As we approach International Women’s Day, we chose ten women from ten different sports who we believe are some of the most successful Sportswomen in the world.
Football – Chloe Kelly
Chloe Kelly has been around the game for a long time and for the last three years she has skyrocketed the sport in England becoming a national treasure after securing two back-to-back European Championships for her nation.
Making a name for herself at Euro 2022, scoring the winning goal for England then going on to reboot her career at Arsenal in January 2025 and winning the UEFA Women’s Champions League, Euros 2025 and the Women’s Champions Cup in the space of 8 months with the North London Club.
Yesterday it was revealed that Mattel have made a Barbie doll of the Arsenal and England star, the first footballer in history of England to get a doll made for them.
Tennis – Serena Williams.
Serena Williams had one of the longest Tennis careers the world has ever seen, turning professional in 1995 and retiring after the US Open in 2022, playing for roughly 27 years.
During her career, Williams won 23 Grand Slam singles titles which is the most in the Open Era, 73 WTA singles titles, 4 Olympic gold medals and held World number 1 for a total of 319 weeks. The Tennis legend also won the WTA Player of the Year 7 times and the Laureus World Sportswoman of the year, 4 times.
Williams also had a great doubles career with her sister, Venus Williams – winning 14 Grand Slam women’s doubles titles and three doubles Olympic Golds.
Rugby – Ellie Kildunne.
Ellie Kildunne took the nation by storm in the summer of 2025 as the Red Roses became World Champions on home soil as they beat Canada in the Final.
In 2024, she was awarded the World Rugby Women’s 15’s Player of the Year as well as the Women’s Six Nations Player of the Championship as she helped England win the Grand Slam. This summer she became a World Champion and scored the opening try in the Final.
Kildunne went professional in 2017 as she joined Gloucester Hartpury, then to get more gametime she made the move to Wasps Women before in 2021 going to Harlequins Women where she is one of the teams most trusted players.
Athletics – Jessica Ennis-Hill.
Jessica Ennis-Hill, now retired, is arguably the best British track and field athlete in history, also being one of the most well known and celebrated Olympic athletes from Team GB.
Most famous for competing in the heptalthon where she did – 100m hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200m, long jump, javelin and 800m. After retirement, Ennis-Hill went on to be awarded Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 2017.
Throughout her career she won Gold at the 2012 Olympics, Silver at the 2016 Olympics, 3 World Champions in the heptathlon (2009, 2011 and 2015) and a European Champion in 2010.
Cricket – Ellyse Perry.
Ellyse Perry is one of the greatest female athletes to ever come from Australia, playing both cricket and football for her nation. Perry made her debut for Australia’s national cricket team at age 16 in 2007 and quickly became a superstar.
Throughout her career she won the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup in 2013 and 2022, the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in 2010, ’12, ’14, ’18, ’20 and ’23 but was also named the ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year in 2017.
Perry is known as one of the best all-rounders in women’s cricket with excellent batting and fast bowling, she scored a memorable 213 in a Test match against England in the 2017 Ashes, which is one of the highest scores in women’s Test cricket.
Swimming – Katie Ledecky.
Katie Ledecky is widely regarded as one of the greatest ever female swimmers, especially when it came to the freestyle events. She started competitively swimming at a young age and quickly became known for her edurance and dominance.
At her Olympics debut at only 15 years old, Ledecky stunned the world as she took home gold in the 800m freestyle and the medals didnt stop there. At Rio 2016 she took home four golds and one silver, four years later in ’21 she won yet again two more golds and two silvers. In the most recent Olympics, in summer 2024, she again won two golds, one silver and a bronze.
The success did not stop there as at the World Aquatics Championships, Katie has won over 20 gold medals whilst also setting and still holding many word records in freestyle distance events.
Gymnastics – Simone Biles.
Simone Biles started gymnastics at six years old and she was destined for success since the start. Her breakthrough came at the 2013 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships where she won all-around gold at her first appearance at the tournament.
In the summer 2016 Olympics, Biles became the star of the show, winning 4 Gold and 1 Bronze medal, making her one of the most successful gymnasts in her first Olympics. After having to take a step back for most of the 2020 Olympics, she returned to claim Bronze on the balance beam. in 2024, she added four more medals to her Olympic tally.
Biles has the most medals in the World Artisitic Gymnastics Championships in history – winning over 30 medals, with more than 20 of them being Gold.
Boxing – Claressa Shields.
Claressa Shields is one of the most successful boxers in history and she has the accolades to prove it. She first started boxing at age 11 when she was inspired by her father.
At the 2012 Summer Olympics, she won gold in the women’s middleweight boxing at only 17 years old and became the first American woman to win Olympic boxing gold. Four years later at Rio in 2016, she won another gold medal in the middleweight class and became the first US boxer to win back-to-back Olympic Gold medals.
Throughout her career she also won several medals at the AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships as well as becoming one of the fastest fighters ever to become a multi-division world champion.
Netball – Irene van Dyk.
Irene van Dyk’s career kick started in 1994 and lasted all the way until 2014, in which she representated two countries South Africa and New Zealand, during which she was their key netball player.
Van Dyk played 72 international matches for South Africa over her 5 year span in which she won silver at the 1995 Netball World Championships and captained the country at the 1999 edition of the compeititon.
She racked up 145 caps for New Zealand in which she played three World Championships and won Gold in 2003, also winning two Commonwealth Games Golds in 2006 and 2010. In total, Irene van Dyk has 217 international caps, the most ever in the sport.
Golf – Annika Sorenstam.
Annika Sorenstam dominated women’s golf in the late 1990’s to the early 2000’s, setting mutliple records and winning many tournaments.
Sorenstam turned professional in the year 1992 and then joined the LPGA Tour in 1994 and quickly became the most dominant player on the Tour in which she went on to have 72 victories on the LPGA Tour. In 2003, she became the first woman in 58 years to play in a men’s PGA Tour event.
She has three US Open titles, one Women’s PGA Championship, three Chevron Championships, one Women’s British Open, one Evian Championship and two Du Maurier Classics under her belt. But also having 90+ worldwide professional wins and 8 LPGA Player of the Year Awards.
Over the last three years roughly, women’s sport has grown massively and will continue to be breaking barriers and setting records as time goes on, could we see another breakthrough by a female athlete in the rest of 2026?
