10.  A Blooming Climber. Mountain climbing is a challenging and cold extreme sport. But could you do it in bloomers* like Julia Archibald Holmes did when she conquered all 14,110 feet of Pike’s Peak on August 5, 1858? She was the first woman to reach the summit.

9.  Females on the Field. Traditionally, college baseball has been about hotdogs, peanuts, and male players. But in 1866, women from Vassar College stepped onto the field as part of the first female baseball team.

8.  Proving a Point. Katie Hnida got down and dirty in 2003 when she became the first woman to play and score in a NCAA Division I football game.

7.  A Fight to the Top. Giselle Salandy, a female boxer from Trinidad and Tobago, is known for knocking down the competition. In 2006, she won five Junior Middleweight world title belts in one day. She was only 19 years old.

6.  Vaulting to Victory. At the 1996 Olympics, American gymnast Kerri Strug fell on her first attempt at the vault. She seriously injured her ankle, but decided to vault one more time. She landed perfectly on one foot to secure the gold medal for Team USA.

5.  Williams vs. Williams. Talk about sibling rivalry! Serena Williams showed that little sisters can conquer on the tennis court when defeated her older sister, Venus, at Wimbledon and the French and US Opens in 2002.

4.  Motorcycle Madness. Motocross* is fast and dirty, but that didn’t stop 13-year-old Ashley Fiolek in 2004 when she became the first deaf person to win an AMA Motocross Championship. Now 17, Ashley has won more than 100 races.

3.  A New Kind of Coach. When the American Basketball Association's Nashville Rhythm played in 2004, one woman was behind it all. Ashley McElhiney was the first female head coach of a professional men’s basketball team.

2.  Spiking to Success. For those who think men’s volleyball isn’t for women, think again. In 1997, Allison Ahlfeldt became the first woman to play on the US Men’s Paralympic Volleyball Team. She “bumped and set” with a prosthetic* leg.

1.  Signing Title IX. In 1972, President Nixon signed legislation to end sex-based discrimination in educational activities and programs. Title IX made it illegal to discriminate against women and girls in college and high school athletics. Many of these sports moments would not have been possible without Title IX!

Definitions:
*Bloomers: a women’s garment of loose trousers gathered at the knee.
*Motocross: a form of motorcycle racing on unpaved terrain.
*Prosthetic: artificial.