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History of Women in Sports Timeline

Part 8 - 1999 continued

"Women's World Cup '99 - brought to you by Title IX"

1999 - Stacy Dragila, of Pocatello, Idaho, wins the gold medal for the women's pole vault at the outdoor World Championships in Seville, Spain. Dragila, 28, won the gold with a vault of 4.60 meters (15-feet, 1 inch), matching the world outdoor record of Australian Emma George. A pioneer in the women's event, Dragila also won the world indoor title earlier this year in Japan.
1999 - Five-time American Olympic gold medalist swimmer Jenny Thompson breaks Mary Meagher's 18-year-old world record in the 100-meter butterfly event at the Pan Pacific Championships in Sydney, Australia. Thompson, 26, clocked 57.88 seconds to break the second-oldest record in swimming.
1999 - Romania's Miaela Melinte wins the first women's hammer throw gold medal at the World Championships, beating Russia's Olga Kuzenkova with a throw of 75.20 meters on her last attempt. Kuzenkova also broke the 70-meter mark, winning silver with 72.56. Lisa Misipeka of American Samoa took the bronze with a throw of 66.06 meters.
1999 - South African Penny Heyns, sets six world records in seven weeks, including a world record in the 100-meter breaststroke and another in the 200-meter semis at the Pan Pacific championships in Sydney, Australia.
1999 - Chamique Holdsclaw of the Washington Mystics is named the 1999 WNBA Rookie of the Year Award after ranking third in the league in rebounding and sixth in scoring, averaging 16.9 and 7.9 rebounds per game. Holdsclaw received 48 of a possible 51 votes from a panel of writers and broadcasters.
1999 - Gail Devers, 32, wins the 100-meter hurdles title for the third time at the World Championships. She ran in 12.37 seconds, the fastest time in the world in 7 years and an American record.
1999 - Yolanda Griffith of the Sacramento Monarch earns a triple sweep, being selected as the WNBA's Most Valuable Player, the Newcomer of the Year, and the Defensive Player award.
1999 - Four-time Olympian Teresa Edwards is named as the 11th member of the 1999-2000 USA Basketball Team. She is the most decorated Olympic basketball player in history, helping the US to three gold medals (1996, 1988, 1984) and one bronze (1992). Edwards joins 10 other USA Basketball Senior National Team members: Ruthie Bolton-Holifield, Cynthia Cooper, Yolanda Griffith, Chamique Holdsclaw, Lisa Leslie, Nikki McCray, DeLisha Milton, Katie Smith, Dawn Staley and Natalie Williams.
1999 - Kristin Marcuccilli of Indiana is the first girl to play high school football in Grant County, but joins a growing number of girls playing organized high school football. According to the most recent numbers available from the National Federation of State High School Associations, 779 girls played on boys' high school football teams in 1997-98. The figures show a three-year trend indicating an increase in girls' participation in the sport. The first IHSAA report of a girl playing high school football was in 1983-84. Girls' participation numbers were as low as 295 in 1994-95 before jumping to 791 in 1995-96 and numbering 740 in 1996-97.
1999 - Britain's only female soccer agent, Rachel Anderon, wins a sex discrimination action against England's Professional Players' Association, which banned her from its male-only awards dinner. She was awarded $12,000 in damages and the PFA was ordered to pay her $72,000 legal bill.
1999 - Missouri Valley College in Marshall, Mo., is the first college in the country to offer wrestling scholarships to women, and one of three in the US to have a women's wrestling program. The other two are Minnesota-Morris and Cumberland, KY. Minnesota-Morris was the first college in the country to start an official women's wrestling team. There are numerous women's club teams around the country and 10 Canadian colleges with women's wrestling teams. The first Missouri Valley women's wrestling team will include a 112-pounder from Ohio who posted a 127-40 record against males, the first girl to ever qualify for the boys state wrestling tournament in Oregon, a starting member of a boys hockey team, a state champion pole vaulter, a five-time Judo champion, a runner-up in the Miss Teen California pageant and a former linebacker on an Arizona high school football team. Texas has a girls division in high school wrestling, plus a separate girls state tournament. Seventy Texas high schools will have girls wrestling teams this year.
1999 - The Houston Comets complete a "3-peat," establishing themselves as the first WNBA dynasty, with a 59-47 victory over the New York Liberty in Game 3 of the WNBA finals.
1999 - Serena Williams, 17, defeats Martina Hingis [6-3, 7-6 (7-4)] to capture the US Open title for her first Grand Slam title in her second year as a pro. Williams becomes the first black woman to win a Grand Slam title since Althea Gibson in 1958. She finishes with eight aces for a tournament total to 62, 40 more than any other woman. In capturing the title, Williams beats three of the top four women in the world -- Hingis, defending champion Lindsay Davenport, and two-time champion Monica Seles.
1999 - The Williams sisters win the women's doubles crown one day after 17-year-old Serena Williams captured her first singles Grand Slam trophy. She teams with sister Venus to win the doubles title with a 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 victory over American Chanda Rubin and Sandrine Testud of France at the US Open.
1999 - The United States national women’s basketball team beats Australia 74-69 to win the gold medal of the inaugural US Olympic Cup in San Diego. The United States also beat Australia 5-0 in women's softball, in a game which included a three-run homer from Stacey Nuveman.
1999 - A crowd of 3,152 is on hand at little Aggborough stadium in Kidderminister, England, as Wendy Toms, Janie Frampton, and Amy Rayner become the first all-female trio to officiate at a professional soccer game on Sept. 13.
1999 - Gabriela Szabo, a 23-year-old middle-distance runner from central Romania's Transylvania region, becomes the first track and field athlete to win more than a million dollars in a season. Szabo pockets $500,000 for winning all seven Golden League races this year and earns an extra $250,000 for the overall Grand Prix title, winning a record $1,015,000 for her season's work.
1999 - The US national team defeats Australia in the gold medal round of the USA Basketball International Invitational at Stanford University. Natalie Williams has 23 points and 10 rebounds to lead the United States women's basketball team to a 94-68 championship win. The US team finish with a 7-0 record.
1999 - Breann Smith, an Ann Arbor Pioneer High School junior, runs into the endzone and into the Michigan history books with her touchdown in a varsity high school football game.
1999 - The US women’s tennis team reclaims the Fed Cup title in play in September against the Russian team, winning for the 16th time. Under the leadership of captain and coach Billie Jean King, the American "Dream Team" of Lindsay Davenport, Venus and Serena Williams, and Monica Seles (four of the world's top five players), have little trouble dominating the play.
1999 - Dutch sailor Margriet Matthysse, 22, the current world champion, wins the first gold medal of the Olympic sailing test regatta in Sydney, Australia.
1999 - Steffi Graf, 30, receives the prestigious Prince of Asturias Award from Crown Prince Felipe in Oviedo, Spain. The Prince of Asturias Foundation gives the award to sports personalities who display excellence both as athletes and as human beings. This year’s field included 36 candidates.
1999 - The US women's national soccer team beats Brazil 6-0 in an exhibition game on Sept. 26 for the 22nd win of 1999, tying the 1998 team for most wins in a calendar year. It was also the 100th win (100-8-8) in five years under coach Tony DiCicco.
1999 - Juli Inkster, 39, enters the LPGA Hall of Fame with her win in the $800,000 Safeway Championship in Portland, OR. She becomes the 17th member of the LPGA Hall of Fame, winning by six strokes. This is her fifth tournament and second major of the year. She has 22 career victories, including five majors, for a total of 27 points to earn the Hall of Fame spot. Inkster joins Beth Daniel and Amy Alcott in qualifying for the Hall of Fame this year.
1999 - Kenyan Tegla Loroupe wins the women’s 42 kilometer Berlin Marathon with a world best time of 2:20:43, beating her own record by four seconds. She won $28,000 for winning and another $100,000 for the world record. Marleen Renders of Belgium finished second in 2:23.58 and Russia's Svetlana Zakharova was third in 2:27.07.
1999 - Jennifer Parilla, 18, of Lake Forest, CA earns the USA its first-ever trampoline spot at an Olympic Games with her ninth place finish at the 1999 World Championships. The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) has determined that only one athlete per country will be allowed to compete in Sydney, with a total of ten countries represented in the newest Olympic sport.
1999 - In their second all-sisters final of the year, Serena Williams beats older sister Venus for the first time in their professional careers, winning the Grand Slam Cup in Munich in October. Serena wins $900,000 and Venus $400,000 in the richest tournament in tennis. The $6.7 million event invites 12 men and 8 women with the best records in the four Grand Slam events of the year to participate.
1999 - Billie Moore, the first woman's coach to win national championships at two schools (Cal State-Fullerton and UCLA) and the coach of the first US Olympic women's basketball team in 1976, is inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. In her 24 year coaching career, Moore compiled a 436-196 record.
1999 - The US Women's National team wins the Hall of Fame Enshrinement Game 99-73) over the WNBA Select Team, with five of the eight national players in double figures.
1999 - The International Olympic Committee approves the addition of skeleton (an athlete riding a sled head-first down an ice track) and women's bobsled to the sports program for the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City. Men's and women's 1,500-meter races in short-track speedskating and men's and women's cross-country ski events are also added.
1999 - The US women's soccer team beats South Korea 5-0 in the opening match of the US Women's Cup 1999 tournament on Oct. 3, setting a record of 23 wins in a season. Among the scorers was Mia Hamm with her 112th career goal. The US women outshot South Korea 35-2 overall and 17-1 in shots on goal.
1999 - Dutch cyclist Leontien van Moorsel captures her second straight elite women’s time trial in Treviso, Italy at the World Cycling Championships. It is her fifth gold medal of the decade. She rode 25.85 kilometers (16 miles) in 32 minutes, 31.87 seconds.
1999 - The US women's scoccer team beats Finland 6-0 in the second round of the US Women's Cup. Mia Hamm has 3 assists and Kristine Lily has 2 second-half goals as the US women play in Kansas City, MO in front of a crowd of 36,405, the most ever at a soccer game there.
1999 - Australia wins its third consecutive world women’s netball title, beating New Zealand 42-41 in Christchurch, New Zealand. England beats Jamaica 57-43 for third place.
1999 - In a high profile women’s boxing match, Laila Ali, 21, the daughter of Muhammad Ali, made her pro boxing debut with a KO in just 31 seconds in the first round of a match with April Fowler in Verona, NY.
1999 - Billed as the Battle of the Sexes in Boxing, Margaret McGregor won all four rounds in her sanctioned match against Loi Chow in Seattle, WA. The history-making bout by McGregor, 36, was scored 40-36 by all three judges.
1999 - Edita Pucinskaite of Lithuania wins the elite women’s road cycling race at the World Cycling Championships, riding 113.75 kilometers (70.525 miles) in 2.5.50.
Sarah Fisher, 18, makes her Indy Racing League (IRL) debut on Oct. 17 at Texas Motor Speedway in the circuit’s season finale. She passed her rookie test at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, driving about 204 mph on the 1 ½-mile tri-oval.
1999 - The US women’s national soccer team closes out their record-breaking 1999 season with a 4-2 victory over Brazil to win the US Women’s Cup tournament. Mia Hamm scores her 113th and 114th international goals; Kristine Lilly had the other two goals and an assist to move the US team to 25-2-2 on the season. The US team had played of 636 minutes without letting an opponent score before Brazil's Nildinha scored in the 21st and the 30th minute.
1999 - Akiko Fukushima wins $122,000 at the LPGA Tournament of Champions in Mobile, AL. The tournament, with a total purse of $750,000, featured the winners of LPGA events over the last three years and active members of the LPGA Hall of Fame.
1999 - Juli Inkster and Mia Hamm are honored as Sportswomen of the Year by the Women’s Sports Foundation. Inkster, who won five LPGA titles and entered the LPGA Hall of Fame in 1999, was selected in the individual category. Hamm, the world’s top scorer in women’s soccer, was chosen in the team sport category. Other award winners incude golfers Sandra Haynie and Betty Jameson; marathon runner Joan Benoit Samuelson; former Temple lacrosse coach Tina Sloan Green; Olympic track star Gail Devers; and Deborah Slaner Larkin, former executive director of the WSF.
1999 - Julie Foudy, the 28-year old co-captain of the champion US World Cup women’s soccer team, is elected as the 2000-02 president of the Women’s Sports Foundation Board of Trustees.
1999 - The LPGA celebrates its 50th birthday with a gathering on Oct. 19 in New York City. Eight of the surviving 12 charter members -- Patty Berg, Alice Bauer, Bettye Danoff, Marlene Hagge, Betty Jameson, Marilynn Smith, Shirley Spork and Louise Suggs -- are on hand to kick off the year-long celebration for the world's longest-running women's sports association. In 1999, the LPGA sanctioned 38 events on four continents and a record 78 players earned more than $100,000 each.
1999 - Kenyan Joyce Chepchumba, the defending champion, wins her second Chicago Marathon in 2:25:59, beating countrywoman Margaret Okayo by one second.
1999 - Jamila Demby, 22, a University of California-Davis track and field standout is honored as NCAA Woman of the Year for her academic, athletic and community achievements from more than 300 nominations nation-wide. Among her athletic accomplishments: 1998 and 1999 indoor track and field All-America in the 1,600-meter relay; a 1996 and 1997 first-team All North Coast Athletic Conference selection; an All-America in the 800 from 1996-99.
1999 - In the NCAA’s gender equity report for the 1997-98 school year, athletic scholarships to women at the nation’s major colleges have increased more than 140% since 1991-92, at a rate more than double the rate of increase in aid for men over the same period. Women receive more scholarship money than men in Division I basketball, fencing, golf, gymnastics, skiing, soccer, swimming and diving, tennis, volleyball, track and field and cross country. The number of women competing in Division I sports rose to 40% of the total number of athletes, up from 37% in 1996 and 31% in 1992. The report shows men receive 59% of the scholarship money at Division I schools, but that gap is smaller since the first survey in 1992 when men had a 69-31 advantage. Another report in 1996 that showed a 62-38 advantage for men.
1999 - Australian marathon swimmer Susie Maroney, 24, completes a 160-kilometer (100-mile) open water swim from Jamaica to Cuba.
1999 - A four-women Chinese 3,000-meter relay team sets a new world record at the short-track speed skating World Cup competition in Provo, UT, in 4:16.260.
1999 - Adriana Fernandez of Mexico wins the women's division of the New York City Marathon in 2:25:06, the second-fastest time in race's history. Catherine Ndereba of Kenya is second with a time of 2:27:34, with Katrin Dorre-Heinig of Germany taking thrid in 2:28:41.
1999 - Laila Ali's second professional boxing match is a victory at the end of a four-round match with Shadina Pennybaker.
1999 - Cuba wins the International World Volleyball championship in Tokyo for the fourth straight year with a perfect 11-0 record. Russia finishes second at 10-1 and Brazil is third at 9-2.
1999 - Lindsay Davenport beats the Martina Hingis to win the season-ending Chase Championships in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2.
1999 - The International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) names Fanny Blankers-Koen, who won four Olympic golds at the 1948 London Games, as the female Athlete of the Century in a ceremony in Monaco. Blankers-Koen, a 30-year-old Dutch mother of two, won gold in the 100 and 200 meters, 80 meters hurdles and the sprint relay.
1999 - The Maryland Terrapins dominate the NCAA Division I women’s field hockey championship game against Michigan in Brookline, MA, winning 2-1. Maryland coach Missy Meharg becomes only the fourth coach in NCAA history to win at least two national field hockey titles, joining Beth Anders of Old Dominion, Karen Shelton of North Carolina, and former Connecticut coach Diane Wright. The Terrapins (24-1) are the first team in school history to win the Atlantic Coast Conference and NCAA tournaments in the same season.
1999 - Japan's Eri Yamaguchi, 26, wins the Tokyo International Women's Marathon in a meet record time of 2:22:12. Fatuma Roba of Ethiopia, the 1996 Atlanta Olympic gold medalist, comes in second in 2:27:05, and Russian Valentina Yegolova is third in a time of 2:28:06.
1999 - Chen Yanqing of China sets two world records and wins two gold medals at the World Weightlifting Championship in Greece when she lifts a combined 235 kilos (518 pounds). She breaks a world record by hoisting 105 kilos (231 pounds) in the snatch. North Korea's Ri Song Hui sets another world record by lifting 131 kilos (289 pounds) in the clean-and-jerk, winning one gold and two silver medals. Juo Ping Chun of Taiwan takes all three bronze medals.
1999 - The LPGA Player of the Year is Karrie Webb with 337.29 points, well ahead of number two, Juli Inkster with 293.50. The LPGA Rookie of the Year is Mi Hyun Kim with 1300 points.
1999 - Sports Illustrated for Women announces their choice of the US Women’s Soccer Team as Sportswomen of the Year and Jackie Joyner Kersee, a six-time Olympic medalist, as the Athlete of the Century.
1999 - Babe Didrikson Zaharias is selected by Sports Illustrated as the best female athlete of the 20th Century. One of the greatest all-around athletes in history, she won three Olympic medals and 31 LPGA titles, including 10 majors.
1999 - Runner Inger Miller is chosen as the 1999 winner of the Jesse Owens Memorial Award at the USA Track & Field convention in Los Angeles.
1999 - Megan Quann, 15, sets a new national 100-meter breaststroke record at the US Open Swimming Championships with her winning time of 1.07.94.
36 year-old American Tori Murden crosses the Atlantic Ocean in a row boat, the American Pearl, following an 81-day voyage. She becomes the first American - and the first woman - to row accross the Atlantic alone.
1999 - 47-year-old Pat Summitt becomes the youngest coach in college basketball history to win 700 games when her Lady Vols beat Wisconsin 85-62. Summitt joins the exclusive 700-wins club of 16 men and one woman, Texas coach Jody Conradt (730 career wins).
1999 - The North Carolina Tar Heels (24-2-0) win their 15th national title in 18 years at the NCAA women's soccer championship in San Jose in front of a NCAA record crowd of 14,410, beating Notre Dame 2-0 on goals from Kim Patrick and Meredith Florance.
1999 - The Associated Press selects Mickey Wright as the best female golfer of the century. She tops a list which includes Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Kathy Whitworth, Joyce Wethered, Glenna Collett Vare, Nancy Lopez, Louise Suggs, Patty Berg, JoAnne Carner and Betsy Rawls.
1999 - International Olympic Committee awards Steffi Graf their highest honor, the Olympic order, at ceremonies in Lausanne, Switzerland. The Olympic order is awarded to recognize “those persons who have illustrated the Olympic ideal through their actions, have achieved remarkable merit in the sporting world or have rendered outstanding services to the Olympic cause.” Graf won Olympic gold medal in Seoul in 1998 when tennis reappeared as a full medal sport. She won 22 Grand Slam titles during her career.
1999 - The Golf Writers Association of America choses Juli Inkster as the female player of the year.
1999 - The Associated Press selects Ruffian as the best fillie or mare of the century. Others on the top ten list incude Twilight Tear, Personal Ensign, Real Delight, Regret, Busher, Cicada, Serena's Song, Shuvee and Lady's Secret.
1999 - The Associated Press selects Steffi Graf as the top female tennis player of the century. Others on the top ten list incude Martina Navratilova, Margaret Smith Court, Billie Jean King, Chris Evert, Suzanne Lenglen, Helen Wills Moody, Maureen Connolly, Monica Seles, and (tied for No. 10) Evonne Goolagong and Martina Hingis.
1999 - Laila Ali wins her third straight boxing bout with a second-round technical knockout of Nicolyn Armstrong in Detroit.
1999 - Sonja Henie is named the top female Winter Olympian of the century the Associated Press. The other top ten places went to Katarina Witt, Bonnie Blair, Lydia Skoblikova, Raisa Smetanina, Irina Rodnina, Rosi Mittermaier, Jayne Torvill, Manuela Di Centa and Karin Kania.
1999 - Jackie Joyner-Kersee is chosen the greatest female Summer Olympian of the century by the Associated Press. The rest of the top ten include Fanny Blankers-Koen, Larysa Latynina, Nadia Comaneci, Vera Caslavska, Dawn Fraser, Wilma Rudolph, Babe Didrikson and Florence Giffith-Joyner.
1999 - Babe Didrikson Zaharias (No. 9) heads the list of ten women chosen as part of the 100 Athletes of the Century by the Associated Press. The other women members of this exlusive club include Martina Navratilova (20), Jackie Joyner-Kersee (40), Billie Jean King (41), Nadia Comaneci (52), Chris Evert (55), Steffi Graf (68), Sonja Henie and Wilma Rudolph (tied for 76), and Althea Gibson (83). The 16 panelists who ranked the 325 entries for Athletes of Century included three women: Donna Lopiano, executive director of the Women's Sports Foundation; Anita Defrantz, the first woman vice president of the International Olympic Committee; and Judy Rankin, a former LPGA Tour professional and TV analyst for ABC Sports.
1999 - The US Women's Soccer team is honored as Sportswomen of the Year inf the Dec. 20 issue of Sports Illustrated.
1999 - The Nittany Lions of Penn State win their first NCAA women’s volleyball championship, beating Stanford (15-2, 15-10, 15-7). All-American Lauren Cacciamani was named the tournament’s outstanding player.
1999 - Jennifer Rodriguez completes a sweep of all four speedskating races at the US Allround Speedskating Championship, winning the 500, 1,500, 3,000 and 5,000-meter races.
1999 - The NCAA reports overall student participation in women’s sports in 1997-98 was up 3.5% over the 1996-97 season, with 135,110 women athletes. Women’s soccer (724) was the fastest-growing collegiate sport with an additional 30 teams that year, and women’s basketball teams outnumbered men’s basketball teams, 956 to 938, among member schools.
1999 - The US Olympic Committee honors the US women’s national soccer team as Team of the Year and record-setting swimmer Jenny Thompson is named the Sportswoman of the Year. The awards are presented annually by the USOC to outstanding members of America’s Olympic movement.
1999 - The coverage of the Women's World Cup in soccer is named the Associated Press Story of the Year.
1999 - Gabriela Szabo is named as the International Amateur Athletic Federation’s woman athlete of the year for her outstanding track and field performances during the year.
1999 - Speedskater Bonnie Blair, the most decorated U.S. athlete in Winter Olympic history, is honored as the 1999 recipient of the Women's Sports Foundation's Flo Hyman Award. The Flo Hyman Memorial Award is given by the Women's Sports Foundation in honor a captain of the 1984 Olympic Silver Medalist United States Women's Volleyball Team.

to 1899 - 1900-1929 - 1930-1959 - 1960-1979 - 1980-1989
1990-1997 - 1998-1999 - 2000 - 2001 - 2002 - 2003 - 2004 - 2005 - 2006 - 2007 - 2008 - 2009

History of Women in Sports Timeline

Part 8 - 1999 continued

"Women's World Cup '99 - brought to you by Title IX"

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