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Janet
Guthrie and Danica Patrick, first female Indy competitor and winner
No complaints about woman drivers. Janet
Guthrie, an space engineer who was training to be an astronaut, turned to car
racing when she was cut from the space program for not having completed her
doctors degree. In 1977, Guthrie became the first female Indy 500 competitor.
She didn't take the lead, but Danica Patrick did. In 2005 and in 2008, Patrick
became the first woman ever to win an Indy Car Series.
Raymonde de Laroche, first female licensed
pilot
A former actress who'd been born Elise Raymonde
Deroche in Paris in 1882, Raymonde de Laroche was inspired to take up flying
after seeing the Wright Brothers flight demonstrations in 1907 in France.
Though she wasn't the first female pilot, de Laroche was the first woman to
earn a pilot's license in 1910.
Gertrude
Ederle, first woman to swim across the English Channel
On August 6. 1926. Gertrude Caroline Ederle
became the first woman to swim across the English Channel. Ederle, who lived to
be 98 and died in 2003, was also an Olympic swim champion and five-time world
record-holder in five swimming events
Kathrine Switzer, Nina Kuscik and Joan
Benoit, first major female marathoners.
In 1967, 20-year-old Kathrine Switzer became the
first woman to run in the Boston Marathon, even though race officials had tried
to stop her. Nina Kuscik became the first woman to officially win the Boston
Marathon, 1972. In 1984, American Joan Benoit became the first winner of the
Women's Olympic Marathon, finishing 400 meters ahead of Norway's Grete Waitz.