Hydna of Scione
Ancient Greek swimmer and diver given credit for contributing to the destruction of the Persian navy in 480 BCE
Category Archives: Sports > Swimming
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Dr Margaret Downing
Margaret Downing was a pioneer in women’s sports, especially basketball, in Arkansas in the second half of the twentieth century.
Margaux Isaksen
Margaux Isaksen was a world-class competitor in the modern pentathlon, an Olympic sport in which athletes compete in fencing (one-touch épée), freestyle swimming, equestrian show jumping, pistol shooting, and cross-country running. A three-time Olympian, Isaksen first started competing at the international level when she was fifteen.
Edwina Brocklesby
Edwina Brocklesby, who would go on to be the U.K.’s oldest Ironman triathlete and founder and director of Silverfit, which promotes physical activity among older people, “didn’t do any exercise at all until I was 50.”
Amy Appelhans Gubser
In 2024, 55-year-old Amy Appelhans Gubser made headlines like “This Grandmother Swam 30 Miles Through Shark-Infested Waters to Set a Record.”
Madonna Buder
Sister Madonna Buder, also known as the “Iron Nun,” competed in her first triathlon in 1982 at age 52—and then did around 400 more over the next four decades.
Melinda Cockshutt
The month after her 50th birthday, Australian athlete Melinda Cockshutt won the women’s division of the 2024 Ultraman Australia triathlon, as well as being the oldest woman to complete the race.
Delores Brumfield White
Delores Brumfield (Dee) White began playing in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) as a young teenager in the post–World War II years, helping take the Fort Wayne Daisies to two league championships. She later taught physical education and was a coach at Henderson State University (HSU) in Arkadelphia (Clark County).
Mary Kate Callahan
She helped spearhead a lawsuit against the Illinois High School Association to allow disabled swimmers to take part in the state meet along with their able-bodied classmates.
Sara Mardini
Syrian swimmer and human rights activist