The Daring Book for Girls - Andrea J. Buchanan [120]
1960
Summer Games: Rome, Italy; Winter Games: Squaw Valley, California, United States
Ingrid Kramer becomes the first non-American in Olympic history to win all the women’s diving events. Wilma Rudolph is the first American woman to win three gold medals at one Olympiad, winning the 100- and 200-meter dashes and the 400-meter relay.
1964
Summer Games: Tokyo, Japan; Winter Games: Innsbruck, Austria
Swimmer Dawn Fraser wins her third consecutive 100-meter Olympic gold medal. Soviet gymnast Larissa Latynina completes her Olympic career with a total of eighteen medals—more than any other athlete in Olympic history at the time.
1968
Summer Games: Mexico City, Mexico; Winter Games: Grenoble, France
Wyomia Tyus wins the gold for the 100-meter and becomes the first winner of back-to-back Olympic gold medals in the event, which she also won in 1964. Deborah Meyer is the first swimmer to win three individual gold medals at one Olympic Games.
1972
Summer Games: Munich, West Germany; Winter Games: Sapporo, Japan
Dianne Holum is the first American woman to earn an Olympic gold medal in speed skating.
1976
Summer Games: Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Winter Games: Innsbruck, Austria
Swimmer Kornelia Ender is the first woman to win four gold medals at one Olympics, all in world-record time. Basketball is an Olympic event for women for the first time. Nadia Comaneci becomes the first gymnast ever—male or female—to score a perfect 10 in an Olympic event; she is also the first Romanian gymnast to win the all-around title at the Olympics and the youngest Olympic gymnastics all-around champion ever.
1984
Summer Games: Los Angeles, California, US; Winter Games: Sarajevo, Yugoslavia
Candy Costie and Tracie Ruiz win the first gold medal awarded for duet synchronized swimming. Ruiz also wins gold in solo. Mary Lou Retton becomes the first American woman gymnast to win the all-around title for the Olympic gold medal, and the first American to earn a perfect score. Joan Benoit Samuelson wins the first Olympic women’s marathon. Connie Carpenter-Phinney wins the first Olympic gold medal ever awarded for cycling and becomes the first woman to compete in both the Winter and Summer Olympics (she competed in 1972 in speed skating).
1988
Summer Games: Seoul, South Korea; Winter Games: Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Swimmer Kristin Otto, of the German Democratic Republic, wins six gold medals, the most medals ever won at one Games by a female swimmer. In the Winter Games, figure skater Debi Thomas becomes the first African American to win an Olympic medal in ice skating. Track and field Olympian Jackie Joyner-Kersee becomes the first woman to win The Sporting News Man of the Year Award.
1992
Summer Games: Barcelona, Spain
At thirteen, Fu Mingxia of China becomes the second-youngest person to win an individual gold medal when she wins the platform diving event.
1994
Winter Games: Lillehammer, Norway
In the Winter Olympics, speed skater Bonnie Blair becomes the first American woman to win five gold medals.
1996
Summer Games: Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Softball debuts; Dot Richardson hits the first home run in Olympic softball history and the American women win the first-ever softball gold. The U.S. women gymnasts take their first Olympic team gold. Nova Peris-Kneebone becomes the first Aboriginal woman to win Olympic gold, as part of the field hockey team. Women’s soccer also debuts, and the U.S. wins the gold medal.
1998
Winter Games: Nagano, Japan
Fifteen-year-old Tara Lipinski becomes the youngest athlete to win a gold medal at the Winter Games. Women’s ice hockey is introduced for the first time.
2000
Summer Games: Sydney, Australia
Marion Jones earns more Olympic medals (three gold and two bronze) than any other female track athlete in a single Olympics. Cathy Freeman becomes the first Aboriginal woman to win an individual Olympic medal and the first Aboriginal woman to win