In 1998 Limor Mizrachi became the first Israeli, male or female, to play professional basketball for an American team when she joined the New England Blizzard.
Committed to both her athletic career and her Orthodox faith, Naama Shafir faced challenges alien to most basketball players, from walking to games on Shabbat to altering uniforms for modesty.
Yael Arad celebrated an unprecedented victory in 1992 when she won the Olympic silver medal for judo, making her the first Israeli Olympic medalist for any sport.
A symbol of women’s growing independence at the turn of the twentieth century, Annie “Londonderry” Kopchovsky became the first woman cyclist to circle the globe in 1895.
One of the most accomplished female sportscasters in history, Bonnie Bernstein combines her role as on-air journalist with her work behind the scenes as vice president of Campus Insiders, a leading media platform for college sports.
A champion in two very different fields, Loren Galler-Rabinowitz took home the bronze medal for ice dancing in 2004, then competed in the 2011 Miss America Pageant as Miss Massachusetts.
Emily Jacobson, raised by a family of fencers, reached the pinnacle of her career when she competed in the 2004 Olympics, which was the first time women were allowed to compete as sabre fencers.
Sada Jacobson won the bronze medal for sabre fencing at the 2004 Olympics (the first Olympics where women were allowed to compete in sabre), then did one better in 2008, bringing home both a silver and another bronze medal.
Figure skater Alexandra “Sasha” Cohen won a silver medal at the 2006 Olympics and popularized the difficult I-spin, which many now call the “Sasha spin” in her honor.
Long distance runner Deena Kastor was an eight–time national champion in cross country and holds the American records in the marathon, half–marathon, 5K, 8K, and 15K races.
The first woman allowed to train with male judo students at Japan’s judo headquarters, the Kodokan, Rena “Rusty” Kanokogi pioneered women’s judo as an Olympic sport.
In a thrilling, surprise victory, Sarah Hughes won the gold medal for figure skating at the 2002 Olympics, becoming the first American to win that honor without ever having won a World or US senior national title.
Alexandra “Aly” Raisman not only won gold and bronze medals for her individual performances at the 2012 Olympics but captained the women’s gymnastic team that won the gold medal that year.