The Marathon Trailblazer Kathrine Switzer
In 1967 Kathrine Switzer was the first registered woman to complete the Boston Marathon, which was at the time limited only to men. During the run, race officials noticed her and tried to pull her bib off – causing her then-boyfriend to try to push the angry administrators away – leaving an image that’ll forever remain in history.
It was five years later in 1972 that the Boston Marathon eventually established an official women’s race. Kathrine, through her struggle, truly paved the way for women.
Winner Takes it All in ‘Battle of the Sexes’
In 1973, a worldwide audience of roughly 90 million tuned in to watch Billie Jean King defeat Bobby Riggs –a retired tennis player – who had been making disparaging comments about women’s tennis. He boasted that no female player could beat him even in his retirement, so he extended this challenge to King.
King accepted his challenge in what became known as the “Battle of the Sexes”. She won in three straight sets. The historic triumph lives on as a symbol of women’s achievement in sports and society, and was immortalised in 2017 as a movie featuring Emma Stone as Billie.
An Iconic Heptathlon Win
Like many of the nation, I remember being glued to my seat watching Jessica Ennis win on home soil in 2012. She won the Olympic heptathlon championship after a series of personal bests carrying her to gold.
The 2012 London Olympics were an important time for women, as it was the first games in which women competed in all the sports in the program, and every participating country included female athletes.
The Winning Set
In 2017 Serena Williams defeated her sister Venus Williams in the final of The Australian Open, with Serena not losing a game the whole tournament. Before the tournament started, Serena found out she was pregnant with her daughter – meaning that she competed and won whilst she was 8 weeks pregnant.
Shooting For Gold at The Commonwealth
Helen Housby’s winning goal for England at the 2018 Commonwealth Games against Australia was a turning point that changed the sport of netball forever. Since that moment six years ago, the game has seen a surge in popularity, with 130,700 adult women taking up the sport in the following years. In 2019, Sky Sports’ netball viewing figures more than doubled, and the national team signed sponsorship deals with Vitality and Nike.
In the past few years, netball has been reaching new heights and was even considered for inclusion in the 2020 and upcoming 2024 Olympics, but unfortunately didn’t survive the initial cuts.
The Fairytale of New York
Emma Raducanu won the US Open in 2021 at the young age of 18, less than three months after she sat her A-Levels. Her achievement was unprecedented, having only been playing competitively for a single year beforehand, and she was the first qualifier to reach a grand slam. After her success, she saw many lucrative deals come her way from big luxury brands including Dior and Porsche.
Winning at Wembley
31st July 2022 was an incredible night for England, as they won the European Championships against Germany two goals to one. The final took place in front of a sold-out crowd of 87,192 – a record attendance for a women’s international fixture in Europe and any European Championship finals match.
The game had a live UK audience of 17.4 million viewers and was the most watched game in 2022. It was a landmark for women’s football, as popularity and attendance only continue to soar.
Beauty Meets F1 Academy
It’s only recently been announced that beauty brand Charlotte Tilbury is an official partner of the F1 Academy, the first-ever sponsorship of this kind. The beauty brand will spotlight F1 Academy’s female drivers, including Lola Lovinfosse – hoping to inspire broader awareness of the opportunities within this amazing sport for women.
The F1 Academy is a new project from Formula 1 to develop and prepare female drivers to progress to higher levels of competition. It provides young talent with access to the fundamental level of experience needed to progress to Formula 3 and join the Road to F1.
