#InternationalWomensDay: 5 women in sport inspiring us right now
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It’s #InternationalWomensDay, so there’s no better time to celebrate the talent, technique and determination of sport’s finest women.
Here at Ladbrokes News, we salute five of the fantastic females who have inspired the sporting world recently.
Serena Williams
Where else could we start but with the titan of tennis? The 35-year-old won the 23rd Grand Slam of an astonishing career in January’s Australian Open, making her the most successful female player of the Open Era.
A fantastic baseline player with a ferocious serve, the powerful veteran has continued to dominate the sport even into her mid-thirties, and didn’t lose a single set en route to her latest triumph in Oz. If that’s anything to go by, it’s unlikely to be her last major triumph of the year.
Lydia Ko
It’s incredible to think that the South Korean golfer is still a few weeks away from her 20th birthday. Having broken a seemingly endless list of records – youngest person ever to win a professional golf tour event, youngest winner of an LPGA tour event (and so on) – she’s continued to deliver on that promise.
Ko won four tour titles in each of 2015 and 2016, and became the youngest ever Olympic medal winner in women’s golf when she picked up the Silver medal in Rio last summer. A game-changer in the fullest sense of the word…
Nicola Adams
Adams became the first British Olympian to defend a Gold medal in 92 years when she recorded a second successive Boxing gold at Rio, beating France’s highly-rated Sarah Ourahmoune in the women’s flyweight category.
The current holder of Gold in the Olympics, European Games and Commonwealth Games, the 34-year-old is showing no sign of losing the speed and sharpness which has taken her to the very top of the sport…and kept her there.
Jane Ross
Women’s football is experiencing such a boom and flurry of fine talent right now that it was hard to choose just one example of that. But Ross – who has shone for WSL champions Manchester City and national side Scotland – edged it, after plenty of debate at News HQ.
The Rothesay-born striker netted eight times in 16 games to give City their first ever WSL title in 2016, as well as securing qualification for the UEFA Women’s Euro 2017 by netting an incredible 10 goals in eight games for Scotland. Not too shabby…
Laura Kenny
While impending motherhood means we won’t see her competing in the coming months, it’s fair to say the Harlow-born cyclist achieved more than enough in 2016 to ensure she’s not forgotten during her break from the sport.
A double Gold winner in Rio, winning the Team Pursuit and Omnium, the 24-year-old also recorded a pair of first-placed finishes in the UCI Track World Championship last year, as well as a triumph in the British National Madison Championships.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing
