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Skateboarder doing trick on ramp.

How a Generation of Women and Queer Skateboarders Fought for Visibility and Recognition

On defying gender norms and expectations in extreme sports.
by Deborah Stoll via Literary Hub on July 18, 2024
Zdeněk Koubek.

A Forgotten Athlete, a Nazi Official, and the Origins of Sex Testing at the Olympics

In 1936, the Czech track star Zdeněk Koubek became world-famous after undergoing surgery so that he could live openly as a man.
by Michael Waters via The New Yorker on June 1, 2024
University of Michigan women’s basketball team, 1977
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This Is Standby Alert

The history of the battle to keep Title IX out of college sports.
by Matthew Lindaman via HNN on April 2, 2024
Caitlin Clark celebrating on basketball court

Caitlin Clark’s Scoring Record Spotlights the History of a Forgotten College Sports Association

Before being pushed aside by the NCAA, the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women governed women’s college athletics.
by Diane Williams via The Conversation on February 29, 2024
Painting of a girl with a basketball looking out a window.

Lady Vols Country

How college basketball coach Pat Summitt transformed women's sports.
by Jessica Wilkerson via Oxford American on June 6, 2023
Two women fighting

How to Fight Like a Girl

Women have been punching each other in the face (during boxing matches) since the early 1700s.
by Randy Roberts, Ashawnta Jackson, Peter Radford, Cathy van Ingen via JSTOR Daily on April 14, 2023
U.S. Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney crying
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Title IX Has Been Spectacularly Successful And Disturbingly Unfulfilled

A lack of enforcement has blunted Title IX's transformative potential.
by Anne M. Blaschke via Made By History on June 23, 2022
"IX" surrounded by female athletes

The Pursuit of Equal Play: Reflecting on 50 Years of Title IX

How a 37-word clause tucked inside a new education legislation reshape women’s sports forever.
by Maggie Mertens via Sports Illustrated on May 19, 2022
Team photo of the Pacesetters in their uniforms.

How One Women’s Football Team Took Control Away From the Men

The Columbus Pacesetters weren’t satisfied being an afterthought or a gimmick, so they bought their franchise and the ability to make decisions for themselves.
by Britni de la Cretaz, Lyndsey D'Arcangelo via Sports Illustrated on October 29, 2021
Three women in swimsuits

Policing the Bodies of Women Athletes Is Nothing New

For women who play sports, there's often no way to win.
by Martha H. Verbrugge, Jess Romeo, H. Grace Shymanski via JSTOR Daily on August 12, 2021

Wimbledon’s First Fashion Scandal

100 years ago, a tennis player shocked spectators with her “indecent” dress—not for the last time.
by Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell via The Atlantic on July 9, 2019

Almost Undefeated: The Forgotten Football Upset of 1976

How the Toledo Troopers, the most dominant female football team of all time, met their match.
by Britni de la Cretaz via Longreads on February 1, 2019

How Wilma Rudolph Became the World’s Fastest Woman

Wilma Rudolph won three Olympic golds and was among the first athletes to use her celebrity to fight for civil rights.
by Kate Siber via Outside on June 8, 2018

This Seamstress Conquered Bike Racing in the 1890s

Cyclist Tillie Anderson shattered records, dominated her competition, and earned the world champion title.
by Kate Siber via Outside on May 31, 2018
Drawing of a competetitve pedestrian walking in the late 1800s with spectators watching.

America’s Earliest Sports Stars Were … Professional Walkers?

Walking needs no publicist. The simplest, most accessible form of exercise has been around since humans first foraged and traveled on the ground.
by Jackie Mansky via Zócalo Public Square on October 18, 2024
Zdeněk Koubek's ID card.

Discrimination Against Trans Olympians Has Roots in Nazi Germany

1934 world champion runner Zdenek Koubek, boxer Imane Khelif, and how far we haven’t come on gender in sports.
by Michael Waters, Alex Abad-Santos via Vox on August 1, 2024
Women wearing early twentieth-century gym suits emblazoned with 1902, some women in baskets.

How Sports Clothes Became Fashion

The evolution of women's sportswear.
by Einav Rabinovitch-Fox via Nursing Clio on May 15, 2024
Photo of a woman surfing

How Men Muscled Women Out of Surfing

Why is surfing still stuck in the 1960s when women have always done it?
by Mindy Pennybacker via The Atlantic on September 6, 2023
Three muscle builders pose at Muscle Beach on the Santa Monica Beach in California, 1949.

Gay Panic on Muscle Beach

The skin and strength on display at Santa Monica’s Muscle Beach aggravated American fears of gender transgressions and homosexuality.
by Livia Gershon, Elsa Devienne via JSTOR Daily on August 26, 2022

Althea Gibson, Who Smashed Racial Barriers in Tennis, Honored With Statue at U.S. Open

'It’s about time,' said former doubles partner Angela Buxton.
by Brigit Katz via Smithsonian on August 28, 2019

The Fitness Craze That Changed the Way Women Exercise

Fifty years after Jazzercise was founded, it is still shaping how Americans work out—for better or for worse.
by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela via The Atlantic on June 16, 2019

Athlete-Activists Before and After Kaepernick

Kap wasn't the first, and he won't be the last.
by Louis Moore, Jules Boykoff via Public Books on May 14, 2019
People working out in bikinis in a mall.
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As Swimsuit Season Ends, Pursuit of the ‘Bikini Body’ Endures

The "bikini body" is out. But the pressure to maintain the ideal female physique lives on.
by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela via Made By History on August 30, 2018
Baltimore Colts' Jim O'Brien making a game-winning field goal kick in Super Bowl V in Miami, 1971.
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The Man Who Changed Field Goals Forever

A Hungarian immigrant first brought the soccer style field kick to the NFL.
by Russ Crawford via Made By History on February 8, 2024
Althea Gibson leaving tennis court followed by crowd

Sports Legend Althea Gibson Served Up Tennis History When She Broke Through in 1950

Her athletic performance in New York impressed onlookers of all colors and cracked opened the door for a new generation of Black players to come.
by Sally H. Jacobs via Smithsonian on August 8, 2023
Protest for trans rights
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The New Wave of Anti-Trans Legislation is Based on Very Old Arguments and Ideas

Trans Americans have taken to the courts for decades to fight against the notion that they are a threat.
by Shay Ryan Olmstead via Made By History on June 14, 2021
Time magazine covers featuring women.

100 Women of the Year

From Amelia Earhart to Michelle Obama, meet 100 women who defined the last century.
via TIME on March 5, 2020
Althea Gibson with a tennis racket on her lap.
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Black Champions: Interview with Althea Gibson

How being introverted and focused on work helped an athlete navigate a prejudiced sports culture.
via American Archive of Public Broadcasting on October 21, 1984

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