Essay on Babe Didrikson Zaharias

“The first to prove a girl could be a stud athlete” said Espn. Babe Didrikson had played just about every sport you can think of and she did them astonishingly well. Some of the sports that she played were basketball, track, golf, baseball, tennis, swimming, diving, boxing, volleyball, handball, bowling, billiards, skating and cycling. She first got the nickname Babe was when all the boys at school were so in shock as to how far she was able to hit a baseball. She also had this arrogant type of swagger to her. She knew that she was the best at the sports she played and let it be known. 

She had so many accomplishments in sport from being the greatest female athlete from the first half of the 20th century to qualifying for five different events in the 1932 Olympics. In 1932 she won gold in the Javelin throw for throwing it 143 feet. Didrikson also won two more medals in the 1932 Olympics. She broke many records in the Olympics as well. 

Her most notable sport was golf where she won an astonishing 82 tournaments. She would get criticized for playing because she was a woman playing in an era where that was not expected by women. Until she started a winning streak. She soon got her amateur status in 1943. Later in 1943 to 1947 she had won 17 different amateur championships all in a row which is very hard to do at that time especially if you were a woman, but she defied all of the odds that were thrown at her. She later founded the Ladies Pro Golf Association. 

The only thing about being a female athlete at this time was that everyone ridiculed you about being a woman playing a man's sport at the time. One reporter said in the ESPN article, “It would be much better if she and her ilk stayed at home, got themselves prettied up and waited for the phone to ring.” Although many people said things like this to her many other people said some pretty great things about her as well like, “She is beyond all belief until you see her perform, and “Then you finally understand that you are looking at the most flawless section of muscle harmony, of complete mental and physical coordination, the world of sport has ever seen.”

Later on, Babe had developed cancer and she was a spokeswoman for it. She died in September of 1956. “I think that every one of us feels sad that finally she had to lose this last one of all her battles,” President Dwight D. Eisenhower said at the time.” They later made a movie about her life and they also have a museum of most of her achievements in Beaumont, Texas. Babe had gone through many tough things as a women athlete in her time but she found a way to be even better than anyone which is truly inspiring.