Babe - an icon of invincibility and charm who could cut it in any game

I’VE just finished reading Wonder Girl, a fascinating book by ESPN investigative reporter Don Van Natta Jr on the magnificent sporting life of Babe Didrikson Zaharias, whose story – if you’re not familiar with it – is one of the most amazing you’ll ever hear.

The sixth of seven children of Norwegian immigrants to the US, Mildred Lee Didrikson was born in 1913 and grew up into an extrovert teenager. At 13, she announced that one day she would be the world’s greatest athlete. Everyone laughed – but she turned out to be right, as she charged through life, refusing to listen to those who believed women had no place in sports.

She could cut it in any game, and earned the nickname “Babe” after the baseball hero Babe Ruth when she outsmarted her male peers by hitting five home runs in one game. But it was track and field that first received her serious attention.

In 1932, in the US Championships which served as the final selection ground for the Los Angeles Olympics, she won the javelin, shot put, long jump, baseball throw and 80 metres hurdles, and tied first in the high jump.

That stymied officials as the rules at the time stated that one person could only take part in three events at the Games.

So Babe was restricted to the javelin, hurdles and high jump.

At the Olympics, in front of 100 000 spectators she won gold and set new Games records in the first two disciplines, then tied for first in the high jump only to be disqualified for clearing the bar head first – a technique later made legal.

In basketball, she was nominated for the All-American team and she also excelled in swimming, diving and softball. But after becoming a household name in athletics, she switched her focus to golf which lifted her to dizzying new heights.

By the mid-1930s she was already world class, and wowed America by belting 250-yard drives on nationwide exhibition tours with Gene Sarazen and other top male professionals. Asked how a woman of 1.70m and weighing 63kg could hit a ball that far, her stock answer was: “I just hitch up my girdle and let it rip!”

The exhibitions she gave made her a professional in the eyes of the USGA, but in 1944 – having decided she’d had enough of long driving shows and wanted to start playing tournament golf – she was reinstated as an amateur.

The Babe wasted no time in making her mark. She won the US Amateur in 1946 and, in 1947 became the first American to capture the Women’s British Amateur. In 46 and 47, Zaharias (her married name after tying the knot with wrestler George Zaharias) won 17 straight tournaments.

Then she again joined the paid ranks and proceeded to win 31 American tournaments in the next seven years. She was now an international superstar – as Van Natta Jr puts it – “an icon of invincibility and charm”.

One of the founders of today’s LPGA Tour, among her victories were the US Women’s Opens of 1948, 1950 and 1954.

The latter she won by 12 strokes, inspiring the world because it was one of the most astonishing feats in sport in that she had undergone cancer surgery the previous year.

Tragically, the illness became the one battle in life she lost. “Wonder Girl” died in 1956, aged just 43.