She is considered the best female athlete of the first half of the 20th Century. Her legend was forged when she died of a cancer aged 45 after having garnered numerous victories in various sporting disciplines.

Mildred Didrikson Zaharías was born in Port Arthur, Texas, on the 26th of June 1911. She was the sixth of seven siblings brothers and from a young age she showed interest for all sports. Soon she earned the nickname “Babe” on being compared to Babe Ruth when she made five home runs in one game of baseball. Her somewhat masculine features and her passion for the sport incurred much criticism at a moment when women and sport were not well considered. Her first gold medals would come during the Summer Olympics of Los Angeles 1932, establishing world records in the three disciplines she competed in: javelin, high-jump and the 80 metres hurdles race.

Mildred also stood out in female basketball, becoming the cornerstone for the team that would win the national championship the next three years.

It was in 1933 that Babe began playing golf. In 1935 she’d win the Texas amateur championship and in 1938 she would become the first woman to take part in the Los Angeles Open, a tournament on the PGA circuit. That same year the sportswoman would meet her husband, a wrestling competitor of greek origin who would also become her manager and give her the surname Zaharias.

Babe Zaharias would become one of the most famous sportspeople in the United States in the 40’s and a quite a celebrity. A colon cancer ended her life when she was only 45 years old but her legacy has lived on. She has been considered the best female athlete in the 20th Century and the tenth in the general classification. She was inducted into the LPGA Hall of Fame and in Beaumont there is a museum, a golf course and a championship with her name.