There’s no question that female athletes are strong. From climbing the highest mountains on earth to swimming in brutal ocean conditions to running 26.2 miles at blistering speeds, women have proved time and again that they’re capable of achieving seemingly impossible physical feats.
But female athletes aren’t just strong; they’re powerful. They smash barriers. They fight, tooth and nail, for equality. They transcend sports to become cultural game changers.
Here, in no particular order, the 40 most powerful women athletes of all time, listed by Glamour.com. Read further by opening the article link.
Billie Jean King

The ultimatum worked: Later that year the U.S. Open became the first major tennis tournament to offer equal prize money. In the time since, King, now 76, has continued to break barriers and push the envelope on equality. In 2014 she founded the Billie Jean King Leadership Initiative, which promotes diverse and inclusive leadership. And as one of the first athletes to be publicly outed, King has been a longtime advocate for LGBTQ+ rights. Recently she joined others in calling for Margaret Court Arena, a show court on the grounds of the Australia Open, to be renamed because of Court’s views on homosexuality. “I think it’s really important if you’re going to have your name on anything that you’re hospitable, you’re inclusive, you’re open arms to everyone that comes,” she said, according to the New York Times.
Serena Williams

Along the way, she’s kept it refreshingly real. Since giving birth to her daughter, Alexis, in 2017, she’s been candid about the pressures and frustrations of motherhood. In 2018, Williams opened up about the life-threatening complications she faced following Alexis’s birth, raising awareness for the maternal mortality crisis facing black women in America in the process. Last year she penned a powerful essay for Harper’s Bazar that discusses, among other things, the times she’s faced discrimination during her career. “In short, it’s never been easy,” Williams wrote. “But then I think of the next girl who is going to come along who looks like me, and I hope, 'Maybe, just maybe, my voice will help her.’”
Junko Tabei

More women than ever are following in her footsteps, with women representing 20% of Everest climbers in 2019—the most ever in history, according to Outside. After Everest, Tabei went on to scale many more enormous mountains and, in 1992, became the first woman to have stood atop the Seven Summits, i.e., the tallest peaks on the seven continents. This OG pioneer of women’s mountaineering died in 2016 at age 77 after summiting the highest peaks in more than 70 (!) countries.
Florence Griffith Joyner (FloJo)

Her time in that race of 10.49 seconds was faster than the men's records in multiple countries, including Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, and Turkey. Just a few months later, FloJo further etched her name in the history books at the 1988 Olympics by winning four medals (three gold, one silver) and setting records in the 100-meter and 200-meter that stand to this day. FloJo died in 1998 at age 38, but her records, style, and legacy live on.
Pat Summitt

Just two years later, the decorated leader was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease but proceeded to coach one more season while raising awareness for the illness. “Her legacy is not only for her basketball playing and coaching career, but for the emphasis on finding a cure for Alzheimer's,” says Paula D. Welch, professor emeritus in the College of Health and Human Performance at the University of Florida and a sports-history researcher. Summitt died in 2016 at age 64; the Pat Summitt Foundation, which she and her son Tyler founded in 2011 to help find a cure for Alzheimer’s, continues on.
Trischa Zorn

But Zorn’s impact extends well beyond a chlorinated rectangle. Among other service-oriented work, she’s mentored and helped American military service members get involved in Paralympic sports and other activities, per Team USA. “I see people who come back [from military tours] with injuries and it really inspires me to make them appreciate what they have and to make them understand that whatever you set your mind to, you can do,” she said during her induction into the Hall of Fame.
Alex Morgan

But the 30-year-old’s fight for parity goes much further. Last March, when the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team filed a class-action lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation over allegations of gender discrimination, Morgan’s name was the first one of 28 listed on the suit. “We’re very grateful for what we have, but we’re definitely demanding what we deserve,” the star forward previously told Glamour. “My hope is that the next generation will be able to have [total equality]—it will just be a given.”
Dara Torres

Between all those accomplishments, it’s hard to believe that Torres, a 12-time Olympic medalist, hung up her suit for years before making comebacks in 1999 and 2006. But her final resurgence wasn’t about a medal. "For me, it's about trying something that no one my age has done before, and to hopefully open doors for other athletes who may have closed them because they felt they were too old,” Torres told Glamour before the 2008 Games. “You can't put an age on your dreams."
Nadia Comaneci

In the ultimate sign of Comăneci’s influence, the song that accompanied her floor exercises was renamed “Nadia’s Theme (The Young and the Restless)” and garnered international popularity, earning a Grammy Award in 1977. The trailblazer went on to win two more golds and a silver at the 1980 Olympics before retiring in 1984 with nine Olympic medals to her name.
Since then, Comăneci, who became an American citizen in 2001, has paid it forward: She’s served on the Special Olympics International, Muscular Dystrophy Association, and Laureus Sports for Good Foundation Board of Directors, and also supported numerous charities in Romania, including the Nadia Comaneci Children’s Hospital in Bucharest.
Babe Didrikson Zaharias

But with that success came sexism. One sportswriter wrote: “It would be much better if she and her ilk stayed at home, got themselves prettied up, and waited for the phone to ring,” per Britannica. Despite the criticism, Didrikson Zaharias kept on doing what she did best: winning. She became a professional golfer, helped found the Ladies Professional Golf Association, made history as the first woman to compete in a men’s golf tournament, and won a whopping 31 tournaments, including several after receiving a colon cancer diagnosis. Didrikson Zaharias died from the disease in 1956, but her legacy lives on: In 2000, Sports Illustrated named her a top athlete of the 20th century.