Have you heard of this Babe?
Twenty years before the movie about Babe the pig was released by Disney, I saw the movie “Babe – The Babe Didrikson Zaharias Story.” I only saw it once, but it made such an impression on me that I have thought about her many times over the years.
Mildred Didrikson was born in 1911 and earned the nickname “Babe” as a young girl for hitting frequent home runs in neighborhood baseball games. She excelled in every sport she tried and played basketball for her employer’s team from 1929 to 1932.
When she learned about the Olympics, she trained for the hurdles by jumping her neighbor’s hedges. At the age of 21, she qualified for five events, but women were only allowed to compete in three. She won gold medals in the javelin throw and the 80-meter hurdles, setting world records in each. She was awarded a silver medal in the high jump after tying for first but having her technique disqualified.
Pretty impressive, right? But that’s not how she became famous.
Babe Didrikson Zaharias was best known for golf. She pushed through roadblocks and discrimination against women, proving she deserved to play by winning tournament after tournament. She was the first American woman to win the British Women’s Amateur Golf Tournament and won a total of 82 tournaments in her lifetime which was tragically cut short by cancer at the age of 45 in 1956.
She was voted Woman Athlete of the Half-Century by the Associated Press in 1950.
Mildred Didrikson was obviously born with athletic ability. What she lacked in today’s financial and coaching resources she made up for in perseverance and lots of hard work. She had the necessary ingredient to achieve success.
Something that lit a fire in her that she couldn’t ignore.
Something that got her out of bed even when she was exhausted.
Something that drove her to find a way to do what she loved when people said she couldn’t.
She had that something called desire.
I know several people who, during this pandemic, have discovered or focused on their desire. They are surely on their way to living life fully, like Babe.
Read more about Babe Didrikson Zaharias
Michals, Debra. "Mildred Ella 'Babe' Didrikson Zaharias." National Women's History Museum. 2015.