Martina Navratilova defected to the U.S. from her home country of Czechoslovakia to make her tennis career possible, and she was also one of the first major athletes to come out as gay. With the support of several friends, starting with Chris Evert, she would become a dominant player in women’s tennis and hold the number one ranking for years on end, in both singles and doubles. Navratilova faced a rocky path in both her personal life and in tennis, but nevertheless, she persisted.

Martina Navratilova was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1956, with the given name Martina Subertova. Her parents divorced when she was three, and she moved with her mother to a house just outside of Prague. At the age of seven, soon after her mother remarried to Mirek Navrátil, Martina practiced tennis every day under Mirek’s coaching. Eventually, she would take on his last name, with a female suffix, making it Navratilova.

Navratilova made large strides in her tennis game and began taking lessons from the Czech tennis champion George Parma at just nine years old. Two years later, in 1968, the Soviet Union led a Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia to suppress the Prague Spring. After Navratilova became the Czech tennis champion at age 15, the communist regime allowed her to compete on the Pro Tour, with the understanding that her success reflected well on their country and its government. In 1973, at just 16 years old, she was competing at tournaments in the U.S. and absorbing Western culture.

At the French Open in 1975, Navratilova finished second to Chris Evert. However, the Czech Tennis Federation garnished a large portion of her winnings, as was done in many Communist countries. Aware of Navratilova’s anger and troubled by her affinity for Western culture, the Czech regime put additional security around her and tried to prevent her from traveling to the U.S. Open that year. Under pressure from Czech Wimbledon Champion Jan Kodeš (who was too popular to be silenced), the government allowed her to compete in New York. At the 1975 U.S. Open, she reached the semifinals and did indeed defect to the U.S., leaving her family behind. Her press conference regarding her defection made for bigger news than the result of the men’s tournament.

Martina Navratilova discusses her defection (New York, 1975)

Though Navratilova initially had difficulties staying fit and focused, she received help from fellow tennis players, especially Chris Evert. They practiced and played doubles together, winning several championships. Their doubles partnership ended after Navratilova defeated Evert in the 1978 Wimbledon championship; from that point on, they had a great singles rivalry. In all, they faced each other 80 times, with Navratilova overcoming a large initial deficit to claim the overall edge, 43-37. Their styles were completely at odds: Evert was a calm and consistent player who thrived on long baseline rallies, whereas Navratilova was energetic and powerful and came to the net as often as possible.

Navratilova wins Wimbledon, 1978

By 1979, the Czech government finally allowed Navratilova’s parents to meet with her. They met in Dallas, but her family was shocked by her lesbian relationship with the author Rita Mae Brown; in turn, they informed her of her estranged father’s suicide.

In July 1981, Navratilova was granted U.S. citizenship. In response, the New York Daily News published an interview in which Martina had mentioned her relationship with Rita Mae Brown. At the U.S. Open a couple of months later, she faced a lot of pressure as now-openly gay U.S. citizen trying to win her first U.S. Open. She cruised to the final, beating Evert along the way, but gave up a one set lead and lost the championship.

After losing to Evert 6-0 6-0 at another tournament in late 1981, Navratilova met Nancy Lieberman, a star basketball player, who influenced her to work harder on her fitness and her game. They lived together, but did not have a romantic relationship (Lieberman was heterosexual). Soon, Navratilova became extremely fit and strong, redefining the fitness goals of women tennis players. However, Lieberman also convinced her to develop a hostile mindset toward Evert and her other competitors.

Nancy Lieberman playing basketball

From 1982 to 1987, Navratilova won six straight Wimbledon titles and was the number one ranked player in women’s tennis. She finally won the U.S. Open in 1983, defeating Chris Evert in the championship. From 1983 to 1984, she won six straight Grand Slam titles, a streak that has never been topped.

Navratilova wins Wimbledon in 1983

In 1984, Navratilova’s friendship with Lieberman soured. She then met Judy Nelson, who encouraged her to see her competitors as friends rather than enemies. They moved to Aspen, Colorado together.

Judy Nelson and Martina Navratilova

In 1986, Martina returned to Czechoslovakia to compete for the U.S. team in the Federation Cup. The people greeted her as a hero, though the government did its best to ignore her. The U.S. faced Czechoslovakia in the finals, and Navratilova competed for the U.S. in both singles and doubles. In her singles match against the Czech number one and reigning U.S. Open champion, Hana Mandlíková, the fans chanted “Martina” before the match and she went on to win 7-5, 6-1. She also won the doubles match with Pam Shriver as her partner, and Chris Evert won her singles match as well, giving the U.S. the Federation Cup title.

Team USA lifts the Federation Cup, 1986

A young German star, Stefi Graf, took her number one ranking in 1987. After that year, Navratilova won only one more singles Grand Slam title, the 1990 Wimbledon.

Steffi Graf wins the “Golden Slam” (four Grand Slams + Olympic Gold), 1988

Unfortunately, Martina’s relationship with Judy Nelson ended badly. After they broke up in 1991, Judy sued her for palimony and won half of her estate. For Martina’s friends, that malicious act outweighed any positive influences Judy had had.

Navratilova stayed in Colorado and began to speak out on political matters, including gay rights, animal rights, support for free speech, and opposition to Communism. This type of activism did not do her any favors in securing corporate endorsement deals, but eventually those worked out and she made a lot of money from her years of hard work.

American Express appeals to gay and lesbian couples by featuring Martina

She continued to play doubles into the early 2000s, winning mixed doubles titles at the Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2003 and at the U.S. Open in 2006, when she was nearly 50 years old. At the 2014 U.S. Open, Martina proposed to her long-time girlfriend, Julia Lemigova (pictured in the ad above). They got married in December of that year.

Over the course of her career, Martina Navratilova won 18 Grand Slam singles titles, 31 major doubles titles, and 10 major mixed doubles titles. Her 61 combined Grand Slam titles places her second only to Margaret Court (with 64), who is a prominent anti-gay rights advocate.

Margaret Court

Navratilova completed a Career Grand Slam in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles (winning the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and U.S. Open at least once in each discipline), making her one of just three women to ever do that (Margaret Court was one of the others). From 1982 to 1986, Navratilova went a combined 442-14 in singles, winning 12 Grand Slam singles titles (six of them consecutively) and holding the number one women’s ranking for all five years, in what is considered the most dominant stretch in tennis history. Martina Navratilova has overcome a lot in her lifetime, and she will be remembered as one of the greatest tennis players in history.

Navratilova, Evert, and Serena Williams at the 2014 U.S. Open

Ted Williams was a great baseball player who played his entire career for the Boston Red Sox. Above all, though, he was a hitter. He famously remarked, early in his career, that all he wanted was to walk down the street one day and have people say, “There goes the greatest hitter that ever lived.” Williams remains the last player to bat .400 for an entire season, which he did all the way back in 1941. Though he missed nearly four seasons in the prime of his career to serve in the military, Ted Williams finished his career third on the all-time homerun list and still holds the highest-ever on-base percentage, at .482, ahead of Babe Ruth.

Ted Williams was born in San Diego in 1918. During his childhood, his parents were seldom home; they both worked long hours, and his mother stayed out late protesting the evils of alcohol with the Salvation Army. Left to his own devices, Williams spent lots of time practicing and playing baseball. He developed a left-handed swing, but threw right-handed. On his high school team, he batted .538 in his junior year and also pitched, finishing with a record of 16-3.

When he moved on to professional ball, Williams focused heavily on hitting and moved to the outfield; he practiced his swing every chance he got – even indoors, in front of a mirror. In his first year in the major leagues, he became the first rookie to lead the league in runs batted in (RBIs). Though there wasn’t yet an official Rookie of the Year award, Babe Ruth declared Williams to be the Rookie of the Year, which was really a higher honor.

Williams didn’t have nearly as much natural ability in public relations, though; in 1940, he called his salary “peanuts” (he was earning about $174,000 a year in today’s money) and said that he hated Boston and especially its reporters. Unsurprisingly, they wrote that he should be traded away.

In the 1941 season, Ted Williams’s hitting continued to improve. Though he broke a bone in his ankle early in the season and had a bit of a slow start, he had his batting average above .400 by the all-star break. He even won the all-star game for the American League with a three-run homerun in the ninth inning. The man who batted ahead of him in the all-star game, Joe DiMaggio, completed his record 56-game hitting streak a couple of weeks later. Over those 56 games, though, Ted Williams had the higher batting average.

Ted Williams hits game-winning home run in 1941 all-star game

With one double header left to play in the 1941 regular season, Williams was sitting on a .39955 batting average. According to the MLB’s statistical practices, that average would have been rounded up to .400, had he sat out the last two games. He chose to play, though, and went 6-for-8 in those games, finishing the season with a .406 average. That remains the highest single-season average in Red Sox history; since then, no one in all of baseball has hit higher than .390 for a season. He didn’t win the MVP award, though; that went to DiMaggio.

From 1943 to 1945, Ted Williams learned to fly fighter jets for the military; after taking several courses and setting records in training tests, he became an instructor for younger pilots. In 1952, he would be called into service again when the U.S. desperately needed good pilots for the Korean War. He flew 39 combat missions there in the Marines, surviving enemy fire at least three times.

Williams in Grumman F9F Panther in Korea

In 1946, Cleveland Indians’ manager Lou Boudreau attempted to psych out Williams with a dramatic shift, putting all the players on the right side of second base except for the left fielder. A slightly less dramatic version of this shift is becoming quite popular against left-handed pull hitters nowadays. Williams refused to change his approach, however, and often found a way to hit right through the shift anyway.

At the all-star game, Williams faced a pitcher who had developed the infamous “eephus” pitch, which basically means lobbing the ball into the air and letting it fall through the strike zone. Facing it for the first time, Williams stepped up in the box and hit it over the right field wall for a home run.

The Red Sox advanced to the World Series that year, but Williams’s elbow was injured just before the Series; he hit poorly and the Red Sox lost in seven games. The Red Sox would not break the “Curse of the Bambino” until winning the World Series in 2004, fifty-eight years later.

Ted Williams injured his arm badly in the 1950 all-star game and suffered through the next few seasons, before serving in the Korean War. He managed to close out his career in fine style, leading the league in batting in 1958 at age 40 (which is really old in baseball) and hitting a home run in his last career at bat in 1960. He expressed his batting philosophy in a well-received 1970 book, The Science of Hitting.

Despite having an often-strained relationship with the “fickle” fans and reporters of Boston, Ted Williams seems to have been a generally decent guy. He welcomed the first black Red Sox player, Pumpsie Green, to the team in 1959 and used his Hall of Fame inductance speech in 1966 to advocate for stars of the Negro Leagues, such as Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson, to be inducted into the Hall as well. He also gave generously to good causes and often visited children with cancer in the hospital; many times, the parents would hear at the desk “Mr. Williams has taken care of your bill.”

Ted Williams finally tips his cap to the fans at Fenway, 1991

Ted Williams certainly has a strong claim to the being the greatest pure hitter in baseball history, even with pausing his career to become a military pilot in two different wars. His 521 home runs, .344 career batting average, and .482 career on-base percentage demonstrate his incredible combination of power and consistency. And though he may not have projected the best public image during his career, his personal acts of generosity and military service seem to vouch for his fundamentally good character. Indeed, in his final years as a player and thereafter, he was revered by Boston sports fans.

For what remains of March, I’ll change things up and write about athletes rather than academics.

Pelé is considered the greatest soccer player (or footballer) of all time. From humble beginnings, he rose to become the most celebrated player on the Brazilian national team by age 18, with his performance at the 1958 World Cup. Pelé went on to win two more world cups and remains the only player in history to have won three. Since retiring, he has written numerous autobiographies, composed musical pieces, starred in documentaries, and been a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. For many decades, he has been revered in his home country of Brazil and respected worldwide.

Pelé as a young man

Pelé was born in Brazil in October 1940 as Edson Arantes do Nascimento. His parents named him after the inventor Thomas Edison; his now-revered nickname, Pelé, was bestowed on him by his friends to mock the way he pronounced Bilé, the name of his favorite soccer player. He hated the name at first, but it stuck, and eventually he accepted it.

As a kid, Pelé developed his soccer skills by kicking around a rolled-up sock stuffed with newspaper; his family didn’t have enough money for a real soccer ball. This didn’t hold him back, though; he won three state youth championships in São Paulo, as well as several indoor championships with the team Radium. By the age of 15, he signed with the professional soccer team FC Santos; the following year, he was promoted to the starting lineup and led the league in scoring. Soon thereafter, he was called up to the Brazilian national team.

Pelé made his debut on the world stage in the 1958 World Cup, at just 17 years of age. He made quite a favorable impression, completing a hat trick in the semifinals against France and scoring two more goals in the championship to secure victory over the host nation, Sweden.

Pelé celebrates a goal in the 1958 World Cup

By the time the 1962 World Cup came around, Pelé was the top-rated player in the world. Though he was sidelined by an early injury, Brazil defended their title and Pelé soon received large offers to play for European club teams. However, the Brazilian President Jânio Quadros kept him in Brazil by declaring him a national treasure. FC Santos also compensated him generously, holding international exhibition matches to raise money from and for their superstar. In 1967, Pelé’s appearance in an exhibition game in Lagos occasioned a two-day ceasefire in the Nigerian Civil War so the warring factions could watch him play.

Pelé’s reputation was well-earned; with FC Santos, he won nine Campeonato Paulista titles in 12 years, as well as two Intercontinental Cups and two Copa Libertadores titles; his remains the only Brazilian team to win the Copa Libertadores title on Argentinian soil. In his first appearance in the Campeonato Paulista tournament, he set a still-standing record by scoring 58 goals. In the course of his career, he scored an all-time record 1281 goals in 1363 games.

The 1966 World Cup in England was disastrous for Pelé. Still seen as the best player in the world, he was a tempting target for Bulgaria and Portugal; they fouled him so persistently that he was reduced to limping around the field in Brazil’s third and final match, which was against Portugal. Many thought that the referee “let Portugal get away with murder,” and the rest of the tournament was similarly hostile. Pelé vowed to never compete in another world cup, and Brazilian teams boycotted international events for several years thereafter.

Pelé injured at 1966 World Cup in England

However, Pelé did return for the 1970 World Cup in Mexico. Brazil fielded what is widely considered the best soccer team in history, and this time they would not be defeated by violence – or anything else. They made Brazil the first country to win three world cups winning all six games they played (Pelé was on all three world cup-winning teams, though he was injured for most of the 1962 tournament). The 1970 Brazilian team defeated a defensive-minded Italy 4-1 in the final; the Italian who marked Pelé was quoted saying “I told myself before the game, he’s made of skin and bones just like everyone else — but I was wrong.”

Pelé raises the Jules Rimet Trophy for Brazil

The 1970 World Cup would be Pelé’s last. He retired from soccer in 1974 before returning to play in the U.S. for a few years, for the New York Cosmos. His legacy as a footballer is almost undisputed (some sources point out that he was surrounded by other stars; for example, the Brazilian team was good enough to win the 1962 World Cup without him, mostly on the back of fellow superstar Garrincha, who also led the 1958 team). While playing, though, Pelé was referred to by various nicknames that included the word “King”.

Pelé in the famous number 10 jersey

His personal life has been a bit mixed; in that aspect, he is a mere mortal. On the positive side, Pelé’s teammates reported that he was always smiling and genuinely enthusiastic; he told reporters that he wanted his play to be a point of unity, as it was in Lagos in 1967. He has also supported a few humanitarian and political causes; for example, as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in the late 1990s, he proposed what would become known as the Pelé Law, to reduce corruption in Brazilian soccer.

However, he stepped down from his position in 2001 upon being accused of corruption himself; it should be noted that nothing was proven, though. He also refused to recognize one of the daughters he had through an affair, and she won a lawsuit against him to earn official recognition via DNA testing. He has been criticized for his conservative stances; his response to the 2014 World Cup protests in Brazil was to scold protestors, encouraging them to just support the national team (protestors were angry that the government would spend millions of dollars on new stadiums but leave them with inadequate social services). His countless corporate endorsements have also somewhat degraded his image.

A few of Pelé’s many endorsements

These recent issues do not diminish his incredible football accomplishments, however. Pelé is still considered to have had the most complete skill set of any footballer in history, and his masterful improvisations on the pitch are still breathtaking to watch. He may not be quite godly, as several of his contemporary players suggest, but he did manage to go from a boy practicing soccer with a rolled up sock to the best soccer player in the world. O Rei Pelé (King Pelé) indeed.

Pelé also popularized the bicycle kick.