Greatest Women Athletes of All Time

Serena Williams▲ Rising

Twenty-three Grand Slam singles titles, a body of work spanning three decades, and a habit of demolishing opponents while raising a family in between — Serena didn't just dominate tennis, she rewired what power and longevity could look like on a court. Her 2017 Australian Open win, eight weeks pregnant, is the kind of myth that would sound fake if there weren't a trophy to prove it. She's the argument-ender in any GOAT debate, women's or otherwise.</br

Sport: TennisActive Years: 1995–2022Signature Achievement: 23 Grand Slam singles titles, 4 Olympic goldsGOAT Rating: 9.7/10

added by IJRin 9 rankingsSerena Williams

Jackie Joyner-Kersee▲ Rising

The heptathlon world record she set in 1988 — 7,291 points — has stood for over three decades, a number so absurd it's basically its own monument. She proved that being the best all-around athlete on the planet, male or female, wasn't hyperbole but a title she genuinely held. Three Olympics, six medals, and a claim on 'greatest athlete, period' that few can seriously contest.</br

Sport: Track & FieldActive Years: 1984–1998Signature Achievement: Heptathlon world record, 3 Olympic goldsGOAT Rating: 9.1/10

added by IJRin 3 rankingsJackie Joyner-Kersee

Katie Ledecky▲ Rising

She wins races by pool lengths, not seconds, obliterating her own world records in the 800m and 1500m freestyle so often it stopped being news. Ledecky redefined distance swimming as a spectacle rather than a slog, turning laps that once bored broadcasters into must-watch dominance. Multiple Olympic cycles in, she's still the standard nobody else is close to touching.</br

Sport: SwimmingActive Years: 2012–presentSignature Achievement: 10 Olympic medals (7 gold), multiple standing world recordsGOAT Rating: 9.2/10

added by IJRin 6 rankingsKatie Ledecky

Simone Biles▲ Rising

She has skills named after her — the Biles on floor, vault, and beam — because gymnastics literally had no vocabulary for what she was doing. Her 2021 Tokyo withdrawal for mental health, followed by a triumphant Paris 2024 return draped in gold, turned her into more than a champion; she became a referendum on what athletes owe their bodies and minds. Most decorated gymnast in world championship history, full stop.</br

Sport: GymnasticsActive Years: 2013–presentSignature Achievement: 7 Olympic medals (4 gold), most World Championship medals everGOAT Rating: 9.5/10

added by IJRin 6 rankingsSimone Biles

Mia Hamm

Before Mia Hamm, women's soccer in America barely had a spotlight; after her, it had a Nike commercial and a generation of girls who wanted to bend it like she did. The 1999 World Cup win, capped by Brandi Chastain's shirt-off moment but built on Hamm's scoring and leadership, became the sport's Big Bang in the U.S. She retired as the game's face and its proof of concept that women's soccer could fill stadiums.</br

Sport: SoccerActive Years: 1987–2004Signature Achievement: 2 World Cup titles, 2 Olympic golds, former career-goals recordGOAT Rating: 8.7/10

added by IJRin 2 rankingsMia Hamm

Billie Jean King

She didn't just beat Bobby Riggs in the 1973 'Battle of the Sexes' — she turned a tennis match into a cultural referendum on whether women's sports deserved to exist on equal footing. Founder of the WTA, architect of equal prize money at the US Open, King's legacy is less about her 12 majors and more about the entire infrastructure of women's professional sports that wouldn't exist without her. Every female athlete cashing a paycheck today owes her royalties.</br

Sport: TennisActive Years: 1959–1983Signature Achievement: 39 Grand Slam titles (singles & doubles combined)GOAT Rating: 8.9/10

added by IJRin 3 rankingsBillie Jean King

Martina Navratilova

Eighteen Grand Slam singles titles and an all-time record 31 major women's doubles titles made her arguably the most complete tennis player of any gender, ever. Her rivalry with Chris Evert redefined what tennis competition could look like — two legends pushing each other for a decade — while her openness as a gay athlete in the 1980s made her a pioneer far beyond the baseline. Still playing competitively into her 50s, because apparently retirement was optional.</br

Sport: TennisActive Years: 1975–2006Signature Achievement: 18 Grand Slam singles, 31 Grand Slam doubles titlesGOAT Rating: 9.4/10

added by IJRin 6 rankingsMartina Navratilova

Babe Didrikson Zaharias

She won two Olympic gold medals in track and field in 1932, then turned around and became one of the greatest golfers who ever lived, founding the LPGA along the way — an athletic range so absurd it borders on fictional. Zaharias played basketball, baseball, and golf at elite levels decades before women were 'supposed' to be allowed multi-sport dominance. She's the original blueprint for the vare that Babe Didrikson wrote before anyone else knew the genre existed.</br

Sport: Multi-sport (Track, Golf)Active Years: 1930s–1950sSignature Achievement: 2 Olympic golds, 10 LPGA majorsGOAT Rating: 9.3/10

added by IJRin 2 rankingsBabe Didrikson Zaharias

Florence Griffith-Joyner

'Flo-Jo' ran the 100m and 200m at the 1988 Seoul Olympics in times that still stand as world records over three decades later, wearing six-inch nails and one-legged tights that made sprinting look like couture. She became the fastest woman in history almost overnight, a supernova of a season that turned track into spectacle. The records remain unbroken, a strange, glittering monument nobody's gotten close to touching since.</br

Sport: Track & FieldActive Years: 1980–1989Signature Achievement: World records in 100m and 200m, still standingGOAT Rating: 9/10

added by IJRin 3 rankings

Nadia Comăneci

At the 1976 Montreal Olympics, she scored the first perfect 10 in Olympic gymnastics history — the scoreboard literally wasn't built to display it and flashed a 1.00 instead. Comăneci, just 14, didn't just win gold, she redefined the ceiling of what the sport thought was possible, turning 'perfection' into a number gymnasts have chased ever since. She's the reason the perfect 10 became gymnastics' most romantic myth.</br

Sport: GymnasticsActive Years: 1970–1984Signature Achievement: First perfect 10 in Olympic history, 5 Olympic goldsGOAT Rating: 9/10

added by IJRin 2 rankingsNadia Comăneci

Marta

Six-time FIFA World Player of the Year, more World Cup goals than any player male or female, and the undisputed face of women's soccer's global expansion beyond the U.S. and Europe. Marta's dribbling and finishing turned Brazilian futsal instincts into a genuinely new soccer aesthetic, inspiring waves of players across South America and beyond. She carried a sport on her back for nearly two decades before the rest of the world caught up to invest in it properly.</br

Sport: SoccerActive Years: 2002–presentSignature Achievement: 6x FIFA World Player of the Year, all-time World Cup top scorerGOAT Rating: 8.8/10

added by IJRin 2 rankingsMarta

Chris Evert

Eighteen Grand Slam titles, a 125-match winning streak, and a decade-plus rivalry with Martina Navratilova that essentially built the modern women's tennis narrative arc — ice versus fire, baseline patience versus net aggression. Evert's metronomic consistency made her nearly unbeatable on clay and a model of composure that outlasted trend after trend in the sport. She reached the semifinals or better in 52 of 56 Grand Slam events she entered — a number that still sounds made up.</br

Sport: TennisActive Years: 1972–1989Signature Achievement: 18 Grand Slam singles titlesGOAT Rating: 8.8/10

added by IJRin 3 rankingsChris Evert

Wilma Rudolph

Born with polio and told she might never walk normally, Rudolph became the first American woman to win three gold medals in a single Olympics, sweeping the sprints at Rome in 1960. Her story turned her into a civil rights-era icon as much as an athlete, using her fame to push for desegregation in her hometown of Clarksville, Tennessee. She's the template for the athlete whose speed on the track was inseparable from her courage off it.</br

Sport: Track & FieldActive Years: 1956–1962Signature Achievement: 3 Olympic golds in 1960 Rome GamesGOAT Rating: 8.7/10

added by IJRin 4 rankingsWilma Rudolph

Venus Williams

Before there was a Serena, there was Venus — seven Grand Slam singles titles, a serve that once clocked among the fastest ever recorded by a woman, and the player who literally opened the door her sister walked through. Venus's advocacy pushed Wimbledon to finally offer equal prize money to women in 2007, a fight she led while still an active top competitor. She's underrated in the shadow of her sister's numbers, but the shadow only exists because Venus built the tree first.</br

Sport: TennisActive Years: 1994–presentSignature Achievement: 7 Grand Slam singles titles, led equal prize money pushGOAT Rating: 8.6/10

added by IJRin 3 rankingsVenus Williams

Michelle Kwan

Nine U.S. titles, five World Championships, and a career so consistently excellent that her two Olympic medals — silver in '98, bronze in 2002 — feel almost like footnotes to a decade of complete figure skating dominance. Kwan never won Olympic gold, and that absence became its own kind of legend, a reminder that greatness isn't always measured only in the medal that glitters brightest. She made artistry and technical mastery inseparable, changing how the sport judged its champions.</br

Sport: Figure SkatingActive Years: 1993–2005Signature Achievement: 9 U.S. titles, 5 World titles, 2 Olympic medalsGOAT Rating: 8.3/10

added by IJRMichelle Kwan

Steffi Graf▼ Falling

In 1988 she pulled off the 'Golden Slam' — all four majors plus Olympic gold in the same calendar year — a feat so singular nobody has replicated it since. Graf's forehand was a weapon and her competitive ruthlessness a template, racking up 22 Grand Slam titles across a career built on relentless baseline dominance. She's the standard against which pre-Serena greatness gets measured.</br

Sport: TennisActive Years: 1982–1999Signature Achievement: 22 Grand Slam singles titles, 1988 Golden SlamGOAT Rating: 9.3/10

added by IJRin 4 rankingsSteffi Graf

Allyson Felix▼ Falling

Eleven Olympic medals — the most by any track and field athlete, male or female — built across five Games and nearly two decades of staying at the top of an unforgiving sport. Felix's 2020 fight with Nike over maternity protections became bigger than her sprinting, forcing the industry to rewrite how it treats athlete-mothers. She's proof that greatness isn't just about the podium, it's about what you do with the platform once you're standing on it.</br

Sport: Track & FieldActive Years: 2003–2022Signature Achievement: 11 Olympic medals, most for any female track athleteGOAT Rating: 8.8/10

added by IJRin 4 rankingsAllyson Felix

Ronda Rousey▼ Falling

She didn't just win fights, she ended them in seconds, armbar-ing her way to becoming the first female fighter signed by the UFC and the reason women's MMA exists as a mainstream product at all. Rousey's 2015 loss to Holly Holm shattered the aura, but by then she'd already forced a promotion that once refused to book women to build an entire division around her face. Cultural impact over pure championship reign — she's on this list because she kicked the door down, not because she stayed on top forever.</br

Sport: MMA / JudoActive Years: 2004–2016Signature Achievement: First UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion, Olympic bronze in judoGOAT Rating: 8/10

added by IJRin 4 rankingsRonda Rousey

Lindsey Vonn▼ Falling

Eighty-two World Cup wins, four overall titles, and a career spent hurtling down mountains at speeds that terrified even her competitors — Vonn made downhill skiing must-watch American TV in a sport that usually only trends every four years. She skied through ACL tears and fractures that would've ended most careers, then kept winning anyway. The most decorated female alpine skier in history, and it's not particularly close.</br

Sport: Alpine SkiingActive Years: 2000–2019Signature Achievement: 82 World Cup wins, most by any womanGOAT Rating: 8.2/10

added by IJRLindsey Vonn