Mt. Rushmore of women

[Birdman]

I alway see Mt Rushmore of men?s sports but not women..just wondering who would you put on it..all sports including gymnastics, track, etc

[Roy H.]

Off the top of my head...

Babe Didrikson
Serena Williams
Jackie Joyner Kersey
Mia Hamm or Diana Taurasi

[Neurotic Guy]

Billie Jean King - not just for tennis but contributions to raising attention/recognition for women in sports.

[slamtheking]

Billie Jean King - not just for tennis but contributions to raising attention/recognition for women in sports.

she was the first one that popped into my head when I saw the topic.  there have been women who've been more dominant in their sport than BJK but her contributions off the court are significant. 

[Roy H.]

Billie Jean King - not just for tennis but contributions to raising attention/recognition for women in sports.

she was the first one that popped into my head when I saw the topic.  there have been women who've been more dominant in their sport than BJK but her contributions off the court are significant.

Would you apply the same standard when doing the Mount Rushmore of male athletes?  Would Jackie Robinson or Jessie Owens make the cut?

I tend to lean heavily on athletic dominance.

[Moranis]

We doing international or just US. We doing all sports or just the more main stream ones.  I mean Ledecky is the most decorated US female athlete if you go by Olympic medals and her 9 golds is tied for the most all time, it is her and Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina (Latinina has 18 total to Ledecky's 14 - Marit Bjorgen has 15 for 2nd most all time). Ledecky won the 800 in 4 straight Olympics winning it first at just age 15. So been around awhile and won a lot. If just Americans' how do you exclude her?

As for tennis, I'm not sure Serena is better than Steffi overall.  I'd probably lean Serena because of doubles, but as singles players, Graf was ranked 1 longer, won more overall titles, and had just 1 less GS win. Graf also medaled in singles at 2 Olympics including the Golden Slam, while Serena only had the 1 singles medal (3 doubles). So given Serena played a bit longer and was a much more prolific doubles player, I'd lean towards her, but wouldn't find any issue if someone thought Graf was better (just played less - i.e. Graf is Jordan, Serena is Lebron).

[Moranis]

 Plus didn't even mention other American greats like Simone Biles, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Wilma Rudolph, Lindsey Vonn, nor anyone from combat sports like Laila Ali or Holly Holm who was both a multi division boxing champion and a UFC champion.

[blink]

We doing international or just US. We doing all sports or just the more main stream ones.  I mean Ledecky is the most decorated US female athlete if you go by Olympic medals and her 9 golds is tied for the most all time, it is her and Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina (Latinina has 18 total to Ledecky's 14 - Marit Bjorgen has 15 for 2nd most all time). Ledecky won the 800 in 4 straight Olympics winning it first at just age 15. So been around awhile and won a lot. If just Americans' how do you exclude her?

As for tennis, I'm not sure Serena is better than Steffi overall.  I'd probably lean Serena because of doubles, but as singles players, Graf was ranked 1 longer, won more overall titles, and had just 1 less GS win. Graf also medaled in singles at 2 Olympics including the Golden Slam, while Serena only had the 1 singles medal (3 doubles). So given Serena played a bit longer and was a much more prolific doubles player, I'd lean towards her, but wouldn't find any issue if someone thought Graf was better (just played less - i.e. Graf is Jordan, Serena is Lebron).

If Graf is in the mix, how can you not talk about Martina Navratilova?  She holds multiple "most titles" records, including the most Wimbledon singles titles with nine, the most WTA Tour singles titles with 167, and the most combined major titles for any player with 59 (18 singles, 31 doubles, and 10 mixed doubles).  BJK said that Navratilova was the ?the greatest singles, doubles, and mixed doubles player who ever lived,?.

[Moranis]

We doing international or just US. We doing all sports or just the more main stream ones.  I mean Ledecky is the most decorated US female athlete if you go by Olympic medals and her 9 golds is tied for the most all time, it is her and Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina (Latinina has 18 total to Ledecky's 14 - Marit Bjorgen has 15 for 2nd most all time). Ledecky won the 800 in 4 straight Olympics winning it first at just age 15. So been around awhile and won a lot. If just Americans' how do you exclude her?

As for tennis, I'm not sure Serena is better than Steffi overall.  I'd probably lean Serena because of doubles, but as singles players, Graf was ranked 1 longer, won more overall titles, and had just 1 less GS win. Graf also medaled in singles at 2 Olympics including the Golden Slam, while Serena only had the 1 singles medal (3 doubles). So given Serena played a bit longer and was a much more prolific doubles player, I'd lean towards her, but wouldn't find any issue if someone thought Graf was better (just played less - i.e. Graf is Jordan, Serena is Lebron).

If Graf is in the mix, how can you not talk about Martina Navratilova?  She holds multiple "most titles" records, including the most Wimbledon singles titles with nine, the most WTA Tour singles titles with 167, and the most combined major titles for any player with 59 (18 singles, 31 doubles, and 10 mixed doubles).  BJK said that Navratilova was the ?the greatest singles, doubles, and mixed doubles player who ever lived,?.

because Graf and Williams are better

[Moranis]

To be fair, I think Martina in tennis is much like Kareem in basketball.  Very good for a very long time, but a relatively small peak of true dominance.  I'd take prime Graf or prime Serena over prime Martina as I do think they are both just better.

But that is where these things get interesting. I mean are you looking at peak dominance, longevity, stats, winning, physical stature, etc.  So many different ways to look at this sort of thing. 

If we just stick to Americans, I think my 4 would be Serena, Hamm, Taurasi, and Ledecky

They to me add the right mix of main stream popularity to all time great play.  I never saw Babe obviously so I didn't include her and Biles basically getting the yips and quitting on her team was enough for me to go with Ledecky over her.

[slamtheking]

Billie Jean King - not just for tennis but contributions to raising attention/recognition for women in sports.

she was the first one that popped into my head when I saw the topic.  there have been women who've been more dominant in their sport than BJK but her contributions off the court are significant.

Would you apply the same standard when doing the Mount Rushmore of male athletes?  Would Jackie Robinson or Jessie Owens make the cut?

I tend to lean heavily on athletic dominance.

athletic dominance should weigh heavily in the decision but off court contributions should be counted as well

[Moranis]

Billie Jean King - not just for tennis but contributions to raising attention/recognition for women in sports.

she was the first one that popped into my head when I saw the topic.  there have been women who've been more dominant in their sport than BJK but her contributions off the court are significant.

Would you apply the same standard when doing the Mount Rushmore of male athletes?  Would Jackie Robinson or Jessie Owens make the cut?

I tend to lean heavily on athletic dominance.

Owens was the first person to win 4 gold medals in a single Olympics. Is that not athletic dominance?  In ESPN's top 100 N. Americans athletes of the 1900's, he was 6th behind only Jordan, Ruth, Ali, Brown, and Gretzky (and Gretzky is obviously not from the US).  I think you could make a pretty reasonable case that only Lebron and Brady would be ahead of him from athletes since 2000 (there could be others, but those are the only 2 clearly better).  I don't think it would be unreasonable at all to include Owens for both athletic dominance and the off-field stuff.  That same list had Jackie Robinson at 15. 

https://www.espn.com/sportscentury/athletes.html

As for women, Babe was 10th, Martina 19th, Jackie 23rd, Evert 50th, Billie Jean 59th, Althea Gibson 65th, and Bonnie Blair 69th.  That was it.  And I'm not even sure why they included Czech born Martina at all.  Seems a bit strange to me, but that is where they had her (they didn't have Graf even though she is married to Agassi and lives in Vegas - though I believe she is still a German citizen whereas Martina did become a US citizen, so I guess that is the difference)

[libermaniac]

I thought for a minute this was non-sports related. That would?ve been more fun.