30 greatest female athletes of all time

1. Serena Williams
Tennis

Serena Williams is largely considered one of the greatest athletes in any sport. Her dominance of tennis is unlike anything we’ve seen in a long time. Tennis being an individual sport makes it that much more impressive. Tennis has seen dominance before, including from some of the great women on this list, but Serena has been on a different level. 

Williams’ career started alongside her sister Venus back in the 1990s. Her story is incredibly famous, building her legacy on the courts of Compton, California. She would train for hours every day basically since she was three years old. She eventually joined the junior United State Tennis Association, and she ranked first in the under-10 division (why such a thing exists, we’re not sure). 

She became a full-time professional in 1997, breaking the top 100 for the first time. By the next year, Williams was in the top 20. In 1999, she won her first of 23 Grand Slam titles, beating Martina Hingis at the U.S. Open. The next year, the Williams sisters became nationally recognized when they faced off in the U.S. Open final in 2001. It was clear they were the face of tennis and the future of women’s sports. 

Williams has done everything someone can do in tennis. We mentioned the 23 Grand Slam titles, including winning the 2017 Australian Open while she was nine weeks pregnant. She also won 14 doubles titles with her sister Venus, four Olympic gold medals (including the doubles and singles titles at the 2012 London Games), and she made more than $94 million just in purse money. She’s as dominant an athlete as we will ever see.