, achieved after years of injury and personal struggle.…
British
Jessica Ennis-Hill
Heptathlete
The face of London 2012 — her heptathlon gold was the defining moment of Britain's greatest sporting summer.…
Jamaican
Merlene Ottey
Sprinter (100m, 200m)
The Queen of the Track — the most prolific medallist in World Athletics Championship history with 14 medals, c…
Ethiopian
Genzebe Dibaba
Middle/Long Distance (1500m)
The world record holder in the 1500m and indoor mile — Tirunesh's younger sister who carved out her own legacy…
Dutch
Dafne Schippers
Sprinter (100m, 200m)
Europe's finest sprinter of the 2010s — World Champion at 200m twice, the fastest European woman in history ov…
British
Fatima Whitbread
Javelin Thrower
Britain's most celebrated field athlete — World Champion in 1987, Olympic bronze and silver medallist and the …
Kenyan
Tegla Loroupe
Marathon/Long Distance
Africa's first female marathon world record holder and a global ambassador for peace — three-time world marath…