Ronda Rousey and 19 Other Ultra Popular Female Athletes
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Do you know any tough guys who tend to put down women's sports? We bet they wouldn't last a minute against Ronda Rousey. The mixed martial arts (MMA) champion was once voted the best female athlete of all time. Now she is taking on her next big challenge: becoming a mom.
Rousey is living proof that women athletes are just as tough as their male counterparts. And she's still dominating the world. All you have to do is look at the most Googled female athletes today.
20. Miesha Tate
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Born: Aug. 18, 1986
Country: United States
Sport: MMA
Career highlights: Won the Strikeforce woman's bantamweight championship in 2011, silver medal in the FILA Grappling Championships
Annual global searches: 2,098,980
*These female athlete rankings are based on global Google search stats from May 2020 to May 2021 and were sourced by SportsShoes.com.
Bottom Line: Miesha Tate
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Miesha Theresa Tate is an MMA artist who's best known for her extraordinary grappling skills. She first took up wrestling at Franklin Pierce High School in Tacoma, Washington, winning a state championship as a senior.
When Tate began fighting seriously, the UFC still didn't have women's divisions. UFC president Dana White has cited Tate's 2012 Strikeforce fight with Ronda Rousey as a big reason why the UFC started a women's division.
Tate went on to become a UFC bantamweight champion, then a fitness model, and was featured in 2015's feature film "Fight Valley."
19. Sarah Fuller
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Born: June 20, 1999
Country: United States
Sport: Soccer, football
Career highlights: First woman to play in a football game for a Power Five conference team, first woman to score in a Power Five football game
Annual global searches: 2,165,910
Bottom Line: Sarah Fuller
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Sarah Fuller is a new addition to the list of pioneering female athletes. She became a starter on Vanderbilt's soccer team in 2020, but that's not what she's famous for. She's also a college football placekicker and is the first woman to score in a Power Five football game.
Her success is, in part, due to her size. Her parents are 6-foot-2 and 5-foot-10, and she ended up a towering 6-foot-2 herself. She started out in soccer. However, her power on the field drew the attention of the school's football coaches who thought she would be a fantastic addition to their team.
They were right, and her groundbreaking accomplishments have not gone unnoticed by some of the most powerful people in the world. You know what we call that? A woman leading like a woman.
18. Laila Ali
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Born: Dec. 30, 1977
Country: United States
Sport: Boxing
Career highlights: Held WBC, WIBA, IWBF and IBA female super middleweight titles and the IWBF light heavyweight title, retired undefeated
Annual global searches: 2,240,270
Bottom Line: Laila Ali
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Laila Amaria Ali was a pro boxer from 1999 to 2007. As one might assume from her last name, she's the daughter of renowned fighter Muhammad Ali — the eighth of her father's nine kids. Inspired by her dad and tough-as-nails Christy Martin, she began boxing herself.
Her dad was less than thrilled for his daughter to take on such a tough sport, but she wasn't dissuaded in the slightest. When she was 21, tons of fans and press attended her first professional first fight.
She went on to hold multiple female super middleweight titles and the IWBF light heavyweight title, retiring from the sport undefeated.
17. Mikaela Shiffrin
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Born: March 13, 1995
Country: United States
Sport: Alpine skiing
Career highlights: Three-time overall World Cup champion, four-time world champion in slalom, youngest slalom champion in Olympic history at 18 years and 345 days
Annual global searches: 2,450,630
Bottom Line: Mikaela Shiffrin
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Mikaela Pauline Shiffrin broke records before she was legally old enough to drink. She was the youngest Olympic slalom champion ever, winning 20 days short of her 19th birthday. She also won the U.S. nationals in Colorado shortly after turning 16, becoming the youngest American skier to hold a national alpine skiing title.
After becoming a four-time world champion and six-time World Cup winner in slalom, everyone wanted to know more about Shiffrin's story. In 2014, she was featured in a one-hour special on NBC called "How to Raise an Olympian."
She also played "Catch Phrase" with Reese Witherspoon shortly after winning her first gold medal.
16. Ellyse Perry
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Born: Nov. 3, 1990
Country: New South Wales, Australia
Sport: Cricket
Career highlights: Women's cricket World Cup champion in 2013, 11-time Women's National Cricket League champion
Annual global searches: 2,530,550
Bottom Line: Ellyse Perry
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Australian athlete Ellyse Alexandra Perry made her professional debut when she was just 16, playing for both the national soccer team and national cricket team. She's the youngest Australian to play cricket internationally. While she was an excellent soccer player, she opted to narrow her focus and pursue only cricket from 2014 on. Since she's widely considered to be one of the GOAT female cricket players, we're going to say that was a good call.
Perry was the first player to earn a combined 1,000 runs and 100 wickets, and her contributions have led to six world championship wins for Australia, 11 WNCL championships with New South Wales and two WBBL championships with the Sydney Sixers.
Even as a high-level competitive athlete, Perry stays true to her roots. She spends hours practicing with her dad, Mark, who doubles as her coach. Her dedication and sportsmanship have been noted by many. Fellow player Lisa Sthalekar even described her as "the ultimate professional."
15. Caster Semenya
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Born: Jan. 7, 1991
Country: South Africa
Sport: Middle-distance running
Career highlights: Two Olympic gold medals, three World Championship titles
Annual global searches: 2,608,910
Bottom Line Caster Semenya
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Mokgadi Caster Semenya is a middle-distance runner with an intriguing story. She was born with XY chromosomes and naturally elevated testosterone levels, but she was assigned female at birth. After winning the 2009 World Championships, she was forced to undergo sex testing before being cleared to continue competing. She went on to win multiple gold medals at both the World Championships and the Olympic Games in 2012 and 2016.
Unfortunately, new regulations were enacted in 2019 that prohibited intersex women from participating in 400-meter, 800-meter and 1500-meter events in the female classification if they didn't suppress their testosterone levels with medication. In 2021, Semenya fought back by filing an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights against the new rules.
She has been recognized for both her athletic prowess and social activism by numerous outlets, with New Statesman magazine stating that she had instigated "an international and often ill-tempered debate on gender politics, feminism, and race, becoming an inspiration to gender campaigners around the world."
She was also awarded the South African Sportswoman of the Year Award in 2012 and was named one of Time's 100 Most Influential People of 2019.
14. Sue Bird
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Born: Oct. 16, 1980
Country: United States
Sport: Basketball
Career highlights: Four WNBA championship titles, four Olympic gold medals, two NCAA championship titles and four FIBA World Cups
Annual global searches: 2,934,770
Bottom Line: Sue Bird
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Suzanne Brigit Bird, born in 1980, is currently the oldest player in the Women's National Basketball Association at the age of 40. She was drafted in 2002 and has played for the Seattle Storm and three different teams in Russia. She also had a front office job with the NBA's Denver Nuggets.
In 2017, she made waves with renowned soccer player Megan Rapinoe when she announced that the pair had been dating for months. A year later, they became the first same-sex couple on the front cover of ESPN The Magazine's "Body Issue."
On Oct. 30, 2020, the couple announced their engagement. They've been hailed as pioneers for LGBTQ athletes around the world.
13. Rose Namajunas
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Born: June 29,1992
Country: United States
Sport: MMA
Career highlights: Two-time and current UFC women's strawweight world champion, ranked No. 3 in the UFC women's pound-for-pound rankings as of April 26, 2021
Annual global searches: 3,217,310
Bottom Line: Rose Namajunas
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Rose Namajunas's grandfather was a national wrestling champion in Lithuania, and she must have inherited some of his talent.
Her childhood was fraught with challenges, including sexual abuse and a father who suffered from schizophrenia, abandoned the family and died while she was still a teenager. Namajunas was primarily raised in a rough area of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she earned the nickname "Thug Rose" because of how tiny and tough she was.
The name stuck, and "Thug" currently holds the UFC Women's Strawweight World Champion title.
12. Holly Holm
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Born: Oct. 17, 1981
Country: United States
Sport: MMA, boxing
Career highlights: First, and so far only, fighter to hold a world boxing title and UFC title, multiple-time world boxing champion
Annual global searches: 3,466,430
Bottom Line: Holly Holm
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Holly Rene Holm is one of the biggest names in MMA. She won the world championship in boxing and defended her title 18 times in three different weight classes, and she was named fighter of the year twice by Ring magazine.
For all her success in the boxing ring, she may be best known for her win at UFC 193 in Melbourne, Australia, in 2015. In a major upset, she beat Ronda Rousey (Rousey's first loss in the sport) and won the bantamweight championship title in front of a crowd of over 56,000.
Today, BoxRec still ranks her as the best female pro boxer of all time, and she's ranked number two in the UFC women's bantamweight rankings. She also was profiled in "Women Boxers: The New Warriors," a photography book featuring the stories of women who challenge the views of what it means to be feminine.
11. Megan Rapinoe
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Born: July 5, 1985
Country: United States
Sport: Soccer
Career highlights: First player, male or female, to score a goal directly from the corner at the Olympics, named the best FIFA women's player in 2019, won gold at the Olympics in 2012
Annual global searches: 3,524,190
Bottom Line: Megan Rapinoe
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Megan Anna Rapinoe captains OL Reign in the National Women's Soccer League and is co-captain of the U.S. national women's team, and her skills on the field are hard to miss. Her fast, calculated and precise moves inspire viewers to wonder aloud, "Who is that?"
In the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup during a particularly close match against Brazil, her pass to teammate Abby Wambach was largely responsible for the team's win. It was awarded ESPN's ESPY Award for Best Play of the Year.
In addition to her countless trophies (including an Olympic gold medal), Rapinoe is known for her activism. She's an advocate for several LGBTQ organizations and cofounded a gender-neutral brand called re-inc. Her hard work on and off the field earned her a place on Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2020.
10. Valentina Schevchenko
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Born: March 7, 1988
Country: Kyrgyzstan
Sport: MMA
Career highlights: Current UFC women's flyweight champion, ranked No. 2 in UFC women's pound-for-pound rankings as of Nov. 23, 2020
Annual global searches: 3,617,710
Bottom Line: Valentina Schevchenko
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Valentina Anatolievna Shevchenko is a former Muay Thai fighter and a current MMA fighter who packs an impressive punch. Hailing from Kyrgyzstan, she competes in the UFC's flyweight division and is the division's reigning champion.
For her, fighting was hardly a choice. With her elder sister, Antonina Shevchenko, also competing in the UFC, fighting was practically part of her DNA. At age 12, Valentina Shevchenko stunned the audience by knocking out a 22-year-old opponent. She was nicknamed "Bullet" for her agility and speed, and the rest is history.
In her spare time out of the ring, Shevchenko earned a degree in Film Directing at the National Academy of Arts of the Kyrgyz Republic.
9. Maria Sharapova
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Born: April 19, 1987
Country: Russia
Sport: Tennis
Career highlights: Five Grand Slam titles and 36 titles in total
Annual global searches: 4,418,870
Bottom Line: Maria Sharapova
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Maria Sharapova was long viewed as Venus William's biggest rival. Born in Russia but residing in the U.S. since 1994, Sharapova competed on the Women's Tennis Association Tour for a record-breaking 19 years, from 2001 to 2020. She was ranked No. 1 in the world by the WTA not once, but five times. She's the only Russian and one of only 10 women to hold a Grand Slam career title.
She also won a silver medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Her longevity is one of the most impressive elements of her career. Few athletes compete for as many years as Sharapova did. She was named one of Time's "30 Legends of Women's Tennis, Past, Present and Future" in 2011, and Forbes ranked her as the highest-paid female athlete in the world for 11 years straight.
Now that her competitive tennis days are behind her, she has moved on to modeling for numerous brands, including Nike and Cole Haan, and recently launched a program to help coach and inspire women entrepreneurs.
8. Amanda Nunes
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Born: May 30, 1988
Country: Brazil
Sport: MMA
Career highlights: Current UFC champion of the women's bantamweight and featherweight divisions, first woman to become a two-division UFC champion, third fighter ever to hold titles in two classes at the same time
Annual global searches: 4,537,240
Bottom Line: Amanda Nunes
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Amanda Lourenco Nunes is the reigning champ of both the UFC's bantamweight and featherweight divisions. She's the first woman to become a UFC champion in two divisions, and only the third fighter in UFC history to do so.
Since June 2, 2020, she's been ranked No. 1 in the UFC women's pound-for-pound rankings. It's not surprising that she's widely believed to be the best women's MMA artist of her era.
Nunes is a UFC groundbreaker in more ways than one. She's the first openly lesbian UFC champion, married to fellow UFC fighter Nina Ansaroff. She consistently attributes her success in the ring to their happy, supportive relationship. In 2020, Ansaroff also gave birth to the couple's first child, a daughter named Raegan.
7. Joanna Jedrzejczyk
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Born: Aug. 18, 1987
Country: Poland
Sport: MMA, kickboxing
Career highlights: One UFC women's strawweight title, currently ranked second in the UFC women's strawweight rankings and fifth in UFC women's pound-for-pound rankings
Annual global searches: 5,595,360
Bottom Line: Joanna Jedrzejczyk
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Joanna Jedrzejczyk took up Muay Thai almost by accident. At 16, she decided to start working out and discovered the sport at the gym she trained at, eventually competing in national and European tournaments.
She won five gold medals and one silver in the IFMA (amateur league), plus five world titles in the WKN World Championship, J Girls Championship, WBKF Championship, WKF European Championship and the WMC Championship. Throughout her professional career, she won 27 matches and lost only three.
But Jedrzejczyk's success hasn't been without bumps in the road. Trash-talking is a common part of the sport, but Jedrzejczyk insulted her opponent, Rose Namajunas, by bringing her previously mentioned mental health challenges into the conversation. She claimed to be unaware of her mental health history, but fans of Namajunas are still skeptical.
6. Smriti Mandhana
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Born: July 18, 1996
Country: India
Sport: Cricket
Career highlights: Named the best women's international cricketer by India's Board of Control for Cricket in 2018 and awarded the Rachael Heyhoe-Flint Award for best female cricketer of the year by the International Cricket Council
Annual global searches: 5,923,860
Bottom Line: Smriti Mandhana
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Smriti Shriniwas Mandhana was inspired to play cricket after watching her brother play competitively. Her entire family is all about the game, so they were thrilled when she was chosen for Maharashtra's under-15 team when she was only 9. Two years later, she was selected for the under-19 team.
Her family is still highly involved in her athletic career. Her father plans her program, her mother plans her nutrition, and her brother bowls to her in the nets to help her practice. She has won several awards, including being named ODI Player of the Year by the International Cricket Council.
5. Paige VanZant
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Born: March 26, 1994
Country: United States
Sport: MMA
Career highlights: Won a UFC Fight of the Night and Performance of the Night title, went on to guest star on "Chopped" and "Dancing with the Stars"
Annual global searches: 6,330,600
Bottom Line: Paige VanZant
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Paige Michelle VanZant is an American mixed martial artist who signed to the flyweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. More recently, she signed to fight exclusively in the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship, a brutal sport with minimal padding and no boxing gloves.
VanZant is a triple threat: tough, beautiful and bright. She's also a model, an author and has appeared on both "Dancing with the Stars" and "Chopped."
4. Tonya Harding
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Born: Nov. 12, 1970
Country: United States
Sport: Figure skating
Career highlights: 1989 Skate America champion, 1991 and 1994 U.S. champion (later stripped of the 1994 title), 1991 world silver medalist, became the first American woman to land a triple axel in competition
Annual global searches: 7,254,410
Bottom Line: Tonya Harding
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Tonya Harding is far from being the only talented figure skater, but her name has definitely generated the most notoriety. She began skating at the age of 4 and became so serious about the sport that she dropped out of high school to train. Her story from there is something between tragedy and triumph.
She became the first American woman to land a triple axel in competition, the second woman to do so ever. From there, her career hit a downward spiral. Her ex-husband planned an attack on her competitor, Nancy Kerrigan. After accepting a plea bargain, Harding was banned from the United States Figure Skating Association for life.
Despite the harsh turn of events, she went on to compete as a professional boxer, and her life became the subject of several books and movies, including 2017's "I, Tonya."
3. Serena Williams
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Born: Sept. 26, 1981
Country: United States
Sport: Tennis
Career highlights: Most Grand Slam titles in singles, doubles and mixed doubles combined among active players, most U.S. Open titles won, only tennis player to have won three of the four grand slams at least six times
Annual global searches: 7,462,710
Bottom Line: Serena Williams
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Serena Williams is widely considered to be the greatest female tennis player of all time, with far too many titles and awards to list. In 2021, she ranked 28th on Forbes' Highest-Paid Athletes list and remains the highest-earning female athlete of all time.
Today, she is married to the cofounder of Reddit, Alexis Ohanian. The couple have a daughter, nicknamed Olympia, who also plays tennis. Williams has signed with countless brands over the years and is the CSO (chief sporting officer) for Aston Martin.
She has also launched her own clothing lines focused on inclusivity, appeared on numerous TV shows and won several awards for social activism.
2. Alex Morgan
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Born: July 2, 1989
Country: United States
Sport: Soccer
Career highlights: Only American woman aside from Mia Hamm to score 20 goals and provide 20 assists in one calendar year, named U.S. Soccer Female Athlete of the Year, helped win two FIFA Women's World Cups
Annual global searches: 8,446,340
Bottom Line: Alex Morgan
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American pro soccer player Alex Morgan is best known for co-captaining the United States women's national soccer team alongside Carli Lloyd and Megan Rapinoe from 2018 to 2020.
When Morgan made her pro debut, she was only 22, the youngest player on the national team. In 2015, she was recognized by Time as the highest-paid American women's soccer player and was named one of the 100 Most Influential People of 2019.
In the middle of her remarkable athletic career, she somehow found time to write a four-book, middle-grade series called "The Kicks." The novels were written to encourage young girls to pursue their athletic and leadership goals.
1. Ronda Rousey
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Born: Feb. 1, 1987
Country: United States
Sport: MMA, wrestling
Career highlights: First female fighter to be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame, only woman to win a championship in both the UFC and WWE, only woman to headline a pay-per-view event for both companies
Annual global searches: 21,666,500
Bottom Line: Ronda Rousey
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Ronda Rousey was born in Riverside, California, the youngest of three. She knew early on that she didn't want to follow a traditional career path and began practicing judo with her mom when she was 11. Two years later, Ronda accidentally broke her mom's wrist and moved on to training in a traditional setting.
She was the youngest judoka to qualify for the 2004 Olympic Games at age 17. She went on to medal at the 2008 Olympics and retired from judo at 21. From there, she went on to have an illustrious career in MMA fighting, becoming the first female fighter to sign with the UFC.
Known worldwide for her signature fighting style, Rousey also has appeared in numerous movies, including "Entourage" and "Furious 7," and was the first female athlete to guest host ESPN's "SportsCenter."
Rousey is married to UFC fighter Travis Browne, and on April 21, 2021, Rousey announced she was four months pregnant with the couple's first child together.