Hidden Heroes in Plain Sight

Imagine a teenage girl standing outside a Canadian hockey rink in 1981. Her name is Justine Blainey, and she has just been told she cannot play, not because she lacks talent, but because she is a girl. The boys’ league doesn’t permit female players. She doesn’t leave quietly. Instead, she begins a legal battle that would reach the Supreme Court of Canada and help reshape gender equity in sports.

Stories like Blainey’s often go untold. While the spotlight has celebrated icons like Serena Williams or Billie Jean King, many lesser-known pioneers laid the groundwork for today’s progress. They were the firsts, the ones who stepped forward when there was no precedent, no roadmap, and often no support.

Their stories deserve more than passing recognition. They shaped the playing field that modern athletes now walk on.

Women Who Changed the Game: Unsung Sports Pioneers

Kathryn Smith: Breaking the NFL Sideline Barrier

In 2016, Kathryn Smith became the first full-time female coach in NFL history when the Buffalo Bills hired her as a special teams quality control coach. Her résumé included years in team operations and scouting, but her promotion received only brief national attention. Smith preferred to stay out of the spotlight and emphasized that she was simply doing her job. Her hiring helped dismantle the notion that football strategy belonged exclusively to men and opened the path for coaches like Jennifer King and Katie Sowers to follow her lead into professional football.

Tidye Pickett: Olympic History, Overlooked

Tidye Pickett became the first African American woman to compete in the Olympic Games when she ran the 80-meter hurdles at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Her participation came after she was controversially removed from the 1932 U.S. relay team, a decision widely believed to have been racially motivated. Pickett faced international hostility in Nazi Germany and minimal support from her own country. After the Games, she became a teacher and principal, continuing to break barriers far from the spotlight.

Reflecting on her experience later in life, she said,

Justine Blainey: A Legal Power Play

When Justine Blainey was denied a roster spot on a boys’ hockey team in 1981, she challenged not just the league, but the law itself. She sued the Ontario Hockey Association, taking her case all the way to Canada’s Supreme Court. In 1986, the court ruled in her favor, making it illegal to deny girls equal access to sports teams under Canada’s human rights code.

In a 2010 interview with The Globe and Mail, she explained her mindset at the time:

Sybil Bauer: The Record That Didn’t Count

In 1922, Sybil Bauer swam the 440-yard backstroke faster than the men’s world record at the time. However, because the event was not sanctioned by the men’s federation, the time was never officially recognized. Bauer later won gold in the 100-meter backstroke at the 1924 Paris Olympics. Despite her achievements, her name faded from public memory. She died of cancer at just 23, but her performance remains one of the earliest examples of a woman outperforming male contemporaries in a measurable athletic feat.

Obstacles and Exclusion: The Hidden Costs of Being First

These women faced more than athletic challenges. Kathryn Smith worked in environments where women had little to no representation. Tidye Pickett trained on segregated tracks with second-hand equipment. Justine Blainey received threats and hate mail during her legal campaign. Sybil Bauer was denied formal recognition by male-dominated institutions even after outperforming male athletes.

Their efforts required emotional endurance, not just athletic skill. They were dismissed, marginalized, and sometimes forgotten. But they remained committed to competing and, in many cases, to changing the rules of the game.

What They Changed and What Remains

The legacies of these women are visible in the structure of modern sports. Title IX opened the floodgates of opportunity for generations of female athletes. Today, nearly half of all Olympic athletes are women. Coaching opportunities are expanding. Becky Hammon became a full-time NBA assistant and later the head coach of the Las Vegas Aces. The NFL and MLB have also seen increased female representation in coaching and operations.

Yet gaps remain. According to the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES), only 7 percent of head coaches in NCAA Division I women’s sports are women of color. Less than 10 percent of sports media coverage is devoted to women’s sports. Sponsorship and funding continue to skew heavily toward male leagues.

The pathway is wider, but it is not yet equal. And many of the structural biases these pioneers fought still persist in new forms.

Why These Women Were Forgotten

These women were often overlooked because their accomplishments didn’t fit the mainstream narrative. They weren’t celebrated as breakthroughs. They were framed as novelties, exceptions, or quietly dismissed.

The media focused on male achievements, while institutional memory favored those whose victories aligned with traditional power structures. As a result, pioneers like Pickett, Bauer, Smith, and Blainey rarely appear in documentaries, sports halls of fame, or high school history books.

Their absence affects how we understand progress. When we ignore the firsts, we distort the timeline of equality. We forget how hard-won each step forward was.

Honoring the Forgotten: Rebuilding Sports Memory

We can correct that omission. Schools can teach these stories in PE and history courses. Documentaries can highlight their lives, providing depth beyond stats and medals. Public institutions can name awards, scholarships, and facilities after these women to remind future generations whose shoulders they stand on.

Current athletes can help amplify their legacies. At the 2023 Women in Sports Foundation Gala, Olympian Sydney McLaughlin publicly credited Tidye Pickett for paving the way by saying,

This kind of acknowledgment keeps legacy alive. Memory is a form of justice.

Conclusion: The Legacy Beneath Our Feet

Kathryn Smith, Tidye Pickett, Justine Blainey, and Sybil Bauer did more than achieve personal milestones. They moved entire institutions, sometimes with nothing more than determination and quiet courage. Their names should not be historical trivia. They should be foundational figures in the story of sports.

If we want an equitable future in athletics, we must start by telling the truth about the past. That means saying their names. It means teaching their stories. And it means recognizing that behind every celebrated moment today, there were women whose efforts went unseen.

Their legacy does not live in highlight reels. It lives in every rule changed, every door opened, and every girl who now plays because someone else insisted she should be allowed to.