Since fall is abuzz with sports, we’re all about the athletes. Who is your all-time favorite?
Kim Hoffman: I don’t watch sports, so I’m going to be that girl who admits she doesn’t have a favorite athlete. If I look back at my all-time sports obsessions though it lands only in two spots: 1993 Chicago Bulls and the women’s gymnastics team (“magnificent seven”) at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. Kerri Strug inspired girls in my school to cut their hair short, which was awesome.
Lucy Hallowell: There have been so many women in sports who have inspired me over the years. My childhood heroes were often a mix of men and women who played hockey, baseball, soccer, and every other sport under the sun. It’s nearly impossible to pick a favorite from among those legendary characters who are forever tinged by the childhood wonder they inspired through being incredible athletes, kind teachers on the ice, and stars who signed my program or T-shirt.
I will leave those heroes to my younger self and pick my favorite athlete who is playing now. Megan Rapinoe is smart, articulate, funny, and well-informed off the pitch and impossible to ignore on it. When she gets the ball there is always the sense that she might make a spectacular play and she forces you to keep your eyes on her. Off the field, she has embraced being an out player, spoken out when she felt it was warranted, and moved the conversation simply by virtue of being out.
Honorable mention to Hilary Knight who is an incredible hockey player and who doing everything in her power to make the NWHL a viable option for professional women’s hockey in the U.S.
Valerie Anne: I don’t watch real sports, generally, or even shows with sports in them, for that matter. Does vigilantism count as a sport? Because Sara Lance on the salmon ladder is everything.
Elaine Atwell: I know we are probably supposed to pick someone who is marvelously feminist or queer, but as a Saints fan I have to say Drew Brees. I wish he was my father.
Chelsea Steiner: As a former derby girl, I would be remiss if I didn’t give a shoutout to some derby all-stars. Women like Bonnie Thunders, Fifi Nomenon, Iron Maiven, Scald Eagle, and Suzy Hotrod are stone cold badasses and deserve just as much praise, adulation, and dolla dolla bills as any other pro athlete out there! And of course, my heart belongs to Team Vagine, the queer all-stars of RollerCon!
Dana Piccoli: Mia Hamm rocked my world and turned me into a soccer fan, but my favorite athlete of all time has to be basketball pro Swin Cash. She’s played for many WNBA teams but, in my heart, I’ll always see her as a member of the Championship winning Detroit Shock, an excellent player and leader.
Grace Chu: HER. Abby Wambach.
Anna Pulley: Ronda Rousey! She’s a knockout.
Erin Faith Wilson: If you are familiar with the NFL, what I am about to say is going to sound asinine but hear me out. I don’t have a favorite athlete, but I have a favorite team: the one and only Detroit Lions. I know what you are thinking: “They suck.” Guess what, I am thinking it too. In fact, I’m pretty sure even THEY are thinking it at this point. Yet year after year, whether they are winning or losing, I lay on the couch every Sunday to put myself through football hell, screaming at the TV in hopes maybe one of them can hear me when I yell, “CATCH THE BALL!” Being a Lions fan is a true test of loyalty, but I am in it for the long haul. Can I get an amen from my fellow Detroiters!
Ali Davis: Favorite of all time? It has to be Atalanta. Even as a small child, I somehow knew that wangling one’s way out of a traditional marriage via a footrace was an option I should at least look into. And then she outran and out-hunted all the dudes who had sailed in to fight the rampaging Calydonian boar. Who could be more awesome?
via www.liechtensteincollections.at
Daniela Costa: Soccer’s always been my sport. It’s not an easy ask, but I’ll narrow it down to two. Nuno Gomes, a retired striker for the Portuguese national team, will probably always be my favorite player to have played in the men’s leagues. He’s the reason #21 is my go-to jersey number. And then there’s Christine Sinclair, the captain of the Canadian women’s national soccer team. Besides being an amazing player and prolific goal scorer, she’s just so awesome for inspiring an entire generation of girls to play the game. In Canada, Christine is queen.
Natasha Negovanlis: I’m admittedly that jerk who only watches the Winter Olympics or baseball and hockey during the playoffs (GO HABS GO) but when I was in NYC for The Shorty Awards this past spring, I connected with the woman who won for Best Athlete. Her name is Lauren Fleshman and she’s a badass runner with a super cute blog. She even co-founded @PickyBars. Go check her out!
Caitlin Berg: I like acroyoga but I don’t really think they “compete” or have famous athletes as that would sort of defeat the point (if such things exist, please email me).
Dara Nai: I loved the original lineup of the New York Liberty, espesh Becky Hammon because she was the cute one. And a great player. We used to wait on line with Joan Jett at the VIP entrance at the Garden and play with her voodoo doll. Good times. Hammon is now an assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs, the NBA’s first full-time female assistant coach. Hell, she’s the first full-time female assistant coach in any big four pro sport in the country. Boom.
Dorothy Snarker: Steffi Graf because she dominated the game in her day and had that whip for a forehand. Also, legs for days. I always edit the part where she ends up married to Andre Agassi out because it doesn’t fit my dream scenario where she ends up with Gabriella Sabatini.
Trish Bendix: One of my favorite Instagram accounts is dedicated to women athletes throughout time who have slayed at sports, sometimes in multiple arenas. Every day, I learn about about someone that history forgot to tell me about in school, or that ESPN doesn’t give a shit about. Butch History alerted me to Violette Morris, who was an out lesbian who competed in (deep breath) boxing, archery, diving, javelin throwing, weightlifting, soccer, Greco-Roman wrestling and racing. (She later became tight with Adolf Hitler. Ugh.) But alongside Violette is the athletic history of Dana Owens (aka Queen Latifah) and Sally Ride (a tennis player! Who knew?)
But they also celebrate those who were more well known, and the first athlete I remember truly idolizing was Sheryl Swoopes. Like Violette Morris, she’s had some facets of her personal life that have pained me as a fan, and made me realize that athletes, although exceptional at the game, are humans who have struggles and deal with difficult situations just like everyone else.
A photo posted by BUTCHHISTORY (@butchhistory) on Feb 10, 2015 at 7:51am PST
Who is your all-time favorite athlete?
