Babe Didrikson Zaharias

Mildred “Babe” Didrikson grew up in Texas as one of seven children of Norwegian immigrants. She excelled at every sport she tried: basketball, baseball, swimming, tennis and track and field.

At the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles she won gold in the javelin and the 80 metres hurdles and silver in the high jump. She then turned to golf, which she learned with the same determination. She won ten major championships, was a co-founder of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) and became one of the first women to play in men’s tournaments. The press often mocked her as too masculine.

In 1938 she married the wrestler George Zaharias. From 1950 the young golfer Betty Dodd became her close companion; Dodd lived with the couple, travelled with Babe and cared for her during her illness. Dodd later spoke openly about how close they had been. Historians count her among the women whose lives can be read as part of queer sports history, without clear labels.

In 1953 she was diagnosed with cancer. A year after surgery she won the US Women’s Open. She died in Galveston in 1956, aged 45.