To the BBC journalist who congratulated him, in August 2016 in Rio, for having become “the first tennis player to win two Olympic titles”, Andy Murray recalled that “Venus and Serena Williams have four each”. Trained by his mother and then by Amélie Mauresmo, the Scotsman has always given the same credit regardless of gender. A rarity in a world so dominated by men that we forget that some women, without claiming to be stronger, have already done better. And since the subject is poorly treated, the following list is not necessarily exhaustive.
Ski: Mikaela Shiffrin has no limits
Where will Mikaela Shiffrin stop? A hundred wins? Beyond? At 28, the American panics the counters and blurs all the benchmarks. In one weekend, the skier from Vail (Colorado) equaled and then surpassed Ingemar Stenmark’s old record of 86 World Cup victories. The Swedish legend sold with fair play a brand he had held for thirty-four years. “Mikaela deserves it more than anyone,” Stenmark said. She is a complete skier. She has good technique, physical strength, character and intelligence. Unlike her rivals, she does not need to run at 100% speed.
Ultra-dominant this season (13 wins, 16 podiums), Shiffrin will not however be able to get the record for points over a season, established 10 years ago by the Slovenian Tina Maze with 2414 points. This is again a mixed record held by a woman.
Tennis: Margaret Court still
Roger Federer took Pete Sampras’ old record of 14 Grand Slam titles to 20, before being joined and then surpassed by Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, 22 titles each. The two survivors of the “Big Three” still have a few opportunities to do better (especially Djokovic) and beat the real record, held since 1973 by Australian Margaret Court Smith, 24 times victorious in singles. To recall this record is also to re-enact a player who has now become a Pentecostal pastor in Perth, fiercely opposed to same-sex marriage.
To read again: Margaret Court-Smith’s cumbersome record
The tennis world has long hoped that Serena Williams could do better and thus make Margaret Court Smith forget, but the American remained blocked at 23 major titles, the second best total for men and women combined. Nadal and Djokovic are currently at the height of the German Steffi Graf, the only athlete to have won the Grand Slam since the advent of modern tennis (which can be dated to the creation of the ATP and the WTA in 1972 and 1973). In 1988, Graf even managed the “Golden Slam”, winning the Olympic title in addition to the Australian Open, Roland-Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open. A totally unprecedented feat.
Football: Christine Sinclair and Marta better than CR7
It was one of the highlights of the first round of the last World Cup in Qatar. By converting a penalty against Ghana, Cristiano Ronaldo became the first player to score at least one goal in five editions of the FIFA World Cup (from 2006 to 2022). Another record for the Portuguese, who thus improved that of the most goals scored in the selection, brought to 118, which he had stolen in September 2021 from the Iranian Ali Daei (109 goals).
While the supporters of “CR7” were engorged, the North American media came to recall that two other players (in English, the term is neutral) had already achieved such a performance: Brazilian Marta and Canadian Christine Sinclair, both scorers at the 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019 Women’s World Cups. With 190 goals scored in the jersey at the maple leaf, Christine Sinclair also holds the record in all categories for the most goals scored in international matches.
Aged 37 and 40 respectively, Marta and Christine Sinclair are set to participate this summer in Australia and New Zealand (July 20 to August 20) in their sixth World Cup, which would be a new record, with the possibility of becoming the only or the only scorers in six finals. Marta will also have the opportunity to improve on her tally of 17 goals scored for Brazil in the finals, a record she holds ahead of Germany’s Miroslav Klose (16 goals).
Gymnastique: to perfection Comaneci
In scoring sports (figure skating, gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, surfing, diving, some snowboarding and freestyle skiing events), perfection is a holy grail rarely achieved. In gymnastics, only two women obtained the maximum mark of 10. History forgot the first, the Czechoslovakian Vera Caslavska during the 1967 European Championships in Amsterdam, to remember only the second. Nadia Comaneci. Montreal. 1976 Olympics.
There is the context, the prestige of the Games, but also the visual impression. Breathtaking. “She would have deserved 11 or 12!” said one of the judges years later. But 10/10 was already an unthought, to the point that the Longines engineers had not foreseen this scenario. So instead of “9.99”, the maximum score authorized by the electronics, the luminous board of the Montreal Forum displayed “1.00” after a few seconds of hesitation.
Golf: Kathy Whitworth the Tigress
Her death at 83 on Christmas Day reminded the world of the somewhat forgotten memory of Kathy Whitworth, yet the most successful player in the history of golf. From 1962 to 1985, the American won 88 tournaments on the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Tour, the absolute record for all sexes combined, since Sam Snead and Tiger Woods only have 82.
Less successful than Woods in the Grand Slam (six major titles against fifteen at the Tiger), Kathy Whitworth was exceptionally consistent during her career, ranking 93 times in second place and winning at least one title 17 seasons in a row. Two records that she would have gladly exchanged for the pleasure of winning the US Open at least once.
