Ladies at the Top of their Game Quiz

Answer: Squash

Heather MacKay is a retired Australian squash player. She won 16 consecutive British Open titles from 1962-1977. She dominated women's squash during the 1960s and 1970s, remaining undefeated during that period. Heather also won the World Open title in 1976 and 1979. She retired in 1979 at the age of 38.

Answer: Athletics

Wilma Rudolph (1940-1994) was an American sprinter from Tennessee. She became the first American female to win three gold medals at the Olympics which she achieved in Rome, 1960. She was the twentieth of twenty-two children from her father's two marriages and she suffered from polio at the age of four.

She worn a leg brace until she was eight years of age. Wilma overcame these difficulties and competed in two Olympics, 1956 and 1960. She retired from athletics in 1962 at the peak of her career.

Answer: Tennis

Billie Jean King is a retired American tennis player who was a World number one. During a career that lasted 24 years she won 39 grand Slam titles (12 singles, 16 doubles and 11 mixed doubles). Billie Jean has long been a supporter of gender equality.

She played and captained the USA in the Federation Cup. In 1973 she won the "Battle of the Sexes" when she beat Bobby Riggs in a much publicised match at the Astrodome, Houston, Texas.

Answer: Gymnastics

Larisa Latynina is a former Soviet artistic gymnast. At aged 11 years she lost her father at the Battle of Stalingrad and was raised by her illiterate mother. Larisa first started ballet and then turned to gymnastics. At three Olympic Games (1956, 1960 and 1964) she won 18 medals (9 gold, 5 silver and 4 bronze).

She also won 14 medals at the World Championships (9 gold, 4 silver and 1 bronze). She retired from competitive gymnastics in 1966.

Answer: Table Tennis

Anna Sipos (1908-1988) was an Hungarian table tennis player. From 1929-1935 she won 21 medals (11 gold, 6 silver and 4 bronze) at the World Championships.
She died in 1988, the year that table tennis was admitted as an Olympic sport. Anna was inducted into the International Table Tennis Foundation Hall of Fame in 1993.

Answer: Swimming

Jenny Thompson is a former American swimmer who won 12 Olympic medals competing at four Olympic Games (1992, 1996, 2000, 2004). Eight of those medals were gold and she is one of the most decorated Olympians in history. Jenny also won 18 gold medals competing in the World Championships at long and short course events from 1991-2004.

Answer: Golf

Kathy Whitworth is a former professional golfer. In a career from 1958-2005 she won a staggering 88 LPGA tournaments. She was the first female to accumulate $1 million in prize money which she achieved in 1981. Kathy was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1975.

Answer: Figure skating

Sonja Henie (1912-1969) was a Norwegian figure-skater and film actress. She won the Ladies Singles Figure skating gold medal at three consecutive Winter Olympics (1928-1936). She also won ten consecutive Ladies Singles gold medals at the World Championships from 1927-1936.

After the 1936 Olympics she started her film career in Hollywood in 1943. From there she appeared in numerous ice shows.

Answer: Sailing

In 1976-1978 Krystyna Chojnowska- Liskiewicz (Poland) who was the first women to sail single-handed around the world. She emulated the feat of Joshua Slocum (1844-1909) who was the first man to sail single-handed around the world in 1898. The voyage took Slocum three years to achieve the feat whereas it took Krystyna 401 days.

Answer: Skiing

There have been a number of multiple Olympic gold medallists in Alpine Skiing but nobody has the credibility of Marit from Norway with six Olympic gold medals in cross country skiing. Her six gold medals came in 2010 Vancouver (3) and 2014 Sochi (3).