Sports Hero of the Decade

Mildred "Babe" Didrickson Zaharias earned the nickname Babe because of her prodigious ability to hit home runs in baseball. She entered the US national championships at 18 and won the shotput, baseball throw, long jump, hurdles, high jumps and javelin events winning enough events to win the team championship on her own. At the LA Olympics in 1932, she won the javelin event with one throw, ran a world record 80-metre hurdles, tied in a world record for the high jump but was disqualified for using the flop style later made famous by Dick Fosbury. After the Olympics she turned pro, forming her own basketball team, playing exhibition billiards and taking up golf. She had a glowing golf career, winning 40 tournaments in less than four years and 17 in a row at one stage. She was a founder member of the Ladies Professional Golf Association.