History of Women in Sports Timeline - 2008

• 2008 - Venus Williams defeats Maria Sharapova in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, to pick up the title at the JB Classic exhibition in Hong Kong

• 2008 - Lindsay Davenport wins the ASB Classic in New Zealand with a victory over France’s Aravane Rezai, 6-2, 6-2.

• 2008 - Maria Sharapova defeats Ana Ivanovic 7-5, 6-3 to win the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam of the season.

• 2008 - Mirai Nagasu, 14 and the second youngest national champion ever, wins the U.S. National Figure Skating Title.

• 2008 - Italian Carolina Kostner wins her second European figure skating championship.

• 2008 - Women's Basketball Hall of Famer and Rutgers' coach C. Vivian Stringer wins her 800th game in a Scarlet Knights' 60-46 victory over DePaul, joining basketball greats Pat Summitt and Jody Conradt.

• 2008 - Mexico's Lorena Ochoa wins the HSBC Women's Champions tournament in Singapore with a total of 20 under par, the inaugural winner of the tournament. Sweden's Annika Sorenstam placed scond and American Paula Creamer wins third.

• 2008 - Lindsey Vonn wins her 10th career World Cup downhill ski race to break the US record set by Picabo Street and Daron Rahlves.

• 2008 - The US Women's Soccer team wins a record sixth Algarve Cup with a 2-1 victory over Denmark on goals by Natasha Kai and Abby Wamback (her 88th international goal).

• 2008 - American marathoner Dawn Hamlin sets a new world record by completing seven marathons on seven continents in only 49 days with her five and a half hour run in the Antarctica Marathon. She broke the record for fastest female to finish the "seven in seven" quest by 64 days, one of fewer than 200 marathon runners to compete on all seven continents.

• 2008- Tae Kwondo fighter Sara Khoshjamal, 20, becomes the first Iranian woman to earn a spot at the Olympics.

• 2008 - LPGA rookie Louise Friberg wins her first LPGA Tour victory at the MasterCard Classic.

• 2008 - Serbia's Ana Ivanovic defeats Russia's Svetlana Kuzetsova 6-4, 6-3 to win the women's title at the 2008 Pacific Life Open.

• 2008 - Lorena Ochoa defends her title at the Safeway International with a seven-stroke victory, giving her 19 career victories.

• 2008 - The Lady Vols of Tennessee successfully defend their NCAA women’s basketball title, winning for the 8th time.

• 2008 - Women's Sports Television, the only full-time Internet-based programming service for women's sports, adds several new programs, including two new videos from women's football and seven Flat Track Derby matches.

• 2008 - Serena Williams defends her Sony Ericsson Open Title, defeating Jelena Jankovic in three sets, 6-1, 5-7, 6-3.

• 2008 - University of Florida senior Caroline Burckle gets the 2008 Honda Sports Award as the nation’s top collegiate female swimmer. Burckle was also recently honored as the NCAA Swimmer of the Year at the 2008 NCAA meet.

• 2008 - The University of Maryland-Eastern Shore wins its first NCAA women’s bowling title.

• 2008 - Irina Mikitenko wins the London Marathon in 2:24:14; Svetlana Zakharova comes in second (2:24:39) and Gete Wami wins third place (2:25:37).

• 2008 - Danica Patrick, 26, becomes the first woman to win a major-league Indy-car event with her victory at the Indy Japan 300. It is also the first time a woman won in a national oval-track touring circuit such as the IRL or NASCAR.

• 2008 - North Carolina State head coach Kay Yow is named the 2008 WNBA Inspiring Coach by the Women's National Basketball Association. With 37 years as a collegiate basketball coach, Yow earned the accolade for "her profound impact on female athletes and her demonstrated commitment, passion and dedication to work, family and community." The Inspiring Coach Award was first handed out in 2007 in recognition of coaches who strive to serve as a positive influence for female athletes both on and off the courts.

• 2008 - Mexico's Lorena Ochoa becomes the first woman to win four consecutive Ladies Professional Golf Association tournaments in four consecutive weeks. Ranked the No. 1 female golfer in the world, she is the first golfer from Mexico--male or female--to be ranked at the top of the sport.

• 2008 - The University of Georgia won their fourth straight NCAA championship title; the ninth title for the Georgia Gym Dogs, tied with Utah for the most NCAA gymnastics championships.

• 2008 - South African swimmer Natalie Du Toit, who lost her leg seven years ago, qualified during the world championships to compete in the 2008 Olympic Games, the first amputee to qualify for the Games.

• 2008 - Paula Creamer wins the SemGroup Championship, her second LPGA vciory this year.

• 2008 - Annika Sorenstam wins the Michelob Ultra Open with a final score of 19-under 265 - a new tournament record - for her third win of the LPGA season.

• 2008 - Female ski jumpers from six countries--Canada, the United States, Germany, Austria, Slovenia and Norway--are suing the Vancouver organizing committee for the 2010 Winter Olympics for not allowing women to compete in ski jumping. Their lawsuit asks the committee to either hold a competition for women or ban the men's equivalent event.

• 2008 - Belgian Justine Henin, ranked the No. 1 ranked female tennis player for 117, announces her immediate retirement with a win-loss singles record of 493-107. She is the first woman in the history of professional tennis to retire while ranked No.1 in the world.

• 2008 - The University of California at Los Angeles wins its fourth consecutive NCAA water polo after a regular-season record of 33-0.

• 2008 - University of Georgia senior gymnast Katie Heenan is awarded the 2008 Honda Sports Award as the nation's top collegiate female gymnast, leading Georgia to its fourth straight national championship this year. Heenan also earned first-team All-America honors in the all-around; she is the all-time career-scoring leader for Georgia and is the Southeastern Conference vault champion.

• 2008 - The Northwestern Wildcats win their fourth consecutive NCAA women's lacrosse championship. West Chester University's Golden Rams won the NCAA Division II women's lacrosse title. Hamilton College wins the Division III women's lacrosse title, the school's first NCAA title in any sport.

• 2008 - Traci Green becomes the second black coach in Harvard's history and first black female to serve as a coach for women's tennis.

• 2008 - University of Southern California wins its second NCAA Division I women's golf championship. Rollins College wins its fifth NCAA Division II women's golf national championship.

• 2008 - The Arizona State Sun Devils defeat the Texas A&M Aggies 11-0 to win the NCAA Softball Championship in the school its first softball championship in the largest margin of victory in NCAA Softball Championship history.

• 2008 - Serbian Ana Ivanovic beats Dinara Safina in the French Open final for the first Grand Slam title of her career.

• 2008- The First Inclusive Women's Sagarmatha Expedition of 10 Nepali women become the first all-women expedition to summit of Mt. Everest in May. Before 2008, only seven Nepali women had climbed Everest.

• 2008 - Pitcher Angela Tincher is the nation's best collegiate softball player, leading the Hokies to their first-ever NCAA softball tournament appearance after a 38-10 season. The National and USA Softball's Player of the Year, she is only the second pitcher in NCAA history to have 13.5 strike-outs per seven innings.

• 2008 - University of Virginia head women's basketball coach Debbie Ryan is inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame after leading the Cavaliers to 22 NCAA tournament appearances and 675 wins in her 31 years at the school. Other inductees include official Patty Broderick, Central Arizona coach Lin Laursen, Tennessee and Wayland Baptist All-American Jill Rankin Schneider, Penn State player Suzie McConnell-Serio, and WNBA player Michelle Timms. The Hall of Fame has 103 members.

• 2008 - Wendy Hilliard, the first African-American to make the U.S. rhythmic gymnastics senior national team, is inducted into gymnastics Hall of Fame. The Wendy Hilliard Foundation provides free gymnastics for more than 5,000 inner-city youth in New York City since 1996.

• 2008 - Eun-Hee Ji, 22, wins her first LPGA title at the Wegman's Championship in her second year of the tour.

• 2008 - The U.S. women's soccer team wins the Peace Queen Cup tournament in Suwon, South Korea in a 1-0 victory over Canada.

• 2008 - Candace Parker becomes only the second women to dunk during a professional women's basketball game dunks during WNBA game as the Sparks beat the Fever in Los Angeles. Her teammate Lisa Leslie, the first women to dunk during a WNBA game, scored 17 points, nine rebounds, four assists and three blocks.

• 2008 - Venus Williams wins her 5th Wimbledon singles championship against her sister Serena, 7-5 6-4, in the 7th sisters' Grand Slam final. They also win their third women’s doubles title.

• 2008 - Inbee Park, 19 wins the U.S. Women’s Open, becoming youngest golf champion.

• 2008 - Paula Creamer wins the Jamie Farr Classic by 2 strokes for her seventh career win.

• 2008 - 20-year old South Korean Ji Young Oh wins her first LPGA title at the State Farm Classic, defeatting 19-year-old Taiwanese rookie Yani Tseng and Chinese rookie Na Yeon Choi who finish in second and third places.

• 2008 - Girls ruled during the 71st All-American Soap Box Derby, taking home five of the six championship trophies in the most dominating female performance ever at the international event in Akron, Ohio, sweeping the local masters, super stock and stock divisions as well as trophies in the rally super stock and rally stock divisions.

• 2008 - Great Britain's Rebecca Adlington wins Olympic gold in the 400-meter free swim, American Katie Hoff wins silver, and Britain's Jo Jackson wins bronze.

• 2008 - Maria Valentina Vezzali of Italy wins her third straight women's foil fencing Olympic gold over silver winner Nam Hyun-hee, South Korea and Margherita Granbassi wins the bronze.

• 2008 - The Netherlands 4x100 freestyle swim relay team finishes first, the U.S. team takes the silver, and Australia wins the bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics.

• 2008 - The U.S. women sweep saber fencing at the Beijing Olympic Games with Mariel Zagunis, Sada Jacobson and Becca Ward taking gold, silver and bronze.

• 2008 - 25-year-old American Natalie Coughlin becomes the first woman to repeat as Olympic champion in the 100-meter backstroke, finishing ahead of silver winner Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe, who took silver, and fbronzer winner Margaret Hoelzer, USA.

• 2008 - Laser Radial sailor Anna Tunnicliffe becomes the first U.S. gold-medal-winning sailor in 20 years when she won the event Tuesday in Beijing. Gintare Volungevicuite of Lithuania wins the silver, followed by China's Xu Lijia, in thrid place with a bronze.

• 2008 - American Stephanie Brown Trafton wins the women’s discus gold with a best mark of 64.74 meters, becoming the first American to win a discus medal since the 1932 Los Angeles Games, where Lillian Copeland won gold with a throw of 133-2. Yarelys Barrios took the silver and Olena Antonova wins the bronze.

• 2008 - Jamaican women take a 1-2-3 sweep Sunday in the women’s 100-meter final with Shelly-Ann Fraser, Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart takign double silvers in a tie race.

• 2008 - The U.S. rowing team of Erin Cafaro, Lindsay Shoop, Anna Goodale, Elle Logan, Anna Cummins, Susan Francia, Caroline Lind, Caryn Davies and coxswain Mary Whipple earn the gold medal in women’s eight in Beijing.

• 2008 - American Nastia Liukin claims the women’s all-round gymnastic title ahead of , holding off fellow American Shawn Johnson witht he sulver and and China’s Yang Yilin earnign the bronze. Liukin now joins Mary Lou Retton (1984) and Carly Patterson (2004) as the only American all-around winners.

• 2008 - American Kristen Armstrong wins the gold in cycling time trial, becoming only the second woman in U.S. history to be named an Olympic cycling champion.

• 2008 - The U.S. women's basketball team wins a fourth straight gold in Beijing, defeating Australia 92-65. Russia takes the bronze medal over host China 94-81.

• 2008 - One shot in overtime for the U.S. women's soccer team wins the gold medal over Brazil in their third gold since women's soccer was added in 1996. Germany defeats Japan 2-0 for the bronze.

• 2008 - The Japanese softball teams beat the American team 3-1 for the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics in what may be the last softball game in the history of the Games. The United States has won every gold medal awarded since 1996, causing the International Olympic Committee to suspend softball play in the Olympic Games for the next eight years.

• 2008 - Brazil wins its first gold medal in women's volleyball, beating the United States 3-1.

• 2008 - Venus and Serena Williams win their second gold medal by beating the Spanish team of Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual 6-2, 6-0. China takes the bronze.

• 2008 - Serena Williams wins her third U.S. Open championship and her ninth Grand Slam title over Jelena Jankovic of Serbia.

• 2008 - Roz Savage, 40, rows solo for 99 days, covering 2,900 miles between San Francisco and Hawaii, to complete the first stage of her cross-Pacific journey to become the first woman to cross the Pacific Ocean. She plans hee second and third legs--from Hawaii to Tuvalu, and then to Australia--in 2008 and 2009 to raise awareness about the environment.

• 2008 - Los Angeles Sparks center Lisa Leslie is named the defensive player of the year by the WNBA; She led the WNBA in blocks with 97, is the league's all-time leading rebounder and collected 209 defensive rebounds this season.

• 2008 - 30-year-old Angela Stanford wins the Bell Micro LPGA Classic for her second career LPGA Tour.

• 2008 - Jelena Jankovick 23, wins her third title, beating Russia's Vera Zvonareva 6-2, 6-4 in the final of the Kremlin Cup in Moscow.

• 2008 - 20-year-old South Korean golfer In-Kyung Kim wins the Longs Drugs Challenge.

• 2008 - Los Angeles Sparks star Candace Parker eins the WNBA's most valuable player award, becoming the first player to win the award as well as the rookie of the year honors.

• 2008 - Cammi Granato is inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in Denver, along with Mike Richter, Brett Hull and Brian Leetch. A 15-year member of the U.S. Women's National Team beginning in 1990, Granato is the program's all-time scoring leader with 343 points (186 goals) in 205 games. In 1998 she captained Team USA to the first Olympic gold medal in women's ice hockey history.

• 2008 - The Detroit Shock completes a three-game sweep of the San Antonio Silver Stars to give the team its third title in the league's 11-year history.

• 2008 - Paula Creamer, 22, wins the Samsung World Championships for her fourth title of the year and eighth overall.

• 2008 - Lorena Ochoa wins the Navistar LPGA Classic for her seventh victory of the year and her 24th career LPGA Tour victory.

• 2008 - Morgan Pressel wins the inaugural Kapalua LPGA Classic for her second-career LPGA Tour win.

• 2008 - Venus Williams wins the Zurich Open in Switzerland; the last time she won the tournament was as a teenager in 1999.

• 2008 - Golfer Helen Alfredsson wins the Grand China Air tournament for her second victory of the season.

• 2008 - Ana Ivanovic beats Vera Zvonareva 6-2, 6-1 in the final of the Generali Ladies to win her first title since the French Open.

• 2008 - Elena Dementieva, 27, wins her third title of the year at the Fortis Championship, defeeating Carolina Wozniacki 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 last Sunday in Luxembourg.

• 2008 - Retiring Annika Sorenstam wins her fourth title of the season, defeating Ye Liying at the Suzhou Taihu Ladies Open.

• 2008 - British marathoner Paula Radcliffe, 34, wins the New York City Marathon with a time of 2:23:56, becoming only the second woman in the race's 38-year history to win the race three times. Of the 41 elite runners in last Sunday's New York City marathon, nearly half are 35 or older; their average age is about 33, one of the oldest groups of elite women in the history of the race.

• 2008 - 28-year-old Australian angler Kim Bain wins the Women's Bassmaster Tour Championship. She will become the first woman to compete against 51 of the world's best at the 2009 Bassmaster Classic next February in Hot Springs, AK, known as the Superbowl of its sport, since the tournament's inaugural year of 1971.

• 2008 - Sweden's Helen Alfredsson, 43, wins the Grand China Air tournament, for her second victory of the season.

• 2008 - Ana Ivanovic defeats Vera Zvonareva 6-2, 6-1 to win the Generali Ladies singles title.

• 2008 - Female and male athletes will receive equal prize money at the Winter X Games to be held in Aspen, CO in January.

• 2008 - Tennis legend Billie Jean King is named a global mentor for gender equality by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

• 2008 - The U.S. Women's Select Team wins the 2008 Women's Four Nations Cup over rival Canada, 3-2 in a shootout. Jessie Vetter earns U.S. Player of the Game honors for her 30 saves in the net. Angela Ruggiero makes with 206 games played for the U.S. Team. In her career Ruggiero has 55 goals and 119 assists for a total of 174 points.

• 2008 - Ji-Yai Shin wins the Mizuno Classic in Japan.

• 2008 - Venus Williams wins her first WTA championship over Russian Vera Zvonareva 6-7 (5), 6-0, 6-2, taking home $1.34 million from the event which marked the first time ever that women and men were given equal prize money.

• 2008 - The Bloomsburg University field hockey team wins its third consecutive Division II title on Sunday in a 6-2 victory over UMass-Lowell.

• 2008 - Sofia Mulanovich is chosen the top female surfer at the Surfer Poll Awards for the fourth consecutive year. The 25-year-old wins the opening World Championship Tour (WCT) event, the Roxy Pro Gold Coast.

• 2008 - Angela Stanford wins the Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Guadalajara, edging Annika Sorenstam by one shot.

• 2008 - The Bloomsburg University field hockey team wins its third consecutive Division II title on Sunday in a 6-2 victory over UMass-Lowell.

• 2008 - South Korea's Ji-Yai Shin wins the ADT Championship, claiming the $1 million prize purse.

• 2008 - Discus thrower Stephanie Brown Trafton is named the 2008 recipient of the Jesse Owens Award, given by USA Track and Field (USATF) to the top athlete in the sport each year. Brown Trafton became the first American woman to win the Olympic gold medal in the discus since Lillian Copeland in 1932.

• 2008 - The Tar Heels of the University of North Carolina won its 19th NCAA soccer championship, beating No. 1 ranked Notre Dame 2-1.

• 2008 - Sojourner Morell, 17, a British citizen, and Hannah Zeitlhofer, 21, from Austria, are the first women to be accepted to the Spanish Riding School of Vienna, the world's oldest equestrian school.

St. Lawrence County Branch Home - Site Map