London 2012
Yaping Deng: The world’s most successful table tennis player
Yaping Deng - a 4' 11" woman from China - has more titles in table tennis than any other athlete.
Comment: We should all get behind female Olympians – and here’s how
London 2012 offers a unique opportunity to promote women’s participation in sports and inspire a next generation of female Olympians.
Derartu Tulu: The first black African woman to win an Olympic gold medal
Many remember Tulu for the victory lap she took in 1992; a symbolic gesture that signalled the end of Apartheid on the track.
Nawal El Moutawakel: The first female Muslim Olympic champion
Nawal El Moutawakel: “I would wake up in the morning and say, I need to do this for the women of Arab states, African countries and Muslim women.”
Fanny Blankers-Koen: ‘The Flying Housewife’ who won four Olympic gold medals in one year
In the face of criticism that she was too old to compete, Holland’s Fanny Blankers-Koen won four gold medals at the 1948 London Olympics.
Charlotte Cooper: The world’s first female Olympic champion
The 1900 Olympics were the first of their kind to allow women to compete, and it was a British woman who came away as the first ever female Olympic champion.