Misty May-Treanor was born and raised on the sunny beaches of Los Angeles, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that she became one of the best beach volleyball players in the country. She played in her first tournament when she was just 8 years old and continued on with the sport through high school and into college when she played for The Long Beach State 49ers.
She helped her team win the first undefeated season that the NCAA had ever seen in 1998, set the tournament record of service aces (20), and won the Most Outstanding Player award. She and her husband, pro baseball player Matt Treanor, live in Florida with their three daughters.
Toni Duggan
Duggan is a professional English soccer player that got into the sport at a very young age. In fact, she was already playing in the FIFA World Cup when she was just 15 years old. How incredible! She was given the title of the FA Women’s Young Player of the Year in 2009 and England’s Women’s Under-23 Player of the Year in 2012.
A few years later, she became the first of England’s women’s team to exceed 100,000 followers on social media. She represents a few different non-profit organizations, including Kick it Out, which works to fight discrimination in football.
Érika Cristiano dos Santos
Érika Cristiano dos Santos, who commonly just goes by Érika (it is quite a mouthful, after all), is a major professional soccer star from Brazil. She helped lead the Brazilian women’s national team to a silver medal victory at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
Aside from being a talented, award-winning athlete in her country, she’s also an advocate for gender equality, both in sports and Brazil as a whole. She was involved recently in a major open letter written by 100 female athletes condemning the country for investing much more in men’s football and not giving women a fair and equal opportunity.
Sasha Cohen
Not to be confused with British actor and comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, this California girl still holds the record for the last woman to earn a medal in singles figure skating at the Olympics, as of early 2019. Her amazing talent on the ice snagged her several of them, including three World Champion medals, an Olympic silver medal, and a Grand Prix Championship.
While no longer active as a skater, she has dabbled in other fields too. Aside from her successful pro-ice-skating career, she’s acted in a few TV shows and films, including appearances and roles in "Las Vegas," "Sharknado 5," "Blades of Glory," and "Bratz: The Movie."
Whitney Miller
This blonde beauty is a multi-talented athlete that’s mastered the art of more than one sport – among other things. She got her start in the industry during college when she began her professional wakeboarding career. In 2012, she entered and won the Miss United States pageant, alongside her athletic competitions.
Afterward, she started training in kickboxing, and later Jiu-Jitsu, in which she went on to earn a black belt. Wow, we are getting tired just reading about all of it. Calling this woman competitive would be an understatement. Talk about being an overachiever! Is there anything this woman can’t do?