If success is measured in Olympic gold medals, grand slam tennis titles, golf majors and world championships, then Serena Williams just may wind up as the greatest women’s athlete history has ever known.
Just maybe.
While the 1940s and `50s golfer, track and field and basketball phenomenon Mildred “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias remains arguably the finest female sporting all-rounder of all time, Williams is fast challenging Australian Margaret Smith Court as the most successful.
In numbers alone.
Under such a strict statistical criteria, and counting only individual successes and not doubles or team glory, Williams still must catch Smith Court and Steffi Graf before she can even be ranked as the greatest women’s tennis player.
But with the ageless champion planning to play on for years, few are backing against the 19-times grand slam winner and Olympic gold medallist reeling in Smith Court and Graf by the time she calls it quits.
Smith Court amassed a staggering 24 grand slam singles titles during her 25-year career, while Graf won 22 and completed the so-called Golden Slam with Olympic glory to boot in 1988.
In any case, regardless of whatever else Williams achieves, her ranking among the tennis legends is secure, with John McEnroe having often hailed the American as already the finest female player to grace the court.
And after watching the 33-year-old eclipse her’s and Martina Navratilova’s 18 grand slam crowns with her Australian Open final victory over Maria Sharapova last Saturday, Chris Evert said it was inevitable Williams would at least match Graf’s tally “if she stays healthy, if she stays motivated”.
Williams is healthy for now and certainly super motivated.
Evert also posted on Twitter her belief that Graf “clearly” wouldn’t have as many majors had the German’s arch-rival Monica Seles not been stabbed and forced out of the sport for two-and-a-half years while at the peak of her powers.
Without discrediting her deeds – on the age-old grounds that you can only beat those in front of you – Graf won seven grand slam titles while Seles was out of action.
It is also worth noting that Seles had won seven from eight starts in the majors immediately before being cut down as well as the 1996 Australian Open, the second slam upon her return to the court.
Such compelling data, coupled with the fact Smith Court won 11 of her 24 singles majors in Australia against much weaker opposition relative to the international fields of today, only adds weight to McEnroe’s contention that Williams has done enough to be considered the greatest in her sport.
In reigning at Melbourne Park for a record sixth time, Williams has swept past not only Evert and Navratilova, but also Australian squash legend Heather McKay for the big titles.
In an astonishing career, McKay won the British Open – considered the Wimbledon or world championship of squash – for 16 consecutive years as well as the inaugural World Open in 1976.
When she retired in 1981 at the age of 40, McKay had gone almost 20 years unbeaten, with her only two defeats coming at the beginning of her career.
There is some gap to American golfers Patty Berg and Mickey Wright, who won 15 and 13 majors respectively, while Williams’ idol Billie Jean King is next on the list with a dozen grand slam singles titles.
Although Nadia Comaneci remains the most celebrated gymnast in history for scoring the first perfect 10 at the 1976 Montreal Games, Larisa Latynina is statistically the most successful.
Born in Ukraine and representing the Soviet Union, Latynina won a total of six individual gold medals at the 1956 Melbourne, 1960 Rome and 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
Her nine golds in all are the most by any woman in Olympic history and equal second with Mark Spitz, Carl Lewis and Paavo Nurmi, behind only Michael Phelps’s 18.
Didrikson Zaharias rounds out the top 10, equal with King and Latynina for titles but perhaps unequalled – ever – as an all-round sportswoman.
Born in Texas in 1911, the sixth of seven children for Norwegian parents Hannah and Ole, Didrikson Zaharias earned the nickname “Babe” – after Babe Ruth – at a very early age after smashing five home runs in a children’s baseball game.
She also excelled at softball, basketball, diving and roller-skating, but etched her name forever in sport’s history books for her feats in golf and athletics.
Showcasing her extraordinary versatility, Didrikson Zaharias won the 80-metre hurdles and javelin at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics before turning to the fairways and securing 10 majors before her passing from cancer at just 45.
Didrikson Zaharias was named by The Associated Press as the greatest female athlete of the 20th century.
WOMEN’S MOST SUCCESSFUL ATHLETES – BY THE NUMBERS
24: Margaret Smith Court (tennis) – 24 grand slam titles
23: Steffi Graf (tennis) – 22 grand slam titles, 1 Olympic gold
20: Serena Williams (tennis) – 19 grand slam titles, 1 Olympic gold
19: Helen Wills Moody (tennis) – 19 grand slam titles
18: Martina Navratilova (tennis) – 18 grand slam titles
18: Chris Evert (tennis) 18 grand slam titles
18: Heather McKay (squash) – 16 British Opens, 2 World Opens
15: Patty Berg (golf) – 15 majors
13: Mickey Wright (golf) – 13 majors
12: Mildred “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias (golf, athletics) – 10 golf majors, 2 Olympic gold
12: Billie Jean King (tennis) – 12 grand slam titles
12: Larisa Latynina (gymnastics) – 6 Olympic gold, 6 world championships
NB: List acknowledges total number of Olympic gold medals, grand slam tennis titles, golf majors and world championships. Individual events only.
