Tidye Pickett trains for the Olympic hurdles trials at Randall's Island, New York on July 8, 1936. (UPI/Bettmann) In June 1921 Bessie Coleman became the first African American woman ever to earn a pilot's license. She was a stunt flyer and parachutist and died in an accident in 1926 at age 34.(The Bettmann Archive) Golfer Patty Berg with the Ladies Professional Golf Association trophy. She was also the Association's first president in 1948.(United Press International) Eleanora Sears blazed the trail for women in sports. She was gifted in many sports including squash. She won the National Women's Singles Champion in 1928 at age 44. Babe Didrikson was the leading women's track and field star of her day. She is shown here in a broad jump, 1931. (United Press International) At 22 Sonja Henie had won three Olympic titles, ten world championships and fourteen Norwegian and European titles. She skated in a series of Hollywood films in the 1930s and 1940s. Besides playing tennis Ora Mae Washington was top scorer and captian of the Philadelphia tribune girls' basketball team. (International Tennis Hall of Fame and Tennis Museum at the Newport Casino, Newport, Rhode Island.) Gertrude Ederle emerges from the surf following her record breaking swim across the English Channel in 1926. She plastered herself with olive oil, lanolin, Vaseline and lard to keep warm. (Bettmann Archive, Inc.) In 1926 Peggy O'Neill was a regular player with the Tammany Tigers of New York. It was an all male team except for Peggy. (The Bettmann Archive) © 2002-2022 The Surfs-Up News A Division of Internet Resources All Rights Reserved.