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By Jone Johnson Lewis, About.com Guide to Women's History since 1999

Babe Didrikson Zaharias

Friday April 4, 2008
Babe Didrikson, 1932 Olympics
Babe Didrikson Zaharias, 1932 Olympics
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Babe Didrikson was an outstanding athlete from her early years. She excelled in basketball, track and field, and golf. In track and field, she won medals or established world records in five different events. After winning two gold and one silver medal in the 1932 Olympics at Los Angeles, she played basketball, appeared at major league baseball exhibition games, and finally switched to golf. She married George Zaharias in 1938, and died of breast cancer in 1956. It has been argued that Babe Didrikson Zaharias was the greatest woman athlete ever.

"Babe" had quite an ego (sometimes resented by her competitors) as expressed in one of her most famous quotes: "The Babe is here. Who's coming in second?" Read more from and about Babe Didrikson Zaharias here:

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