Celebrating Top Women’s Swimming Achievements on National Women and Girls in Sports Day
February 2 is National Girls and Women in Sports Day in the United States, and swimming fans have seen some incredible performances and efforts from female athletes over the years that are worth remembering and celebrating. So many amazing women have inspired the nation and the world through the sport of swimming, with their achievements in the pool, acting with class and dignity outside of the pool and by opening avenues to make the world and the sport a better place.
Here are some of the women that have made the sport and the entire world a better place through their swimming and through their actions. This is by no means a comprehensive list but just a few that Swimming World would like to shout out on today.
Sippy Woodhead’s National Age Group Records Lasting More than 40 Years
The oldest girls’ National Age Group records on the books belong to Cynthia “Sippy” Woodhead, who continues to hold three marks from the late 1970s. In 1978, Woodhead was just 14 years old when she won gold in the 200 freestyle at the World Championships in West Berlin (just the third edition of that meet ever held), and her time of 1:58.53 was a world record. That mark has lasted as the National Age Group record since, and it stood unmatched until just last month, when Claire Weinstein tied that record at a meet in California. Woodhead also took silver in the 400 freestyle that week, and her time of 4:07.15 is still the 13-14 NAG record in the event. In short course yards, Woodhead swam a 1:44.10 in the 200 free in 1979, and that remains the NAG record in that event. She owned the 500 free record from 1978 until 2011 when — guess who? — Katie Ledecky came along.
But that still leaves three National Age Group records that have stood the test of time. Forty-three years! That’s seven U.S. Presidents ago, and for many of our readers, a full lifetime.
Janet Evans and Three Seminal World Records
Janet Evans in 2014 — Photo Courtesy: Griffin Scott
Before Katie Ledecky came along, the greatest women’s distance swimmer in history was undoubtedly Janet Evans. Evans won four Olympic gold medals in her career, including back-to-back triumphs in the 800 freestyle in 1988 and 1992 along with golds in the 400 free and 400 IM in 1988. She also added an Olympic silver medal in the 400 free in 1992, and she concluded her career by participating in the Opening Ceremony of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, where she handed the Olympic torch to Muhammad Ali to light the flame.
During her teenage years, Evans redefined the limits of imagination in the distance events. She set world records in the 400, 800 and 1500 freestyle events, all of which would last at least 17 years. She first set the 400 free world record at 4:05.45 in 1987, and she crushed that with a 4:03.85 on her way to Olympic gold in 1988. She held that record until 2006, when France’s Laure Manaudou broke it at the European Championships. In the 1500 free, not yet an Olympic event, Evans swam a 16:00.73 in 1987 and then became the first woman ever under 16 minutes with a 15:52.10 in 1988. That lasted until Kate Ziegler broke the record by 10 seconds in 2007 with a 15:42.54.
Evans’ 800 free record lasted the longest, and she set that record three times. The last of which, her 8:16.22, stood for 19 years until Rebecca Adlington broke it on her way to Olympic gold in 2008.
Natalie Coughlin Breaks 1:00 Barrier in 100 Backstroke
Natalie Coughlin in 2002
Across all sports, the three most decorated women’s U.S. Olympians are all swimmers: Jenny Thompson, Dara Torres and Natalie Coughlin. Track star Allyson Felix is next with 11, while Allison Schmitt and Katie Ledecky each have 10.
Thompson’s career stretched four Olympics as she became a clutch relay hero, while Torres swam in five Games, stretching from 1984 (at age 17) to 2008, when the then-43-year-old captured silver medals in the 400 free relay, 50 free (missing individual gold by just one hundredth) and 400 medley relay. Coughlin, meanwhile, swam at just three Games, but she won medals in every single Olympic race she ever entered.
Coughlin was an individual medalist in her career in the 100 free (twice) and 200 IM (2008), but her signature event was the 100 backstroke, where she became the first woman to earn back-to-back golds in 2004 and 2008. Arguably the signature moment of her career came in 2002, when she swam a 59.58 in the 100 back at the International Swimming Hall of Fame pool in Fort Lauderdale to become the first female to ever break the 1:00-barrier in the event. Nowadays, it takes almost under 1:00 to make the semifinals at a major competition, but in 2002 and for five years after, Coughlin stood alone in that exclusive club.
Making an Impact Outside of the Pool
So many swimmers who have recorded amazing accomplishments in the pool have gone on to lead important change outside of the pool. We need to look no further than Nancy Hogshead-Makar, a 1984 Olympic gold medalist in the 100 freestyle who has since become an advocate for females in sports through her organization “Champion Women.” Hogshead-Makar has done important work advocating for the prevention of sexual abuse in sports, and more recently, she has stood up for fairness in competition during the controversy around transgender athletes in swimming.
Meanwhile, more recent Olympians have launched programs to help mentor young female athletes as they grow in the sport, such as Kara Lynn Joyce’s LEAD Sports Summit and the RISE Athletes mentorship program helmed by Rebecca Soni and Caroline Burckle.
Simone Manuel Becomes First African American Gold Medalist
Simone Manuel after qualifying for her second Olympics in 2021 — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
August 11, 2016 was a historic day for African Americans in swimming, a sport where minority athletes have been historically underrepresented, when Simone Manuel pulled off a stunning upset to win Olympic gold in the women’s 100 freestyle. The triumph was a huge personal breakthrough for Manuel but also a massive moment for the sport as young black girls could see someone who looked like them standing on the Olympic podium, and Manuel’s heroics in the Rio pool have inspired countless African Americans, young and old, to get involved in swimming or even to get comfortable in the water.
Prior to 2004, no African American females had ever qualified for the U.S. Olympic team, but since then, Maritza Correia McClendon, Lia Neal and Natalie Hinds have joined Manuel as Olympians and Olympic medalists. Manuel, Neal and Hinds pulled off a historic moment in 2015 when they swept the podium in the 100-yard free at the NCAA Championships, the first time that three African American swimmers had gone 1-2-3 in an NCAA event. Representation matters, and these swimmers have provided that.
“It is important while swimming remains a predominantly white sport, as it is right now, it is important to draw attention to these feats because that’s what is going to get kids to see themselves on that podium, just seeing that representation and that image more,” Neal said in 2020. “There’s less opportunities to see that representation, but as long as we do emphasize the few people that are and really encourage more people to get within the sport, then that is what’s going to set the tone for the future generations.”
Katie Ledecky Becomes Swimming Legend
No piece about female swimmers in the United States could be complete without a section on Katie Ledecky. Where should we start? She has won three Olympic gold medals in the 800 freestyle, making her the only U.S. swimmer to ever win three straight golds in one event, and she won the first-ever Olympic gold medal in the 1500 free in 2021. Back in 2016, she joined Debbie Meyer as the only swimmer to ever sweep gold medals in the 200, 400 and 800 freestyle at one Olympics, and that meet was arguably the finest of her career as she finished with four gold medals, one silver and two individual world records.
In total, Ledecky has broken 14 individual world records across the 400, 800 and 1500 free. While Ariarne Titmus ended Ledecky’s long run atop the 400 free at the 2019 World Championships and 2021 Olympics, the 24-year-old American remains undefeated in the 800 and 1500 free going back almost a decade.
Now training at the University of Florida under coach Anthony Nesty as she aims for a fourth Olympics in 2024 in Paris, it would be no surprise if Ledecky finishes her career as the most decorated female Olympian in U.S. history and arguably the greatest female swimmer of all-time.