Timeline of women's sports

Early history

6th century BCE – The Heraean Games are the first recorded women's athletic competition, held in the stadium at Olympia.

25–220 – The ancient game of Tsu Chu may have been played by women during the Han Dynasty; two female figures are depicted in frescoes dating from this period, playing Tsu Chu. There are a number of opinions about the dates, the earliest estimates are 5000 BCE.

1493 – When Beatrice d'Este visited Venice, a regatta was held in which fifty peasant women competed.

1567 – Mary, Queen of Scots is said to be the first woman to play golf in Scotland at Musselburgh Links.

18th century

1745 – The first recorded women's cricket match took place in Surrey, England. By the second half of the eighteenth century, women's cricket matches played between local teams became common in the South East of England.

1780 – Three days of horse racing at the track in Hempstead Plains, Long Island, included an event for women riders.

1784 – Elizabeth Thible of France was the first women to fly in a hot air ballon.

1790s – An annual women's association football competition was held in Mid-Lothian, Scotland.

19th century

1811 – The first women's golf tournament is held at the Royal Musselburgh Golf Club, Scotland.

1819 – Mms. Adolphe became the first woman to perform on a tightrope in the US in New York City.

1825 – Madame Johnson took off in a hot air balloon in New York, landing in a New Jersey swamp.

1842 – English rower Ann Glanville achieved national celebrity becoming known as the champion female rower of the world; her all-women crew often winning against the best male teams.

1850 – A new style of women's dress, first introduced by Fanny Kemble, a British-born actress, began to be publicised by American Amelia Jenks Bloomer. Other women's rights leaders like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony adopted the new style – loose-fitting pants worn under a skirt,.

1858 – The American Julia Holmes climbed Pike's Peak in Colorado.

1863 – Association football governing bodies introduced standardized rules to prohibit violence on the pitch, making it more socially acceptable for women to play.

1864 – The Park Place Croquet Club of Brooklyn organized with 25 members. Croquet is probably the first game played by both women and men in America.

1866 – Vassar College in New York fielded the first two women's amateur baseball teams.

1867 – The first ladies golf club was formed at St. Andrew's in Scotland. It gained 500 members by 1886.

1867 – The Dolly Vardens from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, an all African-American baseball team, became the first women's professional sports team.

1870 – An image of a women’s double scull race made the cover of Harper’s Weekly in 1870.

1874 – Mary Ewing Outerbridge of Staten Island introduced tennis to the United States. She purchased tennis equipment in Bermuda (and had trouble getting it through customs) then used it to set up the first U.S. tennis court at the Staten Island Cricket and Baseball Club that spring.

1875 – The "Blondes" and "Brunettes" played their first baseball match in Springfield, Illinois on September 11. Newspapers heralded the event as the "first game of baseball ever played in public for gate money between feminine ball-tossers."

1875 – Wellesley College in Massachusetts opened with a gymnasium for exercising and a lake for ice skating and the first rowing program in the U.S. for women.

1876 – Nell Saunders defeated Rose Harland in the first United States women's boxing match, receiving a silver butter dish as her prize.

1882 – At the YWCA in Boston, the first athletic games for women were held.

1884 – Maud Watson, of England, won the first Ladies’ Singles title at Wimbledon.

1886 – Mary Hawley Myers set a world altitude record in a hot air balloon, soaring 4 miles above Franklin, Pennsylvania, without benefit of oxygen equipment.

1887 – The American Ellen Hansell was crowned the first women's singles tennis champion at the U.S. Open.

1889 – The first women's six-day bicycle race ended at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

1889 – Bertha Townsend and Margarette Ballard, both of the United States, won the first women's doubles at the U.S. Open.

1890s – Cricket was taught as a sport in several girls’ public schools in England including the Roedean School, Wycombe Abbey, the Royal School, and Clifton Ladies.

1890 – The American Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochran Seaman) became the first woman to travel around the world alone – she did it in 72 days while a reporter for the New York World newspaper, returning on January 25.

1892 – The first women's football match recorded by the Scottish Football Association took place in Glasgow, Scotland.

1892 – Four young women started what became ZLAC Rowing Club in San Diego, California, which is thought today to be the world's oldest continuously existing all-women's rowing club.

1893 – Newnham College Boat Club was formed in Cambridge, England.

1893 – The Ladies' Golf Union, the governing body for women's and girls' amateur golf in Great Britain and Ireland, was founded in St Andrews, Scotland and the first British Ladies Amateur Golf Championship was won by Lady Margaret Scott at Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club.

1894 – The most well-documented early European association fool women's team was founded by activist Nettie Honeyball in England and named the British Ladies' Football Club.

1894 – A ladies golf tournament, the first in the United States, was held on the 7-hole Morristown, New Jersey course on October 17. Miss Hollard A. Ford won with a 97 scored on the double-7, 14 strokes under her nearest rival.

1895 – In England, the first recorded game of association football between women took place.

1895 – The American Annie Smith Peck was the first woman to reach the peak of the Matterhorn.

1895 – A women's amateur golf championship, the first in the United States, was contested among 13 golfers at the Meadow Brook Club, Hempstead, New York, on November 9. The match was won by Mrs. Charles S. Brown with a 132 and the runner-up is Nellie Sargent.

1895 – The first organized athletics meeting in the U.S. was generally recognized as the "Field Day" at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York, on November 9. A group of "nimble, supple and vivacious girls" engaged in running and jumping events despite bad weather.

1895 – The first women's softball team was formed at Chicago's West Division High School. They did not have a coach for competitive play until 1899.

1896 – The first 6-day bicycle race for women started on January 6 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

1896 – The first women's intercollegiate basketball championship was played between Stanford and the University of California at Berkeley. Stanford won 2–1 on April 4 before a crowd of 700 women.

1896 – Stamata Revithi, of Greece, ran the 40-kilometer marathon during the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.

1897 – Adine Masson, of France, became the first winner of the ladies singles at the French Open.

1898 – Lizzie Arlington became the first woman to sign a professional baseball contract, appearing in her first professional game pitching for the Philadelphia Reserves.

1899 – Setting a new women's cycling endurance record, 125 pound Jane Yatman rode 700 miles in 81 hours, 5 minutes on Long Island. During the 3 and one half day trial, she rests less than 2 hours. Her record was beaten on October 19 by Jane Lindsay who rode 900 miles in 91 hours, 48 minutes.

1900 – The 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris introduces women's events, offering golf, tennis, and croquet. Hélène de Pourtalès of Switzerland was the first woman to win a gold medal as part of a mixed sailing crew. Charlotte Cooper of Great Britain becomes the first individual female winner in an Olympic event. American Margaret Abbott won a gold medal in golf.

20th century

1901 – Constance M.K, at Harvard University, introduced field hockey to the women of the United States.

1905 – Women from Britain and America first play an international golf match, with the British winning 6 matches to 1.

1907 – Adine Masson and Yvonne de Pfoeffel, both of France, won the first women's doubles at the French Open.

1909 – Alice Huyler Ramsey became the first woman to drive across the United States, her home country.

1911 – Helene Britton was the first woman to own a major league team. She was the head director of the St. Louis Cardinals from 1911 to 1917.

1912 – Fanny Durack, from Australia, became the first female Olympic swimming champion at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden, when she won the women's 100 m freestyle event. Compatriot, Mina Wylie finished second, becoming the first female swimming silver medallist. This was also the first olympics to include women's diving.

1913 – Winifred McNair and Dora Boothby, both of Great Britain, won the first Wimbledon Championships ladies' doubles tournament.

1914 – U.S. women's basketball rules changed to allow half-court play.

1918 – Marie-Louise Ledru, a French athlete, has been credited as the first woman to race the now-defined marathon distance of 42.195 km. On September 29, 1918, Ledru reportedly completed the Tour de Paris Marathon in a time of 5 hours and 40 minutes and finished in 38th place. The International Association of Athletics Federations, the international governing body for the sport of athletics, however, recognizes Violet Piercy from England as having set the first women's world best in the marathon on October 3, 1926 with a time of 3:40:22.

1920 – Women's association football became popular on a large scale at the time of the First World War, when employment in heavy industry spurred the growth of the game, much as it had done for men fifty years earlier. The most successful team of the era was Dick, Kerr's Ladies of Preston, England. The team played in the first women's international matches in 1920, against a team from Paris, France, in April, and also made up most of the England team against a Scottish Ladies XI in 1920, and winning 22-0.

1920 – The first American women's field hockey team, All-Philadelphia team, competed internationally. Their application to the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium was denied, but they played in an English tournament and lost both games.

1921 – The 1921 Women's Olympiad, held in Monaco, was the first international women's sports event.

1921 – Following the Football Association ban on women's teams on 5 December, the English Ladies' Football Association was formed. A total of 24 teams entered the first competition in the spring of 1922.

1922 – The U.S. Field Hockey Association, the National Governing Body for field hockey in the United States, was established.

1922 – 1922 Women's World Games, held in Paris, included the first regular track and field competitions for women.

1922 – Margaret Molesworth, of Australia, won the first Ladies Singles at the Australian Open. Esna Boyd Robertson and Marjorie Mountain, both of Australia, won the first women's doubles.

1926 – The Amateur Athletic Union sponsored the first-ever American national women's basketball championship.

1926 – New York City native Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim the English Channel, which she did in fourteen hours, thirty-one minutes, beating the best time to date.

1926 – Violet Piercy, an English long-distance runner, was recognized by the International Association of Athletics Federations as having set the first women's world best in the marathon on 3 October with a time of 3:40:22. Piercy was reported to have run unofficially, and her mark was set on the Polytechnic Marathon course between Windsor and London.

1927 – The first Women's Boat Race between the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge was held on the The Isis in Oxford, England.

1927 – Women's Eights Head of the River Races began in London, England, one year after the first men's race.

1928 – The 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, Netherlands, included women's athletics and team gymnastics for the first time.

1930 – Frenchwomen Marguerite Mareuse and Odette Siko became the first women to race at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, finishing 7th overall.

1931 – Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis banned women from professional baseball in America. He felt that he needed to after a seventeen-year-old pitcher Virne Beatrice “Jackie” Mitchell stroked out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in an exhibition game.

1932 – Odette Siko became the first women to achieve a class win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and finished 4th overall, a record for a female driver.

1932 – The American Babe Didrikson was named the Associate Press Woman Athlete of the Year for track and field after she scored enough points at the AAU national meet to win the team championship by herself. She scored thirty points as a result of winning six gold medals and breaking four world records which totaled thirty points, eight points more than the whole second place team earned.

1934 – The inaugural international Women's Test cricket match took place between the England national women's cricket team and the Australia national women's cricket team in December. The following year, the New Zealand national women's cricket team played them.

1936 – The All American Red Heads Team, a barnstorming troupe similar to the Bloomer Girls, was formed. It is generally regarded as the first women's professional basketball team in America.

1936 – Ruth Hughes Aarons was the first American that won the world singles table tennis championship.

1937 – Grace Hudowalski was the ninth person and first woman to climb all 46 of the Adirondack High Peaks.

1937 – The first association football "Championship of Great Britain and the World" was played between Dick, Kerr's Ladies F.C. and Edinburgh City Girls.

1943 – The All-American Girls Softball League was formed under Chicago White Sox owner Philip Wrigley. The League gradually transformed into the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

1949 – Marcenia Lyle Alberga was the first woman to play a full season in a professional men’s baseball league in America.

1949 – Sara Christian became the first female NASCAR driver, racing in the inaugural race at Charlotte Speedway, even though she had Bob Flock finish the race. In the second official race at Daytona Beach and Road Course, also in 1949, Christian was joined by Ethel Mobley and Louise Smith, with Mobley finishing ahead of the 3, at 11th.

1949 – The inaugural women's Volleyball World Championship is held in the Soviet Union, three years after the inaugural men's event. It becomes the oldest and most important of all the international volleyball events organised by the FIVB.

1950 – Kathryn Johnston, only twelve years old, was the first girl to play Little League Baseball. She played for the King’s Dairy team in Corning, New York. Kathryn played at first base for the season, but then had to stop because of her age (she turned 13.) After that, a rule prohibited girls from playing in Little League; this was in force until 1974.

1951 – Betty Chapman was the first African-American professional softball player.

1952 – Patricia McCormick began bullfighting as a professional Matadora in January 1952, and was the first American to do so.

1953 – The first international women's basketball championship is held, including teams (in order of final standing) from the USA, Chile, France, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Peru, Mexico, Switzerland, Paraguay and Cuba.

1953 – Toni Stone, also known by her married name Marcenia Lyle Alberga, was the first of three women to play Negro league baseball, and thus the first woman to play as a regular on an American big-league professional baseball team.

1954 – The first international women's rowing races were introduced at the European Rowing Championships.

1954 – The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League played its last season.

1955 – The first LPGA championship was held in America.

1958 – Maria Teresa de Filippis of Italy was the first woman to compete in a European Grand Prix auto race.

1959 – Arlene Pieper became the first woman to officially finish a marathon in the United States when she finished the Pikes Peak Marathon.

1965 – The first international women's softball tournament was held in Melbourne, Australia, with the home country beating the US in the final, 1–0.

1966 – The first intercollegiate women's basketball tournament was played in Pennsylvania.

1966 – The American Roberta Louise "Bobbi" Gibb was the first woman to run the entire Boston Marathon.

1969 – The English Women's Football Association was formed.

1967 – The American Kathrine Switzer was the first woman to run the Boston Marathon as a numbered entry.

1967 – The first woman’s season champion in the World Cup of ski racing was Canada’s Nancy Greene.

1969 – Barbara Jo Rubin became the first female jockey to win a race in the United States.

1970s – Italy became the first country with professional women's association football players on a part-time basis.

1971 – The Football Association's ban on women's matches being played on members' grounds was lifted. In the same year, UEFA recommended that the women's game should be taken under the control of the national associations in each country.

1971 – Cheryl White, an American, became the first black female jockey.

1971 – The five-player, full-court game and the thirty-second shot clock was introduced to women's basketball in America.

1971 – The Amateur Athletic Union ruled that "certain women" could take part in marathons, provided they either started their race 10 minutes before or after the men or on a different starting line. The different starting line requirement was dropped in 1972.

1972 – The American President Richard Nixon signed Title IX of the Educational Amendment of 1972.

1972 – The American Nina Kuscsik became the first woman to officially win the Boston Marathon.

1973 – Billie Jean King won the "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match against Bobby Riggs in America.

1973 – The US Open was the first Grand Slam tournament to offer equal prize money.

1973 – Terry Williams Munz became the first woman in America awarded an athletic scholarship when she accepted a golf scholarship from the University of Miami.

1974 – Angela Hernandez (also known as Angela Hernandez Gomez and just Angela), of Spain, won a case in the Spanish Supreme Court allowing women to be bullfighters in Spain; a prohibition against women doing so was put in place in Spain in 1908.

1974 – The Women's Sports Foundation was created by Billie Jean King in America. It is "a charitable educational organization dedicated to increasing the participation of girls and women in sports and fitness and creating an educated public that supports gender equity in sport."

1974 – The first women's professional football league in America (WPFL) kicked off its inaugural season with seven teams.

1974 – Lanny Moss was the first woman to manage a professional men’s baseball team in America. She was hired by the minor league Portland Mavericks.

1974 – Girls were formally permitted to play in the Little League Baseball program as result of a lawsuit brought on behalf of Frances Pescatore and Jenny Fulle.

1975 – Junko Tabei of Japan became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

1976 – Krystyna Choynowski-Liskiewicz of Poland was the first woman to sail around the world solo, finishing on March 28.

1976 – In the first Women’s Professional Softball World Series Championship the Connecticut Falcons came out on top.

1976 – Nadia Comăneci, at the time a 15-year-old Romanian gymnast, won three Olympic gold medals at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada, and was the first gymnast to be awarded a perfect score of 10 in an Olympic gymnastic event.

1976 – Women's rowing was added to the Olympic Games programme at a distance of 1000 metres.

1977 – The American Janet Guthrie was the first woman to compete in the Indianapolis 500, and the first woman to lead a NASCAR Winston Cup Series (now Sprint Cup Series) event.

1977 – The American Shirley Muldowney was the first woman to win a (in the first of three) NHRA Winston Drag Racing Series, in the Top Fuel category.

1978 – Norwegian Grete Waitz won the New York City Marathon in 2:32:30, two minutes faster than the existing world record.

1979 – At the Pan-American Games the United States Women’s National Team won the gold medal.

1979 – Crystal Fields, only eleven years old, was the first girl to win a baseball Pitch, Hit, and Run competition in America. She competed against all boys in the finals.

1979 – At the second Ironman Triathlon held in Honolulu Hawaii, the American Lyn Lemaire placed sixth overall and became the first Ironwoman.

1980 – The first woman to run a mile under four and a half minutes was the American Mary Decker.

1981 – French rally driver Michèle Mouton became the first female driver to win overall at world championship event in rallying when she won the Rallye Sanremo.

1982 – Kathy Rude became the first woman to win a professional road race in the United States when she won her class at the 24 Hours of Daytona and later became the first woman to set a lap record at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

1982 – The National Collegiate Athletic Association began sponsoring women’s basketball.

1984 – The U.S. Women’s softball team won the championship in the first Women’s International Cup played in Los Angeles, beating China, 1–0.

1984 – Joan Benoit of the U.S. won the first Olympic marathon for women.

1985 – The distance for Women's rowing in the Olympic Games programme was extended to 2000 metres, the distance raced at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, and thereafter, consistent with men's rowing events at the Olympics.

1985 – A year after finishing 2nd (and winning her class) Michèle Mouton became the first woman to win overall and achieve the fastest record time at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.

1985 – The American Karyn Marshall became the first woman in history to clean and jerk over 300 lb (136 kg), with a 303 lb (137.5 kg) clean and jerk.

1985 – The American Libby Riddles became the first woman to win the Iditarod (Mary Shields was the first woman to complete the race in 1974, finishing 23rd).

1985 – The United States national soccer team was formed.

1986 – The American Ann Bancroft was the first woman to reach the North Pole by foot and dogsled, and "...she became the first known woman to cross the ice to the North Pole."

1987 – Tania Aebi completed a solo circumnavigation of the globe in a 26-foot sailboat between the ages of 18 and 21, making her the first American woman and the youngest person (at the time) to sail around the world.

1987 – The first women’s world championship in weightlifting was held; it was held in Daytona Beach, Florida and won by the American Karyn Marshall.

1988 – The first Henley Women's Regatta took place at Henley-on-Thames in England.

1988 – The American Shawna Robinson was the first woman to win a NASCAR-sanctioned stock car race, winning in the Charlotte/Daytona Dash Series at New Asheville Speedway.

1989 – Japan became the first country to have a semi-professional women's football league, the L. League, which is still in existence today.

1989 – Julie Croteau was the first woman to play NCAA baseball on first base for Division III St. Mary’s (MD) College in America.

1989 – Arantxa Sanchez, 17, becomes the youngest French Open Champion and the first Spanish woman to win a Grand Slam with a 7–6, 3–6, 75 victory over Steffi Graf.

1991 – All new sports applying to be included in the Olympic program were required to feature women’s events.

1991 – FIFA (the Fédération Internationale de Football Association) began the Women’s World Cup, which was won by the US Women’s Soccer Team.

1992 – Major League Baseball lifted the ban on the signing of women to contracts, a ban that had existed since 1952.

1992 – Manon Rheaume signed a contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning of the NHL, appearing in preseason exhibition games in 1992 and 1993. She spent 5 years in professional minor leagues, playing for a total of seven teams and appearing in 24 games. She also played on the Canada's Women's Ice Hockey Team, winning Gold Medals at the IIHF Women's World Championship in 1992 and 1994, and the Silver Medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.

1993 – Sherry Davies became the first woman public address announcer in major league baseball in America, working for the San Francisco Giants.

1993 – USA Boxing officially lifted its ban on women's boxing in 1993.

1993 – The American Julie Krone became the first female jockey to win a Triple Crown race when she won the Belmont Stakes.

1995 – Ila Borders was the first woman to pitch in a men’s collegiate baseball game in America.

1996 – Women’s soccer and women’s softball became medal sports at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta for the first time; both events were won by US teams.

1996 – Spalding Sports introduced the first baseball glove specifically designed to fit a woman’s hand.

1997 – The WNBA began in America.

1999 – Carolina Morace became the first female coach of a men's professional soccer team in Italy, signing a 2-year contract in June.

1999 – Swimmer Anna-Karin Kammerling of Sweden set a new world and European record in 50-meters butterfly with a time of 26.29 seconds in July.

1999 – Tegla Loroupe of Kenya set the world record for the one-hour run, covering 11 miles, 696 yards to beat by 272 yards the old mark set in 1981.

1999 – Tori Murden became the first woman and the first American to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean.

2000 – Holland’s Inge de Bruijn set two world records in two days at the Sheffield Super Grand Prix by taking the 100-meter butterfly record in 56.69 seconds, beating American Jenny Thompson's previous mark by 1.19 seconds. She broke her own 50-meter butterfly record in 25.64 and also tied the six-year-old 50-meter freestyle record in 24.51, set by China’s Le Jingyi.

2000 – Sandra Farmand of Germany won the World Cup snowboard women’s cross race, beating France’s Marjorie Ray and Austria's Manuela Riegler.

2000 – The Aggressive Skaters Association created the so-called "Fabiola Rule", after Fabiola da Silva, which allowed women to compete in the formerly all-male vert competition.

21st century

2001 – Jutta Kleinschmidt of Germany became the first woman to win the Paris–Dakar Rally.

2004 – Lilian Bryner of Switzerland became the first woman to win overall in an international 24-hour auto race when she helped to win the Spa 24 Hours.

2005 – The American Danica Patrick was the first woman to lead the Indianapolis 500.

2005 – The organizers of the New York City Marathon announced they would be rewarding the female champion $130,000, that is $30,000 more than its male winner received. This may be the first time a sporting event ever paid more to a female than a male in the same competition. It is also the largest first prize for any marathon.

2006 – Julie Wafaei of Canada became the first woman to row across the Atlantic Ocean from mainland to mainland in March.

2007 – A year following the French Open, the Wimbledon Championships was the last of the Grand Slam tournament to offer equal prize money.

2008 – The American Danica Patrick was the first woman to win an IndyCar Series by winning the 2008 Indy Japan 300.

2009 – Sarah Outen, from Britain, became the youngest person and the first woman to row alone across the Indian Ocean.

2010 – Roz Savage, from England, became the first woman to row solo across the Pacific Ocean.

2010 – The American Kelly Kulick won the 2010 PBA Tournament of Champions, where she was the first-ever female competitor in the field. This also made her the first woman to win any Professional Bowlers Association Tour event that was also open to men.

2011 – Leena Gade became the first female race engineer to win at 24 Hours of Le Mans.

2012 – The 2012 Summer Olympics in London were the first Games in which women competed in all sports in the program, and every participating country included female athletes. The U.S. Olympic team had more women than men for the first time — 269 female athletes to 261 men.

2012 – 16-year-old Dutch teen sailor Laura Dekker became the youngest person to sail solo around the world.

2012 - The World Rugby launches the competition now known as the World Rugby Women's Sevens Series, analogous to the men's World Rugby Sevens Series.

2013 – On her fifth attempt and at age 64, the American Diana Nyad was the first person confirmed to swim from Cuba to Florida without the protection of a shark cage, swimming from Havana to Key West.

2013 – Emily Bell became the first woman to kayak the length of Britain.

2014 – At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, Torah Bright, from Australia, became the first woman to qualify for three snowboard disciplines; specifically snowboard cross, halfpipe and slopestyle. The first women competed in ski jumping at the Olympics.

2014 – Alia Atkinson, from Jamaica, won the 100m breaststroke at the 2014 Short Course World Championships in Doha (equalling the record set by Rūta Meilutytė in 2013), becoming the first black woman to win a world swimming title.

2014 – Abbey Holmes became the first woman to kick 100 goals in one regular season of Australian Rules football.

2014 – Annabel Anderson, from New Zealand, became the first woman to cross Cook Strait standing on a paddleboard.

2014 – The longest triathlon ever was completed in 2014 by Norma Bastidas, born in Mexico and living in Canada at the time; her triathlon was a total of 3,762 miles with 2,932 miles of biking, 735 miles of running, and 122 miles of swimming, although only 95 miles of the swimming counted because her GPS was not working for 27 miles.

2014 – Peta Searle became the first woman appointed as a development coach in the Australian Football League when she was chosen by St Kilda as a development coach.

2014 – 16-year-old Katie Ormerod, from Britain, became the first female snowboarder to land a backside double cork 1080.

2014 – Shelby Osborne became the first female defensive back in American football when she was drafted by Campbellsville University in Kentucky.

2014 – Amélie Mauresmo, from France, became the first woman to coach a top male tennis player (specifically, Andy Murray.)

2014 – Gabrielle Augustine pitched the final two innings for Hunter's Inn, thus becoming the first woman to play in the Glenwood Baseball League, which is the longest-running amateur baseball league in the United States, founded in 1920.

2014 – Tara Remington from New Zealand and Angela Madsen from California became the first female pair of rowers to cross the Pacific Ocean from California to Hawaii; this trip also made Angela Madsen the first paraplegic to row from California to Hawaii.

2014 – Michele A. Roberts was elected as the new Executive Director of the National Basketball Players Association, thus making her the first woman to be elected to the highest position of a major sport’s players association within the United States.

2014 – Corinne Diacre became the first woman to coach a men's professional soccer team (Clermont Foot) in a competitive match in France on August 4, 2014, her 40th birthday.

2014 – Andrea Skews became the first woman to complete the Birdsville Track run from Marree, South Australia, to Birdsville, Queensland.

2014 – Nicola Scaife, from Australia, won the first women's hot air balloon world championship, which was held in Poland.

2014 – Cecilia Brækhus, from Norway, became the first Norwegian and the first woman to hold all major world championship titles in her weight division (welterweight) in boxing.

2014 – Amy Hughes, from England, ran 53 marathons in 53 days, thus setting the record for the most marathons run on consecutive days by any person, male or female.

2014 – Kelly Xu, of Santa Monica, Calif., won the girls 7–9 division in the Drive, Chip and Putt Championship, thus becoming the first female champion ever crowned at Augusta National Golf Club.

2014 – After an announcement on May 31, women competed in medieval combat as a sport for the first time at the International Medieval Combat Federation (IMCF) world championship. American Amy Graham and the women's melee team USA Valkyries (Sandra Lagnese, Karen Prentice, Kati Takacs, Suzanne Lyons Elleraas) won gold medals.

2015 – Mieko Nagaoka, a 100-year-old Japanese woman, became the first centenarian to complete a 1500m swim in a 25-meter pool; specifically, she completed 30 laps of the pool in 1 hour, 15 minutes, 54 seconds, in a masters event in Matsuyama, Japan.

2015 – The first African-Americans to place in the top three spots at the 100 yard freestyle in any Women’s Division I NCAA Swimming Championship were: Simone Manuel, Lia Neal, and Natalie Hinds in that order.

2015 – Saina Nehwal became the first Indian women's player to be World No.1 in badminton.

2015 – Diane Reid became the first Canadian woman to be appointed as skipper in the world’s longest ocean race, the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race. In the same race, Wendy Tuck became the first Australian woman to be appointed as skipper.

2015 – Alia Al Shamsi became the first Emirati female swimmer to represent the country’s national team, which she did at the Arab Age Group Swimming Championships.

2015 – At the age of two, Dolly Shivani Cherukuri became the youngest Indian to score more than 200 points in archery; she thus set an Indian record as the youngest person to consistently hit a target with an arrow. She fired 36 arrows at a target 5m away, then again at a target 7m away, for a total of 388 points.

2015 – The 70th Women's Boat Race was held on The Championship Course in London, England on the same day as the traditional male event for the first time on April 11.

2015 – The World Series of Poker Circuit had its first female main event champion when the American Michelle Chin won the Horseshoe Council Bluffs $1,675 Main Event.

2015 – Kieran Ballard-Tremeer, from South Africa, became the first woman to swim around the Palm Jumeirah; she completed the 14.5 km-distance swim around it in a time of four hours and 28 minutes, swimming inside the breakwater of Palm Jumeirah.

2015 – The American McKenna Haase became the first woman to win a feature Sprint Car race at Knoxville Raceway.

2015 – The first American all-girls national baseball tournament was held.

2015 – The first known all-girls tackle football league in America, the Utah Girls Tackle Football League, was formed.

2015 – Melissa Mayeux of France became the first female baseball player to be added to Major League Baseball's international registration list.

2015 – The 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup in Canada was the first one with 24 teams, teams from every continent.

2015 – New Zealand native Kim Chambers became the first woman to swim the 30-mile stretch between the Farallon Islands and San Francisco.

2015 – Tickets for the Women's Singles final of the 2015 US Open sell out faster than the Men's final, a first in tournament history.

2015 – Sarah Taylor, from England, became the first woman to play men’s grade cricket in Australia, when she appeared as wicketkeeper for Northern Districts against Port Adelaide at Salisbury Oval in South Australia’s premier men’s competition.

2015 – Afghanistan held its first marathon; among those who ran the entire marathon was one woman, Zainab, age 25, who thus became the first Afghan woman to run in a marathon within her own country.

2015 – Michelle Payne, from Australia, became the first female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup.

2015 – Michelle Rowe, from the United Kingdom, became the first woman to walk the length of Malawi.

2016 – Kaillie Humphries, from Canada, became the first woman to drive an all-female team against men in a four-person World Cup bobsled race on January 9; her teammates were Cynthia Appiah, Genevieve Thibault and Melissa Lotholz.

2016 - The 2016 Olympic Games in Rio included men's and women's rugby sevens—with the women's tournament being given absolute equality with the men's in terms of both player and team numbers.

2016 – Chan Yuen-ting of Hong Kong became the first woman to coach a men's professional association football (meaning soccer) team to the championship of a nation's top league.

2017 - Chan Yuen-ting of Hong Kong became the first woman to coach a male football (meaning soccer) club in a top-flight continental competition when she managed a team against Guangzhou Evergrande in the AFC Champions League.