Growing 1 CHAPTER BABE DIDRIKSON ZAHARIAS Growing up in Beaumont Texas in the 1920s Mildred Ella Babe Didrikson played every sport available to girls Sports were a huge part of her childhood basketball track tennis baseball or anything else she got a chance to try Her nickname came from her Norwegian mother She called her daughter min bebe in her native language But the way Didrikson told it her nickname was a reference to slugger Babe Ruth because Didrikson hit so many home runs as a ballplayer She wanted nothing less than to be the greatest athlete of all time Though she stood just 5 feet 5 inches tall only a fool would underestimate her She was amazingly strong and muscular In a time when society expected women even athletes to be Babe Didrikson right clears a hurdle at the 1932 Summer Olympics
soft and fragile Didrikson showed that women could be strong tough competitors Didrikson was a star basketball player but she really made a name for herself in track and field When she was a teenager she read about the 1928 Olympics in the newspaper and vowed that she would compete in the Didrikson was an elite athlete who excelled in many sports but she had the most professional success in the golf world
Games one day She set out to qualify for the In 1938 Didrikson decided to challenge the top male golfers 1932 Olympics in the world by playing a few events on the Professional Golfers Didrikson qualified Associaion of America PGA Tour in five events but at the She played in three more men's tournaments in 1945 and made time athletes weren't the cut in all three She is the allowed to take part in only woman to make the cut at a more than three events at PGA tournament the Olympics Didrikson competed in the javelin throw 80 meter hurdles and high jump in Los Angeles She took the gold in the first two setting world records in the process She won a silver medal in the high jump Soon after she took up golf despite having never played the sport before To practice her game she hit up to 1 000 golf balls per day Her powerful swing allowed her to drive the ball approximately 240 yards 220 meters from the tee Before long she became known more for golf than track and field After marrying professional wrestler George Zaharias in 1938 the newly named Babe Didrikson Zaharias won her first professional tournament in 1940 Over the next
