Didrikson Zaharias, Mildred

Personal data:
NAME:	Mildred Ella "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias
DATE OF BIRTH:	June 26, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH:	Port Arthur, Texas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION:	American track and field athlete female golfer Participation in the Olympic Games
DATE OF DEATH:	September 27th, 1956
PLACE OF DEATH:	Galveston, Texas

Mildred Didrikson qualified in five different track and field competitions, but was only allowed to participate in three of them due to the statutes.

The Texas prodigy was already unbeatable as a teenager in disciplines such as throwing and running and later she convinced as a tennis player, boxer, in baseball and track and field.

Faced with so much talent, the officials met her with suspicion.
She drew particular anger from her active participation in professional sports, particularly playing on a male baseball team.
Her teammates nicknamed her "Babe" after baseball legend Babe Ruth.

The Shared Victory

As for the competitions, Mildred Didrikson chose javelin throwing at the Olympics and won gold, for 80-meter hurdles won gold and set a new world record, and for the high jump.

In her last competition, however, the athlete jumped the same height as her teammate Jean Shiley in the final.

However, the judges decided to demote her to second place because of her head first jumping style. Disagreeing with this decision, the two women subsequently had their medals melted down and kept a newly melted silver-gold alloy.

After this success, Mildren Didrikson turned to a new challenge, golf.
Her iron discipline in training and the resulting bloody hands soon paid off and she took on the greats of the sport.
She won the renowned US Open three times.
From 1944, however, she only played as an amateur and gave back her professional license.
But even in this league, Mildred Didrikson, in Gullane, Scotland, was the first American to win the British Amateur Championship.
She was inducted into the Hall of Fame of Women`s Golf shortly after it opened in 1951. She fell ill with cancer only a short time later, but despite the illness, she won her last US Open in 1956.
Mildred Ella "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias succumbed to the disease shortly thereafter in September.