Area Women Take the Day in Sports

Today is the 13th annual Girls and Women in Sports Day. The commemorative day was established in 1987 by the Women’s Sports Foundation to pay tribute to the late volleyball player Flo Hyman. Well, a lot has changed in the world of women’s sports since then. Meet some of our favorite Southern California female athletes:

ILA BORDERS, 22

Sport: Baseball

Hometown: Downey

Wow Factor: This left-handed pitcher is the first woman to play for a men’s professional baseball league, the Northern League’s Duluth-Superior Dukes. Borders first played baseball at age 5. She was MVP at Whittier Christian High School and earned a scholarship to Southern California College, becoming the first woman ever to earn a scholarship to play men’s college baseball.

LISA LESLIE, 26

Sport: Basketball

Hometown: Inglewood

Wow Factor: This center for the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks is a finalist in ESPN’s Women’s Pro Basketball Athlete of the Year and a model with Wilhemina Models Inc. She competed in the 1996 Olympics but hasn’t forgotten her roots: She recently donated a 42,000-square-foot sports complex to her alma mater, Morningside High School.

LINDSAY DAVENPORT, 22

Sport: Tennis

Hometown: Newport Beach

Wow Factor: Ranked No. 1 in the world by the Women’s Tennis Assn., she began playing at age 6. Early in her professional career, critics teased her about her size and said she was the kind of player who was content to be No. 8. She showed them. In 1996, she won the Olympic gold medal. In 1998, she won the U.S. Open.

KRISTINE QUANCE-JULIAN, 23

Sport: Swimming

Hometown: Granada Hills

Wow Factor: After finishing her college career at USC in 1997, when she led the Trojans to an NCAA championship, Quance-Julian had planned to compete through the 2000 Olympics. She won two world titles in the Pan Pacific Games in Japan and qualified for the world championships in Australia before she learned she was pregnant last summer.

OLIVIA OCAMPO, 18

Sport: Wrestling

Hometown: Oxnard

Wow Factor: Last year, she beat every boy in her weight class to become state champion. She won the 101-pound division of the U.S. High School Wrestling Championships and took the age 20-and-under title at the Junior Women’s National Championship. Ocampo says what draws her to wrestling is “the intensity.”

DOMINIQUE MOCEANU, 17

Sport: Gymnastics

Hometown: Hollywood

Wow Factor: She was a 1998 Goodwill Games gold medalist, a 1997 World Championships Team individual all-around finalist and a 1996 Olympic gold medalist. Last year, Moceanu filed a lawsuit asking to be declared an adult so she could investigate her finances. She won. Her favorite events are floor exercise and balance beam. She started gymnastics when she was 3.

MICHELLE KWAN, 18

Sport: Figure skating

Hometown: Lake Arrowhead

Wow Factor: In the past four seasons she has won 23 championships, including two World and National Championships (1996, 1998) and the 1998 Olympic silver medal. Kwan recently announced she will write a series of books, one of which is titled “The Winning Attitude! Michelle Kwan Tells What It Takes to Be a Champion,” to be published in the fall by Buena Vista. It is likely she will compete again at the 2002 Olympics.

MARION JONES, 23

Sport: Track

Hometown: Thousand Oaks

Wow Factor: Considered to be Jackie Joyner-Kersee’s successor, Jones took nine state championships at Thousand Oaks High School before she graduated in 1993. Last year, she won 36 of 37 finals to become No. 1 in the world in the 100-meter, 200-meter and long jump. She says her goal is to win five gold medals at the Sydney Olympics.