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History of Women in Sports Timeline
Part 9 - 2001
"Dreams do come true if you keep believing in yourself.
Anything can happen."
- Jennifer Capriati after winning the 2001 Australian Open
- 2001 - Kay Yow becomes the fifth coach in women’s college basketball history with 600 victories in a 71-64 North Carolina State victory over Temple. Yow is 600-243 overall in 30 seasons with a record of 543-225 in 26 seasons at North Carolina State.
- 2001 - Se Ri Pak, 23, the Rookie of the Year in 1999, shoots an 8-under-par 64 to win the 2001 season-opener, the YourLife Vitamins LPGA Classic in Orlando.
- 2001 - 32-year veteran Texas Longhorn coach Jody Conradt, 59, becomes the first women’s basketball coach to work 1,000 games. Since 1969, Conradt has won a national championship, a record 760 games and been inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. Only 20 men’s coaches have reached the 1,000-game mark. In 1986, the Longhorns became the first undefeated national champions in women’s history, going 32-0. In 1997, she became the first women’s coach to reach 700 victories.
- 2001 - Michelle Kwan, 20, the three-time world champion, wins her fourth straight US Figure Skating Championships in Boston, to earn her 5th US title overall.
- 2001 - Germany’s Jutta Kleinschmidt, 38, becomes the first woman to win the Paris-Dakar road rally with a 2:39 minute margin over second place finisher Hiroshi Masuoka of Japan.
- 2001 - Tennis sisters Venus and Serena Williams complete a career Grand Slam in women’s doubles at the Australian Open. Previous wins include the French Open and U.S. Open in 1999 and Wimbledon and the gold in the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
- 2001 - Jennifer Capriati, 24, upsets top-seeded Martina Hingis to win the Australian Open and her first Grand Slam.
- 2001 - Janica Kostelic, 19, of Croatia, skis to her seventh consecutive World Cup slalom victory, matching the record set by retired Swiss veteran Vreni Schneider.
- 2001 - Skier Martina Ertl, 27, of Germany wins the gold medal in the women’s combined at the world championship with an total time of 2:55.65 seconds. Austrian Christine Sponring, 17, took the silver in 2:58.23 and Italy’s Karen Putzer won bronze in 2:59.69. Ertl won the combined gold medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics; this is her third world championship medal and the first gold.
- 2001 - The Tennessee Lady Vols retire Chamique Holdsclaw’s No. 23 jersey during halftime of the Tennessee-Connecticut game. Holdsclaw is Tennessee’s all-time leading scorer (3,025 points) and rebounder (1,295), leading the Lady Vols to three national championships in 1996, 1997 and 1998. In addition to being a four-time All-American and two-time National Player of the Year, Holdsclaw was named the Naismith Player of the Century. The third-ranked Lady Vols beat No. 2 Connecticut 92-88, with Gwen Jackson scoring a career-high 28 points, getting 14 rebounds and blocking five shots. Coach Pat Summitt gained her 750th career win, as well.
- 2001 - Olympic gold winner Stacy Dragila sets a new world indoor pole vault record with her jump of 15 feet, 2 ¼ inches at the Millrose Games, breaking her own record.
- 2001 - As part of the 15th annual National Girls & Women in Sports Day celebration, the Women’s Sports Foundation honors two-time Olympic gold medalist Lisa Leslie, a top WNBA player, as the 2001 Flo Hyman Memorial Award winner. Leslie won gold with the US national team in 1996 and 2000 and was USA Basketball’s Female Athlete of the Year in 1993 and 1998.
- 2001 - Stacy Dragila continues to set new world’s records in the indoor pole vault. For the 10th time since 1994, the 29-year-old broke the mark, clearing 15 feet, 3 ¼ inches.
- 2001 - Germany continues to dominate women’s World Cup luge racing with Silke Kraushaar’s 25th consecutive German win since 1997 in 1:26.8000 for a two-run combined time at the Utah Olympic Park in Park City. Teammates Sonja Wiedemann and Sylke Otto came in 2nd and 3rd.
- 2001 - British yachtswoman Ellen MacArthur, 24, becomes the fastest woman and the youngest person to sail round the world single-handedly in a nonstop race after completing a solo three-month journey around the world in mid-February. MacArthur sailed 25,000 miles in 94 days, 4 hours, 25 minutes, 40 seconds aboard her 60-foot Kingfisher yacht.
- 2001 - American Ann Bancroft, 45 of Scandia, MN, and Norwegian Liv Arnesen, 47 of Oslo, become the first women to cross the Antarctic land mass on skis, each pulling 240-pound sleds. Additionally, Bancroft is the first woman to cross the ice to both the North and South poles; Arnesen was the first woman to ski solo to the South Pole in 1994. The two former schoolteachers began their journey on Nov. 13, 2000, traveling 1,800 miles in 90 days, battling injury, broken sleds, ripped sails, altitude fatigue and subzero temperatures.
- 2001 - Germany’s Gunda Niemann-Stirnemann breaks her own world record in the 3,000 meters in 4:00.25, her 100th victory in World Cup speedskating. She just missed becoming the first woman to go the distance in under four minutes.
- 2001 - Defending Olympic champion Silke Kraushaar wins the final women’s World Cup luge race in Lake Placid, NY, taking the overall crown for the second time in three years.
- 2001 - Olympic champion Stacy Dragila raises the bar once again by setting a new world record in the women’s pole vault, jumping 4.70 meters (15 feet, 5 inches) and beating her own indoor world mark.
- 2001 - Deena Drossin wins her fourth straight US cross country title in Vancouver, WA.
- 2001 - Britain's Alexandria Coomber wins her second consecutive World Cup skeleton at Park City, UT, with a combined total time in two runs on the 1,340-meter track of 1:40:60. Canada's Michelle Kelly was second in 1:40.74 and Maya Pedersen of Switzerland was third with 1:40.84.
- 2001 - Marla Runyan, 32, breaks the American indoor record in the women’s 5,000 meters with a time of 15:7.33, including a record time of 14:56.0 for 3 miles. Runyan was the first legally blind athlete to make a U.S. Olympic team; she took 8th in the 1,500 meters at the Sydney Games.
- 2001 - Romania's Gabriela Szabo breaks the women's indoor 3,000 meter world record in a time of 8:32.88.
- 2001 - In Brentwood Academy v. Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association, the U.S. Supreme Court rules 5-4 that state high school athletic associations are "state actors" and therefore subject to the U.S. Constitution’s nondiscrimination requirements. The ruling will help ensure equality for female and minority students in school sports.
- 2001- Tiffeny Milbrett is chosen as women’s player of the year by the U.S. Soccer Federation. Milbrett, a forward from Portland, OR, has 81 goals in 164 national team games.
- 2001 - Jackie Stiles’ 30 point performance for Southwest Missouri State makes her the career scoring leader in NCAA Division I women’s basketball. Her career total of 3,133 points breaks the previous record of 3,122 set by Patricia Hoskins at Mississippi Valley State (1985-89). [Five players have scored more than Stiles in the years before women’s basketball came under the NCAA in 1982. Lynette Woodard is the leader in that era with 3,649 points at Kansas (1977-81).]
- 2001 - Stacy Dragila wins her sixth straight women’s pole vault title at the USA Indoor Track and Field Championships.
- 2001 - American Chris Witty sets a new 1,000-meter world speedskating record of 1:14.58 in the women’s event at a World Cup event in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Two Germans came in second and third, with Sabine Volker in 1:14.65 and Monique Garbrecht-Enfeldt in 1:14.86.
- 2001 - Georgia point guard Kelly Miller is named to the Associated Press all-SEC team for the fourth season in a row and receives her second straight player of the year award. Miller started in all 129 games of her college career, scoring 2,150 points (third on Georgia’s career list) behind Janet Harris (2,641) and Katrina McClain (2,195). Miller was named player of the year by the Southeastern Conference coaches. Other AP awards going to Georgia’s program include coach of the year to Carol Ross and newcomer of the year to freshman Christi Thomas.
- 2001 - Duke’s senior guard Georgia Schweitzer is the Associated Press women’s player of the year in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). Teammate Alana Beard is the ACC’s rookie of the year.
- 2001 - Venus Williams earns the Player of the Year award at the annual WTA Sanex Awards. She and sister Serena also earn Doubles Team of the Year honors. The Sanex WTA Tour will have more than 1,000 women competing for over $50 million in prize money in 2001.
- 2001 - Shawna Robinson announces a six-race schedule in stock-car Winston Cup schedule, the first woman to start a Winston Cup race in 12 years and the first to run a multi-race schedule in 20. Racing is the fastest growing sport in America and nearly half the fans are women.
- 2001 - Sweden’s Annika Sorenstam, 30, makes women’s golf history with the first 59 during the second round of the Standard Register Ping on the 6,459-yard Moon Valley Country Club in Phoenix, AZ. She went on to win the championship with an LPGA-low 72-hole score of 27-under-par 261. It is Sorenstam’s second title in 2001 and the 25th of her career.
- 2001 - Sweden defeats Denmark 3-0 to win the Algarve Cup, the third most prestigious women’s soccer tournament behind the World Cup and the Olympics. China beat Canada 5-1 for the bronze medal.
- 2001 - The inaugural NCAA Women's Hockey Tournament concludes with the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs in a 4-2 victory over the Skating Saints of St. Lawrence University.
- 2001 - Susan Armenta wins the inaugural US 50K Women's Walk in Manassas, VA.
- 2001 - Notre Dame’s Ruth Riley and Muffet McGraw are the Associated Press player and coach of the year awards in women’s basketball. Riley was the only unanimous selection on this season’s All-America team and an academic All-American with a 3.64 GPA.
- 2001 - Notre Dame defeats Purdue 68-66 for NCAA women’s national basketball title. Notre Dame’s Ruth Riley, the national player of the year, lead all scorers with 28 points, had 13 rebounds and blocked seven shots.
- 2001 - University of Maryland senior Jen Adams, a native of Brighton, So. Australia, breaks the NCAA collegiate women’s lacrosse scxoring record with 11 points as her team advances to the NCAA quarterfinals. Adams point total stands at 430, beating the old mark of 420 set by Karen Emas who played for Delaware from 1981-84.
- 2001 - Lyn St. James retires, ending her career in Indy-car racing by taking two ceremonial laps just before the start of practice for the Indianapolis 500. St. James began auto racing in 1976, and was the oldest rookie to qualify at Indianapolis at 45 in 1992 when she saw her best Indy finish - 11th.
- 2001 - Annika Sorenstam wins the Chick-fil-A Charity Championship, earning $180,000 for the win and boosting her career earnings over $7 million, to break an LPGA record.
- 2001 - Donna Caponi is elected through the Veteran's Committee into the LPGA Hall of Fame, becoming the 19th member from the LPGA Tour. She won the 1969 US Open, defended her title in 1970, and played for 23 years on the Tour.
- 2001 - The US women's gymnasts team completes a sweep, defeating Romania and China, to win the Pontiac American Team Cup, with a score of 144.975.
- 2001 - Jackie Stiles, a senior guard at Southwest Missouri State, is awarded the prestigious Wade Trophy by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association and the National Association for Girls and Women in Sport. Stiles is the nation's top scorer, becoming the NCAA all-time Division I scoring leader with 3,298 career points on March 1. She is the first player in NCAA history to post more than 1,000-points in a single season. The Wade Trophy, named after the legendary three-time national champion Delta State University coach Lily Margaret Wade, debuted in 1978 as the first-ever women's national player of the year award in college basketball.
- 2001 - Annika Sorenstam wins a record-tying fourth consecutive LPGA Tour title, making a 10-stroke comeback, by winning The Office Depot. Sorenstam joins Hall of Famers Kathy Whitworth and Mickey Wright as the only players to win four consecutively scheduled tournaments.
- 2001 - 34,148 soccer fans watch the first match of Women's United Soccer Association, pitting the Bay Area CyberRays against the Washington, DC Freedom.
- 2001 - The 12 women team of American and Canadian women reach the North Pole, completing Polar Trek, 200-kilometer cross country ski trek to the pole.
- 2001 - The UCLA Bruins beat Stanford 5-4 at the inaugural NCAA Women's Water Polo Championship.
- 2001 - 12-year-old Morgan Pressel qualifies for the US Open with a 2-under par 70 at the 6,300-yard Bear Lakes Country Club in Palm Beach, FL.
- 2001 - Maryland wins the Division I Lacrosse Championship, defeating Georgetown in sudden-death OT 14-13. It is Maryland’s seventh straight championship, capping a 23-0 season.
- 2001 - Lindsey Collins hits a homer for Arizona for the winning run over UCLA in the NCAA Women's College World Series, in a 1-0 game. Pitcher Jennie Finch finishes the season 32-0, breaking the NCAA record for season wins without defeat, and is named the series' most outstanding player. The Arizona Wildcats (65-4) claim their sixth national title.
- 2001 - Cory Sertl, a 1998 US sailing team Olympian, wins the Boat US Santa Maria Cup, edging Betsy Alison, the only five-time winner of the Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year, and the 1999 champion Dawn Riley who placed third.
- 2001 - Jennifer Capriati wins the French Open by defeating 18-year-old Belgian Kim Clijsters.
- 2001 - Stacy Draglia sets two new world records in women’s outdoor pole vaulting with a 15-5 ½ jump and then clears 15-9 ¼ in Palo Alto, CA.
- 2001 - Ina-Yoko Teutenberg wins first and teammate Petra Rossner takes second in the 18th Annual HP Women's Challenge for a Team Saturn sweep in cycling. Saturn teammate Lyne Bessette wins first place as Overall Individual. Considered the women's Tour de France, this 12-day road race consisted of 13 stages and covered 688 miles of rugged Idaho terrain. The HP Women's Challenge features $128,000 in prize money, the largest purse in North American cycling regardless of gender.
- 2001 - Kerrie Webb, 26, becomes the youngest LPGA player in history to win a Career Grand Slam with her win at the $1.5 million 2001 McDonald's LPGA Championship.
- 2001 - Team USA captain Julie Foudy makes her 200th international soccer appearance in a game in front of the largest Canadian crowd ever for a women’s soccer match (9,023). She joins teammates Mia Hamm (217) and Kristine Lilly (226) as the only international soccer players regardless of gender to reach that milestone. The first game of the Independence Day Series ended in a 2-2 draw.
- 2001 - 23-year-old Team USA captain Cindy Parlow becomes the youngest player in US history with 100 international appearances in a 1-0 victory over Canada on July 4 before a crowd of 15,614 fans.
- 2001 - American Lisa Raymond and Australian Rennae Stubbs win the Wimbledon women's doubles title, defeating Kim Clijsters of Belgium and Ai Sugiyama of Japan 6-4, 6-3. It is the second Grand Slam title for the American-Australian team to go with their victory in the 2000 Australian Open.
- 2001 - Defending Wimbledon champion Venus Williams defeats 19-year-old Justine Henin of Belgium (6-1, 3-6, 6-0) for the Women’s Singles title.
- 2001 - The USA defeats Japan 9-1 in the 2001 Women's World Series gold medal game at the Toronto SkyDome. The national baseball teams of Australia, Japan, Canada and USA competed in round- robin play of this first-ever event.
- 2001 - Team USA wins its fifth (and fourth straight) World Lacrosse title with 14-8 victory over Australia. Head coach Sue Stahl becomes the first coach to earn four IFWLA titles.
- 2001 - Lisa Leslie earns her second MVP award in the WNBA All-Star Game as she scores 20 points, grabs nine rebounds and blocks three shots in a Western Conference victory over the East, 80-72.
- 2001 - The Philadelphia Liberty Belles earn the 2001 Championship of the National Women’s Football League with a 40 - 7 victory over the Pensacola Power.
- 2001 - At the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Durango, CO, Anne-Caroline Chausson of France earns the Downhill title with a run of 4:1.97 minutes. Great Britain’s Tracy Moseley takes the silver and Missy Giove of the US earns the bronze. In the Dual Slalom, Leigh Donovan and Tara Llanes of the US take gold and silver and Chausson earns the bronze. The Cross Country race is won by Australian Mary Grigson in 1 hour, 47.45 minutes, with Barbara Blatter of Switzerland and Great Britain’s Caroline Alexander winning the silver and bronze medals.
- 2001 - Kim Clijsters of Belgium wins her first tennis championship with a 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 6-1 victory over Lindsay Davenport in the Bank of the West Classic.
- 2001 - Wendy Ward sets a LPGA scoring record for a 54-hole tournament with a 21-under 195 with a 3 shot win at the Wendy's Championship for Chidlren.
- 2001- The US women's under-21 soccer team beats Sweden 6-1 for their third straight Nordic Cup title.
- 2001 - At the U.S. National Championships, 16-year-old Kristen Caverly beats Olympic gold medalist Megan Quann in a time of 2:29.36 for gold in the women's 200-meter breaststroke and later wins the 400 individual medley. Emily Mason wins the women's 200-meter butterfly; Olympian Gabrielle Rose takes the 100-meter freestyle; Diana MacManus wins the women's 200-meter backstroke; Lindsay Benko, wins the women's 200 freestyle with a time of 2:00.16 for her seventh national title; and Kalyn Keller wins the 800-meter freestyle.
- 2001 - 25-year-old Stephanie Ready is hired to be an assistant coach to the NBA's new minor league, National Basketball Development League (NBDL) Greenville Grooves. Ready served two years as an assistant coach with the Coppin State men's team
- 2001 - In the first WUSA Championship, 21,078 fans at Foxboro Stadium saw the Bay Area CyberRays overcome the Atlanta Beat after a 3-3 tie regulation game forced overtime and the shootout (4-2) to settle 2001 season. Julie Murray scored the winning point to end the game, earning MVP honors for the game.
- 2001 - Following the inaugural season, the WUSA awards Most Valuable Player and Offensive Player of the Year awards to Tiffeny Milbrett (New York Power), who scored 16 goals and 35 points during the season. Doris Fitschen (Philadelphia Charge) is named the Defensive Player of the Year, and LaKeysia Beene (CyberRays), named Goalkeeper of the Year, had a record-setting 6-game shutout streak during the 2001. Official Sandra Hunt is named Referee of the Year. Other awards included the WUSA Humanitarian Award to Kate Sobrero (Boston Breakers) for dedicated community service, the Team Community Service Award went to the Washington Freedom, and the Team Fair Play Award was given to the New York Power.
- 2001 - Ashley Martin becomes the first woman to score points in a Division I football game when she kicks three extra points for Jacksonville State who defeat the Cumberland Bulldogs, 71-10. She is the first woman to play Division I football; she also plays for Jacksonville State's soccer team. Martin played for her high school team as a kicker, scoring 2-of-4 on field goals and 79-of-92 on extra points, at East Coweta High School in Georgia.
- 2001 - The United States wins basketball gold at the World University Games, defeating China 87-69.
- 2001 - The Los Angeles Sparks are the 2001 WNBA Champions with a 82-54 win over the Charlotte Sting in game 2 of the series. Lisa Leslie's 24 points, 13 rebounds, 6 assists and 7 blocked shots seal her selection as MVP of the finals .
- 2001 - The Williams sisters make it an historic US Open in the first women's final televised in prime time from Arthur Ashe Stadium in NY. Venus wins her second consecutive US Open title, beating Serena 6-2, 6-4 in the first Grand Slam between sisters in 117 years. Nearly 23 million viewers tune in during the match.
- 2001 - US Olympian Alison Dunlap, 32, wins the mountain biking world cross-country title.
- 2001- Japan's Naoko Takahashi, an Olympic champion, becomes the first woman to run a marathon in less than 2 hours, 20 minutes when she wins the Berlin Marathon in 2:19.45. Kenyan Tegla Loroupe finishes second in 2:28:02 and German Kathrin Wessel is third in 2:28:26.
- 2001 - Sonoma, CA, periodontist Dr. Carlene Mendieta, 47, successfully recreates Ameila Earhart's 1928 solo cross-country flight in a restored Avro Avian, an open cockpit biplane built just 3 weeks before Earhart's Avian in which she piloted in the original flight. The plane flies no higher than 1,000 feet, must be refueled ever 3.5 hour, and has an average speed of 82 mph. The trip, designed to re-enact the original as far as possible, was delayed for a week after 6 days because of the national airport shut down following the Sept. 11 attacks on NYC and Washington. Some later stops had to be cancelled or rescheduled because of the new restrictions. Mendieta is a member of The Ninety-Nines, an organization of women pilots that was founded by Earhart in 1929.
- 2001 - The week-old women's marathon record is broken by Catherine Ndereba, 29, who wins the 26.2 mile Chicago Marathon in 2:18.47.
- 2001 - Monica Seles wins her 50th career title, beating Tamarine Tanasugarn 6-3, 6-2, at the Japan Open.
- 2001 - Kimberly Black, who won swimming gold in Sydney with the 800-meter freestyle relay team, is honored as the NCAA's Woman of the Year. The four-time All-American graduated in May from Georgia with a 3.95 grade-point average in biology and plans to attend medical school. She also received the Georgia Athletic Association community service award for community service at the Athens (GA) Regional Medical Center and the Egleston Children's Hospital, working on Safe Kids programs.
- 2001 - At the World Fencing Championships, the Italian women take the gold in team foil, beating Russia, with the US winning bronze. In team sabre, Russia defeats Romania, with Germany taking the bronze. The Russian team beats Switzerland for the gold in team epee, with Hungary winning bronze. Italian Olympic champion Valentina Vezzali wins her second straight world title in the individual foil over Germany's Sabine Bau. Roxana Scarlat of Romania and Russia's Ekaterina Youcheva share the bronze. France's Anne-Lise Touya wins the world sabre championship, defeating Ilaria Blanco of Italy. Germany's Claudia Bokel wins the world epee title, beating two-time world champion Laura Flessel-Colovic of France.
- 2001 - Kenyan Margaret Okayo wins the New York City Marathon in a course record-breaking time of 2:24:21, earning $80,000 for the win and $35,000 for the record ($15,000 less than the man's record-breaking run by Ethiopian Tesfaye Jifar in the same race). Okayo bested the previous record by 19 seconds set in 1992 by Austrialian Lisa Ondieka.
- 2001 - 40-year old Kelly Perkins climbs 19,340-foot-high Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa, becoming the first heart transplant recipient to do so. The ascent took 7 days and covered 45 miles of walking to reach Uhuru Peak on Oct. 21. Perkins climbed the 8,842-foot Half Dome in Yosemite National Park in 1996, just 10 months after heart surgery, to prove that heart recipients can life a full life.
- 2001 - Sweden’s Annika Sorenstam caps her LPGA year with a record-breaking 69.42 for the lowest scoring average and becomes the first woman to break the $2 million-a-year earning mark for a woman with a total of $2,105,868.
- 2001 - Natalie Coughlin, 19, the NCAA swimmer of the year, sets three worlds short-course records during the FINA World Cup, including the 200-meter backstroke, the 100-meter backstroke and the 50 butterfly. She also set a new 200m backstroke record, finishing the competition with four gold and five silver medals.
- 2001 - At the first amateur Women's World Boxing Championships, the US's Devonne Canady, 30, defeats Maria Kovacs of Hungary, 22-15, for the 198-pound final. Participants from more than 30 countries boxed in 12 different weight classes.
- 2001- The Santa Clara Bronco's (23-2) earn their NCAA Women's College Cup in Division I soccer by defeating the University of North Carolina (24-1) who were going for their 17th championship. Aly Wagner scored for Santa Clara in the 41st minute of play in Dallas.
- 2001 - The Stanford Cardinals earn a record fifth NCAA women's volleyball title by defeating Long Beach State in straight games.
- 2001 - Tennis player Jennifer Capriati is named the The Associated Press female athlete of 2001with her championships at the Australian and French Opens.
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