Mildred "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias (Athletics, golf) - Born in 1912, Mildred Didrikson earned the sobriquet Babe for the manner in which she was able to clout a baseball (Babe Ruth). An all American in several sports, she won championships in basketball, cycling, tennis and shooting but became an American icon for her performance in two other codes, athletics and golf. In the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles she won gold medals in the javelin and 80 metres hurdles. She switched to golf in her mid-20s and in 1947 won 17 straight amateur titles - she was the first amateur to win the British women's championship. The following year she turned professional. She won 10 Majors (four as an amateur) and 33 tournament titles.

Fanny Blankers Koen (Athletics) - Born in 1918, this Dutch heroine enjoyed a marvellous career spanning 19 years. She set numerous world records at events stretching from the 80 metres hurdles to the pentathlon. Between 1936 and 1955 she won 58 national titles in individual events. She began setting world records (the 100 metres, high jump and long jump) in 1943, a year after the birth of her first child. She had to wait though until the 1948 Olympics in London, when as a 30-year-old mother of two, she grasped sporting immortality by winning four gold medals. She set a pentathlon world record in 1951.

Martina Navratilova (Tennis) - The dominant force in the women's game from 1978 until 1990 when she won a record breaking ninth Wimbledon. The Czech-born American citizen won 18 grand slam singles titles - nine Wimbledon, four US Open, three French and two Australian Opens. She also accumulated 31 doubles grand slam titles, many with Pam Shriver, and seven mixed titles, making her arguably the most complete women's tennis player of all time. She won her first Wimbledon in 1978 beating Chris Evert in the final. She retained the title the following year and from 1982-90 she appeared in nine consecutive Wimbledon finals, winning the first six and the last. She won 167 singles and 165 doubles titles, more than any man or woman.

Dawn Fraser (Swimming) - The Australian dominated the sport between 1956 and 1964, winning golds medals at the 100 metres freestyle in the 1956, '60 and '64 Olympics. Noted for her individualism, it guaranteed several brushes with authority, most notably at the Tokyo Games which brought her a 10-year ban and effectively ended her career.

Nadia Comaneci (Gymnastics) - Burst into the public consciousness as a 14-year-old at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, completely upstaging the star of the 1972 Games, Olga Korbut. Comaneci won three gold medals, a silver and a bronze, and became the first Olympic gymnast to record a perfect mark of 10 for her performance on the beam - she went on to achieve perfection in several events. She was awarded the Hero of the Socialist Labour Medal, the highest honour in Romania. At the 1980 Olympics in Moscow she won another two gold medals, but was cheated out of another for the all round gold which went to a local, Russian Yelena Davydova.

Jackie Joyner-Kersee (Athletics) - Competed in four Olympics and the premier pentathlete of the last 20 years up until her retirement in 1998. Joyner-Kersee first came to prominence in the 1984 Olympics when finishing second in the heptathlon to Australia's Glynis Nunn. She managed fifth in the long jump. Four years later in Seoul she won gold medals in the long jump and heptathlon, setting a world record of 7,291 points in the latter event, a mark which still stands today. In the 1992 Barcelona Olympics she won a second heptathlon gold and a bronze medal in the long jump. She also won four World Championships gold medals.