Widely considered the greatest female athlete of the 20th century, Zaharias competed, and excelled, in a number of sports. She set four world records and won three medals in track and field at the 1932 Olympics when she was just 21 years old. She won medals in a running event (80-meter hurdles), a jumping event (high jump) and a throwing event (javelin), thus becoming the only athlete, male or female, to win medals in all of those disciplines.
In 1935, she then took up golf where she helped found the LPGA Tour and won 48 total golf events including 10 major championships. By 1950, she had won every golf tournament there was to win — both amateur and professional — and was inducted into the LPGA a year later.
Zaharias also dabbled in other sports during her career, including winning the AAU Championship in basketball and being the only woman on a traveling male hoops team. In 1934, she pitched two scoreless innings in an MLB Spring Training game, where she shut out the Cleveland Indians.
Outside of athletics, Zaharias served as a public advocate for cancer awareness at a time when many refused treatment for the disease. Colon cancer took her life in 1956, but Zaharias, who won her final two golf tournaments, was still the top-ranked female golfer in the world at the time of her death.
