Ellen joins ranks of world beating women

SHE may not actually be a winner, but Ellen MacArthur is the nation's heroine for 2001.

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Before MacArthur was in sight of the finishing line of the Vendee Globe round the world sailing challenge was almost unknown. But as soon as it became apparent that, at the age of 24, she was about to become the fastest women ever to navigate the world single-handed she became an overnight superstar.

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The public loves a plucky record breaker every bit as much as a winner, so here theanswerbank.co.uk looks at some other remarkable women who reached the very top of their sport.

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Some of us are old enough to remember the amazing impact that the then 16-year-old Romanian Nadia Comaneci had on gymnastics when she took three gold medals to become the darling of the 1976 Olympic Games.

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But the records show that the Czech gymnast Vera Caslavska has the stronger claim to be regarded as the greatest of all time. She won a yet to be equalled seven gold Olympic medals, three in Tokyo in 1964, including the all-round competition and four in Mexico four years later. In between she won three more at the 1966 World Championships, and was rightly considered a heroine in her home country, not just for her athletic feats but also for her defiant stance against the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.

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In women's tennis, many pundits are predicting years of domination by the Williams sisters, Venus and Sabrina. But they will have to go some to match the efforts of Australia's Margaret Court.

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She still holds the record for the most singles titles won in Grand Slam tournaments, with a total of no less than 24 (11 Australian, five US, five French and three Wimbledon) from 1960 to 1973.

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It's currently the winter sports season, Ski Sunday and all, and it will be interesting to see if any of the current crop of female skiers look capable of reaching the heights achieved by the Russian Yelena Valbe.

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She is the holder of the most World Nordic Championship titles ever won by a women, a staggering 17, picking up 10 individual and seven relay awards in less than 10 years between 1989 and 1998.

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Want to know who holds the world record in any sport Click here to ask the question.

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