Faceoff: Who is the greatest female athlete of all-time?

Kay Yow – By: John Russo

There is more to sports than winning, losing, getting dirty and having fun. There is an aspect of the game that cannot be matched on the court or from the sidelines: influence.

Kay Yow is probably the most influential woman in all of college basketball. We remember Yow during Women’s History Month, a time to reflect on all of the great things done by women.

Yow did her best work at North Carolina State, where she led the Wolfpack for 35 years, compiling a 680-325 record there (737-344 overall). While at NC State, she won the ACC tournament four times and was the head coach of the 1988 Olympic Gold medal women’s basketball team. Personal awards she won included being inducted to the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame (2000) and the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame (2002), while also winning the Jimmy V. Espy Award for Perseverance in 2007 when she was battling breast cancer.

Her accolades do not represent how great a woman she truly was. In 1987, Yow was diagnosed with breast cancer, which took a part of her body. It then took her mother in 1993 and many friends she knew or made while battling the disease. That didn’t stop her as she started to raise money and awareness to battle breast cancer. In 2007, she helped found and participate on the board of directors on the Kay Yow/Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Cancer Fund.

Yow’s battle with breast cancer resurfaced in 2004 and was treated until it came back again in 2006. On Jan. 24, 2009, Yow lost her battle to stage-four breast cancer. She was only 66 years old.

The Kay Yow/Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Cancer Fund is now known as The Pink Zone and just had its fundraisers this past month. Over 1,200 women’s college basketball teams around the country participated in the event, many wearing special pink jerseys and sneakers to raise awareness and support the battle against breast cancer. Fans were encouraged to wear pink and participate in many fund raising activities. Rowan University was a part of this fund raiser as well.

Yow’s life was taken from her, but the gift she gave back to the world was far greater than anything she ever lost. Yow was a fighter whose fight still lives on in the hearts of the rest of the world uniting as soldiers against breast cancer. One day, we will win for Kay Yow and that satisfaction will be far greater than anything ever accomplished on the court.

Rest in peace, Kay Yow. It’s our turn to fight now.

Jackie Joyner-Kersee – By: Mike Anello

Jackie Joyner-Kersee is the best female athlete of all time.  She won three gold medals, one silver and two bronze over four consecutive Olympic Games and was named Women’s Greatest Athlete of the 20th Century in Sports Illustrated.  One reason she is above athletes like Mia Hamm is because she was Hamm’s role model.

In 1972, Title IX was passed allowing equal opportunity for women in sports. At the time, Joyner-Kersee was 10 years old.  She began running track , a sport which up until 1972 was dominated by men.  She gave women a reason to watch and participate in track and other “male-only” sports.  She was an inspiration to younger girls showing them what could happen if they follow their dreams.

Joyner-Kersee won the silver medal in the heptathlon in Los Angeles, Ca. in 1984.  In 1988, she captured gold in the heptathlon and long jump in Seoul, Korea.  The 1992 games were held in Barcelona, Spain and she took gold in the heptathlon and a bronze in the long jump.  In 1996, Joyner-Kersee won the bronze medal in the long jump in Atlanta, Georgia.  She has had to deal with adversity at the Olympics and overcame those obstacles.  She was sick and had to deal with extremely hot weather in Barcelona.  At the 1993 World Championships in Germany, she won the heptathlon despite a major asthma attack.

Joyner-Kersee was more than a female athlete; she inspired many women competing today.  She showed that it was possible to succeed in events typically seen as men’s events.  The fact that she won the heptathlon multiple times shows her versatility because she had to dominate the 100-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200-meters, long jump, javelin throw and the 800-meters.  Most athletes are good at one sport and even within that sport they are elite at a few areas.  Joyner-Kersee was the cream of the crop at multiple contests and was even a dominant college basketball player as well.

Mia Hamm – By: Kate Harman

158 international goals. 16 years on the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team. 275 international caps, or appearances, playing soccer. Three Olympic medals, two World Cup titles and four NCAA national championships.

With statistics like that, and believe me they’re more, it’s no argument as to who the best female athlete of all time is. It’s Mia Hamm, arguably the best soccer player ever, period.

Hamm joined the National Team when she was just 15 and became a phenom. Fans were amazed by her speed, footwork, grace and shy demeanor off the field. She quickly became a fan favorite and would soon become the face of women’s soccer, if not all of women’s athletics.

In 1999, Mia Hamm took over the world.

It was the year the women’s team won the World Cup in front of 90,000 fans at the Rose Bowl stadium in California and millions more watching on television. It still is the most seen women’s athletic event of all time. The media became enamored with the team and no player was more loved than Hamm.

She became the face of Nike, had Gatorade commercials where she faced off against Michael Jordon and even had a building named after her. The Women’s Professional Soccer league used a silhouette of Hamm as the image for their logo when the league revamped in 2009.

The 1999 World Cup was the biggest event to ever occur for women’s sports. It was a landmark event. Name one event or moment more singularly important than the moment Brandi Chastain’s penalty kick went into the uprights in August of 1999. You can’t, because there aren’t any. That moment paved the way for millions of girls who painted their faces, made signs and believed that they could do it too.

It’s not just her talent that makes her so important but the affect she has had on millions of young girls. Hamm brought excitement to women’s athletics at a time where there really wasn’t any and has paved the way for younger players. Countless times you talk to young female athletes and their number one influence was Hamm. All of the current players on National Team or WPS league cite Hamm as an influence. She literally inspired an entire generation, and had a lot of integrity while doing it.

Twenty years after the passing of Title IX, girls finally had someone they could see in the media, doing what they loved. They could see her on late night talk shows, on magazine covers and they could buy her jersey.

Without Hamm, soccer would not be as popular as it is today. That’s right I said soccer, not just women’s soccer. While people like Pat Summitt, Wilma Rudolph and Billie Jean King made huge strides for women’s athletics, they didn’t do as much as Hamm did. That’s because basketball, track and tennis were already in the public’s vernacular by the time Hamm and the Women’s National Team rolled around.